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

ebone260
Honored Guest
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.
110 REPLIES 110

"Reports of tracking issues, naseau, ginger candy, occlusion inferiority,etc.etc. "

What reports?
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

PassiveVR
Expert Protege
"ebone260" wrote:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/oculus-co-founder-hand-tracking-controllers-were-never-part-of...

Hmm.

If this is true then I feel that it's a pretty big blunder on the part of Oculus.


Yeah but... oh wait





"andyring" wrote:
"Reports of tracking issues, naseau, ginger candy, occlusion inferiority,etc.etc. "

What reports?


Take your pick, arstechnica, tested (they were downing copious amounts of ginger ale there) the verge, polygon - all post GDC all mention problems with rift from tracking to gamepad locomotion causing sickness (mainly due to the game types being pushed by Oculus - weird for a company that didn't want to poison the VR well?) to loss of tracking that caused sickness randomly (HMD not controllers).

The truth is out there... just need to not want to believe your current truth.


😐

soxfan335
Protege
So what are you implying, that Oculus are too dumb to know the difference and just included a controller cause they dont understand VR design?

It's obvious that MS just backed the brinks trucks up and started heaving bags of cash right into Oculus HQ. Anyone with a brain realized that last year.
hush little babeh dont say a word and nevermind that noise u herrd :shock:

Have any been posted in here? I honestly haven't seen anything yet...
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

christopherbarn
Adventurer
"soxfan335" wrote:

It's obvious that MS just backed the brinks trucks up and started heaving bags of cash right into Oculus HQ. Anyone with a brain realized that last year.

Oculus has that fat FB wallet, so I doubt your assumption. Maybe heavy bags of XOne controllers...

Percy1983
Superstar
"ebone260" wrote:
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?


Seriously? I stick with a couple of buttons is better than a level of finger tracking?

I agree roomscale is likely to be better with Vive.

So anyway why would somebody those Rift of Vive.

1, Roomscale not an option
2, Lighter more comfortable HMD
3, Better screens/optics
4, Better hand controllers (Ok they are not in the box at launch
5, High quality integrated audio

Fair enough I can see why some people will choose the Vive over the Rift but here is some news for you, neither product is outright better than the other so different people will choose different products based on there needs/wants out of a VR product.

Is this so hard to understand? :roll:

Please tell me how my 5 points above are invalid.
Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 + 16GB RAM 1866mhz + i5-3570K at 4.5Ghz + Coolermaster Nepton 140XL cooler Sapphire 8GB RX 580 Nitro+ 256Gb SDD Samsung Evo 850 +3x2TB in raid 0 with 64GB SSD cache Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition + Toughpower 875w

DanteOne
Honored Guest
like this?

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/v ... king-woes/

christopherbarn
Adventurer
"ebone260" wrote:
"But yet they force people to buy an XboxOne controller? That's even worse.


This has been covered ad nauseum, the xone controller added NOTHING to the cost.

NokiBE
Explorer
in all honesty there are currently only 3 things you can blame oculus for.

1- a ridiculous NDA
2- Bad communication with the people that pre-ordered about delivery etc
3- not finishing touch on time

On the other hand.

1- they're sold out so NDA or not doesn't matter much
2- nothing good to say about this it is 10days before launch..
3- i prefer good working controllers that fit in my hand over feeling like a caveman with a stick to put it bluntly.

Overall the vive and Rift will have the same discomfort level in games. Example given lies in the popular screechy dude playing windlands. He had clear signs of slight nausia when he tooks the vive off at the end of his 20min video even though not admitting it. (previous videos where he complained about nausia he had the same red cheek lines and small eyes)

just my 2 cents on this...