So if you haven’t heard the message yet, it’s been an interesting day in the world of all things Oculus Rift.
With news abound that our beloved progenitor of the worlds best Virtual Reality device has sold out to Facebook for the tidy some of 2 billion, the Virtual Reality world is in a tizzy; and rightfully so.
While I missed my chance to back the Rift on Kickstarter, I was an early pre-order reserving my spot in line in March 2013, and I have to say I’m not quite sure how I feel about the move.
On the one hand I feel like 2 billion dollars is a lot of money to help propel VR into the mainstream (which is where we want it), but on the other hand I can’t help but feel a little betrayed by Palmer and Co., seeing as how their entire company was built on the backs of those who’s support came from their promise to keep things as open as possible.
The whole thing feels a little like a slap in the HMD if you ask me, but let’s just see where it goes.

I’m a little curious how Palmer Luckey really feels about all of this; 2 billion dollars is a load of cash, but the amount of flak the company is receiving is substantial.  With /r/Oculus and OculusVR.com cancellation posts abound, it must make one at least a little unsure of their decision when you see hundreds or thousands of angry people abrogate their plans to support your product.  But then again, 2 billion dollars is a load of cash.

Oculus_Color_logo

So what does this mean for the future of Oculus Rift pornography?  Well it’s still not clear on what Facebook’s plans are for the platform, and whether they plan on closing it off completely or allowing Oculus to maintain it’s current direction of giving developers free reign of their creations; but I am a little apprehensive to believe they will just leave it as such and there is much speculation that the platform will be locked down in a manner similar to Apple.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted this afternoon about the matter, saying “Oculus will continue to operate independently within Facebook to achieve their previous plans for immersive gaming”, but only time will tell exactly what that means.

Talk has already been made of the platforms potential for advertising, but that is something that would happen eventually whether we wanted it to or not regardless of who’s name is on the product.
Let’s just hope that Facebook won’t bring the whole thing to the ground…


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4 Comments

  1. What is Romantic Virtual Reality without virtual sex toys (from http://www.lovense.com).
    Virtual Sex Toys could be synchronized with:
    – A male and female long distance
    – Internet porno videos
    – Internet porno video games

  2. Hey Alexxx,

    Stumbled across the site about 2 weeks ago. Pretty interesting. Never knew any of this even existed. Clearly under a rock, like you’ve mentioned. Anyways, ended up talking to some friends and a buddy actually had the development kit for the rift (forgive my lack knowledge)- so i tried a few things- more just some demos- seemed ok, but really needed to be waaay better in my opinion. But tons of questions- one being a friend said another version of the rift is coming out? When? How much better will it be than the first? What’s the difference? Is a retail version even in the foreseable future? thx man, appreciate a response

    Darin

    1. Glad to hear you like what we provide Darin!
      There is indeed a new version of the Rift set to go out for delivery starting this July, and it is well improved over the first iteration. The biggest complaint people have about the first devkit is the “screendoor effect” which is caused by the gaps between the pixels being magnified by the lenses and looking like, well, a screen door; this coupled with a relatively low resolution make far away objects and smaller details in the Rift hard to see, and generate a noticeable “blockiness” that is hard for many to ignore. The next biggest complaint is nausea in the Rift caused in part by a vestibular disconnect via latency and a lack of positional tracking; and finally the third notable issue is significant blur which is caused by a somewhat lengthy pixel switching time.
      All of these issues have been addressed in the development kit 2. The resolution is quite a bit better with a 1920×1080 (960×1080 per eye) screen as per compared to the DK1’s 1280×800 (640×800 per eye) resolution; and the pentile OLED screen arrangement means much less gaps between the pixels, so less screendoor. The latency and pixel switching time have both been greatly reduced, and positional tracking has been added allowing for a much better connection between what you are doing with your head, and what you are seeing on-screen. These not only allow for a drastic reduction of nausea and an increase in fidelity, but the ability to look around corners and possibly up a skirt will be a huge improvement.
      I think it is important to keep in mind that the DK1 and DK2 are exactly that, developers kits; They are not intended for, nor are they ready for prime-time, so some issues are expected.
      It’s easy to be a little irked by the issues that they do have (well, the DK1 at least) but unless you are a developer there is really not much justification for complaining.
      As far as a retail version goes, Oculus hasn’t given any concise dates as of yet; although the general consensus is sometime between Q4 of this year and sometime in 2015.
      Hope that helps!

  3. Agreed Darin. I haven’t tried the oculus but have watched a ton of videos. Seems pretty cool but really rough around the edges? Heard some bigger names in the porn side of things are getting into it but what about gaming wise in the adult gaming sense? Also, what about DK2- what are your thoughts and what are you guys expecting from it?

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