Oculus & Facebook

I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

This post is mostly for those who are interested or into the whole VR scene.

This past week has been a rollercoaster for sure. Both Facebook and Oculus VR join announced that Oculus would be acquired by Facebook for the sum of some 2 BILLION dollars ($400M cash the rest in stocks and such). My first reaction was similar to a lot of folks out there who also funded the kickstarter and got a DK1. My dream of a future where VR tech was relevant again was in serious danger and it was Facebook of all companies who bought it. I feel I can relate somewhat because like many people these days Facebook seems to have become a regular part of our lives and a lot of negativity has sprung from ads, games, spam etc in their feeds. There were understandable fears about how quickly this kind of thing could go south for the little company that could. I decided to cool down and think this thing through logically. What could this mean for VR short term and long? Short term more cash on hand to get things done and to hire the right people. Long term the tech could expand to encompass more than just gaming (though I personally would like to game with it!). So I choose to instead take the glass is half full approach and reserve judgement until I saw more information trickle out of Oculus and FB.

Based on the latest announcements, reddit replies and letters to the community I am seeing all the right notes being struck by the Oculus team most notably that their first huge hire is none other than Michael Abrash himself lead VR researcher for Valve. For those of us in the community this is a HUGE bit of news as it means that Oculus now truly has the clout to hire the foremost authorities in the VR field and bring them all together to make the dream of the Metaverse/OASIS happen.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

From the Oculus Blog

DarkNet is coming

So one of my favorite VR games has been Ciess which was an Oculus VR Jame winner. Now the creator is making a full blown game called DarkNet and here is the trailer. Enjoy.

So one of my favorite VR games has been Ciess which was an Oculus VR Jame winner. Now the creator is making a full blown game called DarkNet and here is the trailer. Enjoy.

Motion simulation platforms for VR.

Found this to be very fascinating. These simulation platforms apparently also come configured for air/space craft cockpits (Stick & Rudder etc). I could see this really adding a visceral level of immersion to a game like Star Citizen (of which I am a backer) . As shared by Road To VR Atomic Motion Systems latest rig is now compatable with the Oculus dev kit (not to be confused with the eventual Retail encarnation).

 

My biggest issue with this tech in general is that it does not account for folks who get motion sick easily. When I first started tinkering and experimenting with various available experiences on my Rift I got extremely motion sick. I’m terrible on things like Roller coasters and boats that like to ride 10ft+ waves (long story). After a few weeks of use I barely feel sick now and it takes hours before I finally notice something. I’m curious if my experience with the Rift has helped my overall pre-disposition towards motion sickness.