Palmer:"Hand-tracking controllers never part of launch plan"

[ebone260]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/o ... unch-plan/

Hmm.

If this is true then I feel that it's a pretty big blunder on the part of Oculus. Remember I've been an Oculus guy since right after the kickstarter and promoted them to so many. I have preorders in for both the Rift and the Vive. I'm now looking forward to the Vive like a 6 year old waiting for Christmas while I'm not really excited about the Rift anymore. In fact the only reason I haven't canceled my Rift preorder is because I still have time to wait, with nothing to lose, to see how early reviews from consumers play out.

Have you guys watched and read as many of the extensive reviews of CV1 vs Vive (pre)that I have? It seems almost the overwhelming majority are giddy about the Vive and very lukewarm about the CV1. Yes I do realize that a lot of the enthusiasm is because they're seeing something new for the first time. Just like when we saw the DK1 for the first time. But the enthusiasm seems to be more than that.

I think the issue is that Oculus really came up short with their 'webcam' solution for the controllers AND the headset. At the same time Valve absolutely nailed the tracking solution. They nailed it for the headset and the controller.

IMO, having hand tracking is similar to what all of us DK1/DK2 owners have said, "there are those who love it and those who think they won't love it only because they haven't tried it."

Back to the article. Here's what I have trouble buying...
Palmer said Oculus didn't want to ""force people to buy [hand-tracking] controllers they might not even be interested in..."

But yet they force people to buy an XboxOne controller? That's even worse.

And if the hand tracking controllers aren't that important then why is so much of Oculus' GDC stuff devoted to Touch content? I see only 2 answers. They're lying or they *now realize how important the hand controllers are and how much people want them.

I know some of you don't want to get up and walk around. Look at the obesity rates....that's a given. But the hand controllers and the superiority of the lighthouse lasers aren't just better for walking around.

When the DK2 came out someone asked me, "why are they using basically a webcam for tracking?" I explained, fully believing it, that the webcam was only to rush positional tracking out to the developers so that they could have the feature in order to develop for it. I explained that there would absolutely be a better form of tracking in the CV. I fully believed that until the day the CV1 was announced with the webcam solution still intact.

Now there's NDA's 2 weeks before launch. Reports of tracking issues, naseau, ginger candy, occlusion inferiority,etc.etc.

You fanboys can get angry all you want but look at this logically. There's 2 premium headsets coming out that are going to be very comparable in quality. With the hand controllers the 2 premium sets will be similar in price. The Vive and Rift seated stuff will probably be comparable in most scenarios. The Vive controllers will definitely be better than the Rift's. The Vive roomscale experience will definitely be better than the Rift's. Why would someone choose Rift over the Vive? Then you add PSVR into the scenario. It will surely be technologically inferior to the 2 premium headsets but it looks like they've done a good job at creating some fun content that will be much cheaper if you already own a PS4. And the PSVR will have motion controllers.

So you're left with the choice of the 2 premium headsets at a similar price. One can do everything the other can do but can also do more. Or you get the cheaper easier alternative that will probably be appealing to many.

I hope Oculus swallows their pride and is working on a better tracking solution for the CV2. Or I hope that they've accepted that they need to license the lighthouse tech. I think that Oculus will still sell more headsets in 2016 because of name recognition but at this rate it could change quickly.

[Zoomie]

And suddenly I'm reminded of the "VR Sex" scene from Demolition Man.