Oculus rift pre-orders on jan 6th 8am pacific time

April is when it should be available through retailers. Not sure about availability, but they most likely will start taking preorders at that time. Pretty sure enough demand will drive the actual production capacity.

 

Yes, April is what I've read as well.

There is a discussion regarding "Ramping up of Production" in the Oculus forums with a long list of reasons why that won't happen - at least not any time soon. The main point being that the supply chain for the custom parts is too long and complex to quickly adapt to changing demand; the custom displays alone limit production rates. Even small improvements in production rates will take months at best to reach.

 

Anyone seen this


PS LOOOK!!!!!!! at the partner list..........



http://www.starvr.com/

REALISTIC IMAGE QUALITY

• Dual 5.5" Quad HD Displays
• 2560x1440 pixels per eye
• 5K total Panoramic definition

UNIQUE 210° WIDE FIELD OF VIEW

• Custom Fresnel-based Optics
• Crystal-clear image across the entire field of view
• 210-degree Horizontal FOV
• 130-degree Vertical FOV

POSITION TRACKING

• Real-time 6 Degrees of Freedom
• 360° Submillimeter Optical Tracking
• IMU and Optical sensor fusion for a low-latency experience

 

Great. Overkill maybe. What kind of consumer PC will drive it?

 

Apple is also following the suit.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/29/10871228/apple-secret-virtual-reality-team-report
Good times

 

Nvidia Pascal, due in 2016.

 

I've lost count of how many competing VR headsets there are meant to be. I'm not sure how many will see the light of day though.

 

That starVR headset used to be called 'infiniteye', the company was bought out a while ago and rebranded it. (search for it, there's masses of info before the rebrand)

So far it's yet to make any real progress that people have seen aside from a few demo units afaik. I wouldn't hold your breath for that one, even though it does look promising.
Also, the pure fresnel lenses you need for that screen arrangement are flawed, oculus and vive's hybrid lenses are supposedly much better.

 

That thing looks like a beast, but unfortunately, according to /r/Oculus - it doesn't perform like one. They got a huge FOV and those screens, but there is no motion blur elimination (low persistence) < -- very important for VR. I read that they're also missing some other key features which I cannot currently remember, so don't take my word for it.

 

There are going to be some compromises with a wider FOV, that has been well-established fact for some time now given current hardware limitations. Wider FOV means even more screen-door effect and pixel-ation or blur. We simply don't have the computing power or band-width to push enough data to support a wide FOV in a way that can provide a good VR experience - at least not afford-ably for many people. Next-gen GPU-designs should have greater capabilities, especially with new VR purpose-built features but, the display tech and optics will have to advance too.

As has been pointed out, low persistence is absolutely vital; anyone that has experienced VR sickness will understand why it's so important. It's also vital in order to acheive "presence"; anything else is simply a VR demo, not a true VR experience.

 

$200 to ship from Sydney to elsewhere in Australia but that won't get it to Tasmania:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/47u50u/132_usd_shipping_will_only_get_you_to_mainland/

I am absolutely confident now of two things:

1) OR are making all their money on shipping, and;
2) they are waiting for a reasonable install base before ripping us a new one with the cost of the Touch controllers + Shipping when they are released later in the year.

 

Given their shipping to aus and nz, it will be scary tho think what the touch controllers might cost all up including shipping.

I will just hope that outside of my racing and flying that nothing excites me enough to want to buy them.

 

Who needs a wide fov when you're racing. You have a helmet on