Linden Lab removes Oculus Rift Project Viewer and may not release another one

Tags

"second life", HMD's, oculus rift, virtual reality

When Linden Lab released a new Oculus ready viewer, one that worked with DK2 and CV1, the reactions were, to put it mildly, not enthusiastic.
I wrote about it in my previous blog post that you can read by clicking here.

Today Linden Lab announced they have removed the Oculus Rift viewer from its alternate viewers page.

The Oculus headset picture and link to more information  about using it in SL seems to have also been removed from the main page on the official SL website, at least I no longer see it.

In this discussion on one of the official blogs the following comment was posted by Linden Lab;

Thank you for experimenting with our Oculus Rift Project Viewer and offering your feedback. Unfortunately, the Project Viewer that we recently made available didn’t meet our standards for quality, and so we’ve now removed it from the Alternate Viewers page.

By definition, Project Viewers aren’t ready for primetime. The purpose of these experimental Viewers is to share with you the earliest possible version of what we’re working on, so that you can see what we’re up to, help discover problems, and provide feedback. In this case, though, we’re not ready for that, as those of you who tried it have seen.

We can’t say at this point when or even if we may release another Project Viewer for experimenting with the Oculus Rift in SL.

We want to prioritize our development efforts around initiatives that we know will improve the virtual world and bring more value to SL Residents, and due to some inherent limitations with SL, it may well not be possible to achieve the performance needed for a good VR experience. (In fact, this is one reason why we’re creating Project Sansar a new, separate platform optimized for VR).

We greatly appreciate the interest in trying SL with the Oculus Rift and are grateful that several of you took the time to try the Project Viewer. We regret that the quality was not up to our standards, and we will of course keep the community posted if we release a new Project Viewer for VR in the future.

Of course people were very unhappy with the new viewer and yes, it was not good enough for people to actually enjoy Second Life with.
But hearing that they may not release another one is very disappointing.

As imperfect as Second Life is for Head Mounted devices at the moment, I still was extremely impressed with my visit to 1920s Berlin wearing the DK1.
Regardless of lag and if the frame-rate was fast enough or not, I was exploring MY world, the place I build and loved.
I didn’t care about the imperfections, I was inside my Second Life.
Of course, if you can’t make it work, releasing (another) viewer is probably a good idea.
But it is going to be months, perhaps even years before most of us can start enjoying Sansar as a virtual world that is as interesting and has as much to offer as Second Life and it really would be nice if we could at least have some fun with the HMD’s in Second Life.
Even with the old Oculus Viewer and head set, I loved every minute I spend in SL with it.

So I hope that that we will see another HMD viewer for SL, regardless.

I will not buy an Oculus Rift any time soon

Tags

headset, oculus rift, virtual reality

So, the Oculus rift is finally going to be commercially available.

They are now available for pre-order  and will start shipping from March 28th onwards.

But… and here comes the sting… it is going to cost $599.

That is just too much.
And here in the Netherlands you’ll even be paying $750.
This does not even include their special controllers.

And that while Palmer Luckey himself only a few months ago answered a question by Road to VR about if the consumer Oculus Rift price would come in around that $350 ballpark target with;

You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that.

Must be nice to live in a world where $599 is roughly in the same ballpark s $350.

Either way, it seems they are selling them, lots of them.

But as excited as I am about all the new tech that is coming, I am not willing (or able) to spend this much on a headset.
Especially as I’ll also need to buy a new computer to handle VR properly as it doesn’t even work on my MacBook.

So even though I’m grateful to Oculus for sort of kickstart the VR renaissance, I also think they messed up.
Not only because of the high price they are asking for it but also because I think they missed the boat.
All this has taken them so long, that the competition has been developing other headsets as well, cheaper ones.
The Oculus will not be as much a seller as it would/could have been at half the price.
I think this may even slow down the spread of VR.

If even someone like me, who is crazy about VR and wants a good headset so badly, thinks that the Oculus headset is too expensive and will just not buy one, imagine what the average gamer or potential VR user will think
And let’s not even think about .general gamers, museums, schools and regular folks will think about this ‘toy.
While they should have brought us a good but cheap Rift that everyone would have wanted to buy and thus make sure that VR headsets end up in as many households as possible.

Do they really think we all want or need those special headphones, a game, a remote and an x box controller?
Because we pay extra for those, maybe not much, but it adds up.
Did they really have to spend so much time to develop all these extra things and their special new controllers?
I personally think they should have sold a basic Rift before Christmas and then sell all that other stuff separately for those who want them.
Now they missed the holiday sales and ended up with a very expensive toy.

But Palmer explains;

To reiterate, we are not making money on Rift hardware. High end VR is expensive, but Rift is obscenely cheap for what it is.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 6, 2016

I think and hope that the competition will now step up and offer us a good VR headset for at least half the price.
Oculus may have just ruined the opportunity of a life time.

I am secretly looking towards the people at Apple.
We know they have been acquiring quite a few VR related patents and are working on something…
And at least if they build a headset it will work on my Mac…

Will you be getting an Oculus Rift?

Photo copyright; Oculus.

 

Oculus announcement about the Rift Headset; it is coming.

Tags

oculus rift, virtual reality

Today Oculus had a special presentation with the latest news regarding their Rift Virtual Reality head set.

The commercial version will be available in the first quarter of 2016.

The design is pretty impressive, small and smooth, wearable like a baseball cap.

It comes with integrated 360 degrees special audio and headphones, but these can easily be removed if you prefer to use your own.

Comes with X-box 1 controller.

It will also work with a sensor you will place on your desk, not sure if this will just help locate which way you’re looking at, standing or sitting or if it will also be able to track gestures, like the leap motion.
It looks like this;

Here is the official Oculus introduction video;

At launch you will be able to experience a few games straight out the box.
Eve Valkyrie, a space ship shooting game, sounds interesting but I always wonder why anyone would want to do some science fiction space flying if you could also be flying a Spitfire!
Nevertheless, this looks very exciting and I can imagine that such a game is perfect for the VR experience as you’re sitting in a seat in RL and VR, looking all around you.
I can’t wait till I can defend London during a dogfight in 1940, suddenly being shot af from behind and as you try to look over your shoulder to see who is shooting at you, you see a Messerschmitt pass over your cockpit.
Anyway, a good game for the Rift either way.

Another game coming, ready for the Rift, is Chronos.
Doesn’t look very impressive and again, it is a fantasy theme, I’m allergic to those.
But technically it is all about a labyrinth, a RPG, again a rather good test case for the Rift.

‘Edge of nowhere’ is the next VR Rift made game, this again, sigh, is a fantasy theme, but it takes place somewhere in the Antarctic.
So atmosphere wise it is very nice and cold.
Other games are a shooter, a sports game, a kids puzzle game, etc.

To me this illustrates perfectly why Second Life is the best VR tool there is, none of these games or experiences are appealing to me.
I want to see some of the things I’ve seen in SL or even better yet, create my own VR experiences.

It is such a shame Sansar is not at that level yet to be part of this Rift deal, part of the package that is ready for VR users who have just bought the brand new Rift.
Lets hope Sansar is ready next year when the Rift hits the market anyway, although I think that is too soon.

Oculus has also developed ‘Oculus Home’, the virtual ‘desk top’ sort of library where you’ll have access to all your Oculus ready software or game.
You’ll see what your friends are playing, you can buy a game, manage downloads, join games, etc, without removing your headset.
But it is nowhere near a virtual world, so there is at least one company not developing a virtual world… yet.

I was quite amused when one of the chaps said that with VR we’re able to watch movies in a virtual cinema and that one day we could even do that with friends…
Seriously?
I’m pretty sure some of the VR cinema demo’s already have that but either way, we’ve been doing that in Second Life for over a decade…

The next, quite big news was the revealing of their secret project; Oculus Touch.
It is, according to Palmer Luckey himself, the best way to interact inside VR.
In short it is a sort of joystick or controller you wear in each hand and that allows you to, for instance, pick up things, shoot a gun, give a thumbs up, etc.
It looks interesting and it is smart, even impressive to come with a whole new way of controlling a game inworld.
But I can’t help wondering why they didn’t just go with an improved version of the good old VR glove.
Or improve their table sensor with something like Leap Motion technology.
People want to wear less stuff while in VR, not more.

It was not mentioned if these came with the Oculus Rift when bought, so I assume you have to buy them separately.
It seems like the Rift is going to be quite the expensive toy and although lots of rumours about how much it will eventually cost have been going around, we still don’t know how much money we’ll have to spend and it wasn’t announced during this presentation either.
Tech specifications were also not released.

The Rift is coming! Shipping first quarter of 2016.

Tags

oculus, oculus rift, rift, VR

The news has finally come; Oculus will start shipping its consumer version of their VR Headset ‘The Rift’ in the first quarter of 2016.

I’ve written before about how I think VR is going to change the world as one day VR devices will become as common as Radios and television sets once were.

We’re already being flooded with VR games, software and technology, VR movies and TV are following rapidly and a few ‘virtual worlds’ are being developed.

Not to mention the other headsets that have already popping up all over the place

We are at the dawn of a VR renaissance and with a bit of luck, we’ll be the trailblazers.

Second Life is in a rather good position to take advantage of the situation.

Because no matter what people think of our virtual world, it is still the oldest, most experienced one out there, has its own stable economy, more content than anyone and is working on a brand new up to date version.

If Linden Lab manages to get their Next Generation Virtual World ready before or shortly after the release of the Rift, it could bring in a LOT of new users and start a second ‘Golden Age’ for Second Life.

So, exciting times ahead, one way or another.
VR is here to stay this time.

There is no word on the tech details or how much the Rift is going to cost but I’m sure that will all come soon.
Personally I can’t wait to buy one, I hope I can afford it.

Some more details here in this interview;

http://techcrunch.com/video/oculus-vr-is-coming-your-way/518809523/

Picture; Oculus VR.

Oculus DK2 viewer for SL now available

Tags

oculus rift, viewer

Linden Lab has announced that the Second Life Oculus DK2 viewer is now available.

I quote from their announcement;

A few months ago, we released a Project Viewer that made it possible to use the first generation Oculus Rift development kit (DK1) anywhere in Second Life.

Since then, Oculus Rift has released a second generation development kit, DK2. The new hardware offers an even more immersive experience when used with Second Life – there’s less likelihood of feeling motion sick thanks to the motion-tracking features, and less of the “screen-door effect” on the visuals, thanks to higher resolution and brighter display.

We’ve integrated the DK2 with Second Life, and today are releasing a new Project Viewer so that virtual reality enthusiasts with the DK2 can use it anywhere in Second Life, just as DK1 users can.

Unfortunately, though, there are still some bugs impacting the experience, which we won’t be able to fix until we receive the next SDK from Oculus Rift. Because Second Life uses OpenGL in its browser, we cannot support direct mode in the Rift until Oculus releases a version of the SDK that supports that.

In addition, juddering is an issue (as it is with most DK2 demos).This can be significantly improved on Windows by turning off Aero, which allows the Rift to use its full refresh rate rather than being limited to the refresh rate of the primary monitor. This refresh rate is a major factor in the judder and turning off Aero can significantly improve your experience.

We’ll continue to fix bugs and improve the experience as quickly as we can once we get the next SDK, but in the meantime, we wanted to get this Project Viewer out into testers’ hands. If you have an Oculus Rift development kit, you can download the new Project Viewer here.

Second Life Oculus DK2 viewer coming next week

Tags

"second life", dk2, ebbe altberg, ebbe linden, oculus rift, The 1920s Berlin Project

Ebbe Linden, CEO of Linden Lab, has been testing out the Oculus DK2 compatible Second Life viewer and hopes to have it available to us all early next week!

He was seen last night running around 1920s Berlin testing this DK2 viewer there, because we build that sim to RL scale and have been trying really hard to make a visit there an immersive experience, it has become place where Oculus wearers go to test out the VR experience in SL.

Ebbe spend about a hour in our city, walking around, chatting to people and doing a lot of looking in different directions.

Ebbe Linden talking to a few locals at Der Keller in 1920s Berlin. Pictyre by Eloise Schiltzen

We really should help him find a nice mesh 1920s outfit!

Ebbe also wrote about the DK2 viewer on twitter;

This is quite interesting news for everyone with a DK2 Oculus Rift.
Sadly I am not one of them, I even had to give my DK1 back and I can’t afford to buy the DK2.
Yes, this is a subtle hint; “SOMEONE GIVE ME A DK2!”.

Leap motion announces VR related progress

Tags

leap motion, oculus rift, virtual reality

Leap motion, the very nifty hand gesture tracker for computers has just announced its future VR plans.

I tried the Leap Motion some time ago and although it is a really great tool, I ended up not using it very often.

I use my laptop in the most unusual places, on the floor, on the daybed, on the balcony, but almost never at a desk and I either spend time typing or in Second Life, so for me it was not something I was going to use a lot.

However I did immediately spot the potential and have always felt that this is where the future for VR is.

Having to wave controllers or other plastic toys around while being attached to a bunch of wires just isn’t the way forward.

I imagined 3D scanning devices that would simply scan your movements, hand, body, everything and translate that into VR.

You can have your hands, all 5 fingers, work inside VR, why would you need anything else?

Today Leap Motion’s co-founder David Holz posted a blog on their website talking about a series of development especially for Virtual Reality.

They brilliantly stuck their sensor to an Oculus Rift and continued working on the options and possibilities this offers.

They are also using infrared images the sensor picks up and combine these with what you see in VR.

I won’t bore you with just copying everything that was written on the blog, I just invite you to read it yourself here.

But a very interesting video accompanied the blog and I couldn’t resist sharing it;

Tracking is moving along rapidly, I think that eventually we will end up with a tiny device such as the Leap Motion that will translate all our hand but also body movements into VR, but will also register the movements of our mouths and even eyes, so it can translate facial expressions.

Something like what what the people at High Fidelity are experimenting with.

We won’t need to carry, hold or wear anything but the headset and a small sensor, no suits, no gloves, no controllers, nothing.

Although perhaps a small omnidirectional treadmill might be desired.

I wonder if perhaps with the new technology, the Leap Motion can eventually also track your leg movements and posture, that would create a lot of new possibilities.
You could pretend to walk and actually walk in VR, regardless of how dangerous this could be if you don’t make sure you don’t bump into stuff, it could make walking in VR a lot easier.

Can you imagine the potential this has in a massive virtual world such as Second Life?

No more having to click to use items, just push that door, turn that handle, flick that switch, slap that rude man in the face!

Oculus talks about Billion people MMO they want to build with Facebook

Tags

"second life", oculus rift, virtual reality

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe was a guest at TechCrunch Disrupt yesterday and spoke about an idea they have been thinking about; creating an Massively Multiplayer Online Experience (MMO) for a billion users.

“This is going to be an MMO where we want to put a billion people in VR”

He also said that this is going to take a bigger network than exists in the world today,” but getting together with Facebook is a first step in the right direction as Facebook has about 1.3 billion users today.

Important is also that he mentioned that this idea was one of the reason they decided to sell Oculus to Facebook.
They want to reach as many people as possible, especially those who aren’t really gamers.

“We know with Oculus, with a virtual world, if you’re putting on this pair of glasses and you’re gonna be face-to-face communicating with people, you’re gonna be jumping in and out of this new set of virtual worlds, this is gonna be the largest MMO ever made,”

“This is gonna be an MMO where we want to put a billion people in VR. And a billion person virtual world MMO is gonna require a bigger network than exists today. Why not start with Facebook and their infrastructure, and their team and their talent that they’ve built up?”

A lot of people, myself included, have been talking about the possibility of Facebook and Oculus were planning to build a virtual online world, it now seems this indeed is the case.

In the chat he even calls it the ‘Metaverse‘.

As we speak they are visiting universities and recruiting the best of the best, getting students involved, asking them to help them create the new virtual reality world.

It is difficult to predict where this is going and how fast, but if they succeeded in creating an online Virtual World where the users can actually build and do what they want, they will turn out to be a huge competition for Second Life and High Fidelity.

It is still early days and we don’t have to get worried yet.
But this is big.
And I can’t help wondering if the Oculus-Facebook team are now looking at both Second Life and High Fidelity.
Regardless of the current state of both, there is plenty of interesting stuff there to buy, borrow or steal if you want to start your own Virtual world.

In the chat Mr. Iribe also said that Facebook promised them that although bought by their company, Oculus would be able to remain independent (like Instragram) and could decide to use or not use any part of Facebook.

You can watch the full interviews here at the Techcrunch website, a few interesting things about the general future of VR are being talked about as well.
As I wrote before, more and more people are now thinking that VR is going to become part of our lives, even if you’re not a gamer.

Second Life’s Oculus Rift Integration is Ready for Beta Testers

Tags

oculus rift

Linden Lab has just announced that the Oculus Rift integration is going into its Beta Test phase:

The Oculus Rift offers exciting possibilities for Second Life – the stereoscopic virtual reality headset brings a new level of immersion to our 3D world, making Second Life a more compelling experience than ever before.

Though a consumer version of the headset isn’t available yet, we’ve been working with the development kit to integrate the Oculus Rift with the Second Life Viewer. We now have a Viewer ready for beta testers, and if you have an Oculus Rift headset, we’d love to get your feedback.

If you have the Oculus Rift development hardware and would like to help us with feedback on the Viewer integration, please write to sl_oculus_beta@lindenlab.com to apply for the limited beta.

First place to go for the Beta testers should of course be the Oculus Rift & Real Scale Test Area!

Second Life is Oculus ready! Viewer to be released soon.

Tags

"second life", oculus rift

Nalates Urriah just announced on her blog (click to read the article!) that Linden Lab has finished making a viewer that works with the Oculus Rift!

This is very big and exciting news.

We knew LL was working on this but all we knew was that it would be finished before the commercial version of the Rift became available to the public next year.

Nalates says that VoidPointer Linden said that things looked really cool and that he was actually using it during the meeting.

Apparently it had very little effect on his FPS.

VoidPointer Linden responded to this blog with the following comment;

“Feature Complete” is not “ready”, actually. It means that the planned features are done. There is more to a release than just features, however, as there is still testing and bug-fixing, which is in progress. It’s the equivalent of a first-draft of a book”

So we’re not there yet, but I’m still very excited.
Things are working and LL is making progress!

It has not yet been officially announced when the Oculus Rift compatible viewer becomes available to the public but now it is ready, it seems we won’t have to wait very long.

The more time we in SL have to prepare for an Second Life full of Oculus users, the better.

Because I think, being very optimistic, that when the Oculus becomes public, lots of people will buy one and after trying a few demos that come with the Oculus, they might want to give Second Life another go.

After all, trying a demo is fun, but being able to explore something in VR that you’ve build yourself is even more fun.

Of course this all depends on how Linden Lab is going to play this, they have to make sure they are ready to start a whole new PR campaign the second the Oculus goes commercial, making sure everyone who buys one, knows they could (and should) try it in Second Life!

Inara Pey was also at the meeting, you can read her report on her blog here.

Want to stay up to date with all Oculus Rift in Second Life news?
Join us here on the unofficial but approved Facebook page ‘Oculus Rift and Second Life’.

CEO of Linden Lab, Rod Humble, trying out the Oculus Rift.