13 Min until Oculus special live event on Twitch

[SamDaMan]

http://en.twitch.tv/oculus

Oculus Touch announced -

It will ship separately from the rift but will be available for pre order around the same time as the Rift.

Not much more information, no specs where released during the livestream. Games where shown off but the games where not played with the rift headset. The games shown where just trailers.

 

[CGPepper]

Stream seams to have crashed

 

[SamDaMan]

Oculus Rift will be using the Xbox controller for Input.....

 

[CaptainRichard]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/11/8766701/oculus-rift-consumer-edition-e3

"the Rift will ship with an Xbox One gamepad as part of a partnership with Microsoft."

Ewww.

 

[Huegpaynis]

Into the trash it goes.
Time to start looking at the Vive.

 

[UnderSc0re]

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/11/8766931/oculus-rift-will-come-with-a-wireless-xbox-one-controller-will-stream

Forget my big ass TV and surround I'm going to go play in my room... I would much rather use the Oculus to umm, drive inside the car not outside the car on a fake couch.

 

[Huegpaynis]

That image is faked. If it was actual footage from the unit she's wearing, the image would tilt to the left when she tilts her head... to the left.

 

[CGPepper]

Yeah "Drive the Car", thats what we are going to do in VR

 

[UnderSc0re]

That image is faked. If it was actual footage from the unit she's wearing, the image would tilt to the left when she tilts her head... to the left.

It was part of the presentation, I'm not sure how they made it.

 

[Huegpaynis]

They probably sat some chick down and filmed her wearing the rift and pretending to play a game, then mocked up what she's supposed to be "seeing".

 

[CaptainRichard]

Yep. Looks like they screwed that one up. LOL

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Help me Vive, you're my only hope.

 

[Gearen]

I'm happy, the xbox one controller is really good for the pc

 

[Wolf Lord Caldersson]

Into the trash it goes.
Time to start looking at the Vive.

Was this really that big of a surprise? Sojce selling out to facebook I have been waitigg for the mountain dew and dorito sponsorship. Partnership with xbone is just 1 step closer.

 

[Huegpaynis]

I'm not mad about the bundled xbox controller because it's an xbox controller.
I'm mad about the bundled controller because I don't need anything to come with my rift except the rift, and this will almost assuredly jack the price up by ~$50.

 

[EpilepticCricket]

The knee-jerk is strong in this thread.

Why do so many people forget that Oculus wants to get VR into the hands of your average person and not exclusively gamers? This was their plan before the Facebook buyout. Hell, that was the idea before Carmack came on board. Also, Oculus being owned by Facebook had almost nothing to do with the bundled controller. Oculus and MS have been working together for a while now. The Rift will have native Windows 10 support and native XBOX ONE SUPPORT. The thing is designed to work on the Xbone and Windows 10 right out of the box. Microsoft didn't want to have to make their own VR headset when they can just add support for the most popular one. Them working together to bundle the controller is small fucking potatoes, compared to the rest of what they're doing together (if you want to get your panties in a wad about something anyway).

The standard retail launch unit has to come with some sort of input. I'm sure you'll be able to buy a standalone Rift unit if not at launch, then shortly thereafter. Not everyone wants or needs a controller. However, as someone that doesn't own a gamepad for my PC, and is very, very far from being sold on all the wacky tracking controllers, I'm glad to see this. I don't care how accurate they are at tracking, the Vive maracas and the Oculus controller-O's should be a hard sell for anyone at this point. And in that vein, I'm far happier getting an xbone pad (one of the best pads I've ever personally handled) than whatever goofy "this makes VR real!!!" hand toy they've made.

Not that I'm saying that the hand tracking devices won't be excellent, but for launch, I'll take a gamepad that will bump up the cost by a little bit, but is more universally applicable over paying through the nose for something that hasn't been proven in the average gaming experience. I'm sure that there will be plenty of other applications will prefer the precise hand tracking and gesturing, but I'm not a VR weatherman so I'm not worried about having to invest right now.

 

[CaptainRichard]

I've never been a fan of any of the Xbox controllers. They've always felt too large and clunky to me.

If I bought a Rift, I'd just sell the Xbox controller and continue using my Logitech F310, which is basically a Playstation controller clone.

 

[Huegpaynis]

The standard retail launch unit has to come with some sort of input.

I'd disagree; the rift doesn't need input devices as it's not responsible for controlling the media you watch through it, it's responsible for displaying them. I'm sure there's something out there, but I can't think of a single application for the rift where the hardware you were getting it for did not already have an input device: Mouse and keyboard/joystick/gamepad on your PC, gamepads on your console, remote control for your movies, etc. The only thing you need from oculus when you buy a rift is literally going to be the rift, by which I mean the headset and the tracking sensor that you strap to your monitor. You mention getting it standalone, and I really hope this is an option, because I already have all the input options I require.

 

[EpilepticCricket]

I'd disagree; the rift doesn't need input devices as it's not responsible for controlling the media you watch through it, it's responsible for displaying them. I'm sure there's something out there, but I can't think of a single application for the rift where the hardware you were getting it for did not already have an input device: Mouse and keyboard/joystick/gamepad on your PC, gamepads on your console, remote control for your movies, etc. The only thing you need from oculus when you buy a rift is literally going to be the rift, by which I mean the headset and the tracking sensor that you strap to your monitor. You mention getting it standalone, and I really hope this is an option, because I already have all the input options I require.

I agree that the purpose of the rift headset itself, is to display the games and little else, but again, they're wanting to get as many people on board with VR as they can and that includes a whole slew of people that aren't gamers like you and I are. With that being said, how many games are going to be available at launch that can utilize hand tracking in a way that doesn't feel forced or tacked on? We can look at the Nintendo Wii and Wii U controllers for that answer. Very few. Outside of demos that come bundled with whichever headset you purchase, there simply isn't going to be much in the way of games that are designed to use anything other than a gamepad or KBM (sim titles being an obvious exception). If someone that isn't as well informed as us buys a rift, and it includes some crazy looking controller that isn't supported by any major game they want to play, or if it's just treated like a standard gamepad that's been split down the middle, don't you think that runs the risk of turning them off to the idea of VR immersion?

Does it need to be shipped with any controller? No. I don't believe that it does. Support for those devices will grow and hopefully down the road the Rift won't ship with the xbone controller, but instead the Touch wands to further reinforce consumer expectations of and developer requirements for a more complete VR experience. To completely turn away from the Rift at this point is premature. It's fine to be less than pleased that it's even shipping with a controller, but it's not like they can afford to delay the launch at this point just to make sure the Touch is up to par for a bundled release.

 

[Huegpaynis]

I'd wager the bundled controller isn't really going to be a good incentive for drawing in people who want to play games with it, as merely having a PC or a console means you already have the input devices. It's an extraneous boondoggle that adds no tangible benefits in my mind. For the record, I would be saying the same thing if the hand trackers were the bundle instead of the controller. I'm firmly in the camp of "bundles should never be mandatory", simply because you then foist unwanted hardware on people who want the core item.

I haven't completely abandoned the Rift. For a long time, Rift was the peripheral to watch as far as I was concerned. The announcement of the bundling is a ding for it, but it's not enough to get me to completely discount its potential. I will, however, be paying much more attention to the Vive, and to an extent, the MS hololens, instead of focusing solely on the Rift. (Yes, you could say I should have been doing this all along, but I'm a grown-ass man what does what he pleases.)

Ultimately, all the bundling has done is convince me to broaden my horizons. If I find two headsets that each offer near-identical feature sets, I'm more inclined to purchase the one that doesn't have extra hardware bundled with it.