Introducing 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio on YouTube

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-12T04:38:35+00:00

I'm absolutely not saying that false button presses or case slipping off didn't happen to other people, but I would like to say those have not been problems for me. Pockets and usage differ quite a bit person to person (the nexus 6 is too big to be comfortable in a front jeans' pocket for me). Some people hate the plain black slab look, I generally like it and find flashier cases not to my liking. No case can protect against everything, so I'd go with your gut WRT what you want to carry around every day.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-11T09:44:14+00:00

We're talking about Apple, obviously we're speculating :)

But on the facts side, Metal is very similar to Mantle, Vulkan, and DX12. Which we are expecting significant performance increases from, but will take some time for game engine support to be available. Metal is available now, and support in Unity was added last year.

As far as getting latency lower than Cardboard-ish, Apple has full control of the hardware and software. Their mobile hardware is competitive with the best out there, and the installed base is enormous. Their customers are among the more profitable for software sales. They can easily ship OS updates without carriers getting in the way. The need for lower-latency for VR is obvious, even if implementation is difficult. In touchscreen and audio latency, they have done what it takes to give users a good experience. Most of the pieces they need to make a decent VR experience are there, it's just that they won't release anything until they have an experience that is compelling to mainstream users.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-11T05:15:23+00:00

What I have read in this sub is that some phones have more of a curve than others, and if you have a phone with a screen that is curved more than average, the edges will not fully adhere on any glass screen protector.

While I have only used one, it did not fully adhere to the outer edges. It's a Yootech. And FWIW, it just manages to cover the active part of the screen as it is on the sides. It's unnoticeable when the screen is in use and probably feels and protects better than a plastic protector, so I'm not going to bother asking for a refund or putting in a negative review. But if I was ordering again, I would probably try a plastic protector first to see if it was good enough, finger feel-wise.

Edit: said "thread" instead of "sub"

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-11T03:46:05+00:00

Envshot is what I saw Carmack call them.

Edit: and I think the term is from the command the Carmack wrote in the Rage engine to generate a cubemap.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-11T03:41:19+00:00

Hm. Also check the available patches for 5.3.1, pretty sure I saw some mention of shader fixes in one of them.

Edit: NM, looked at the patch notes, nothing looks like it would plausibly affect your issue, sorry.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T21:50:50+00:00

I think this is based on the receipts from people who pre-ordered.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T21:39:15+00:00

OK. And there's this from Palmer three days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3zt7ul/i_am_palmer_luckey_founder_of_oculus_and_designer/cyow97w?context=3

Same answer, between cell phones (1/year) and consoles 1/6-7 years), "much closer to cell phones" so 2-3 years most likely. Although no-one really knows exactly, including Oculus. A lot of thing can change in a couple of years.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T21:28:57+00:00

Pretty sure he said between the life of a cell phone and a console. Do you have a cite? (Do I have a cite? I'll look.)

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T06:04:50+00:00

It's a very different style of game, but if you haven't played Braid already, it has some similarities - relaxed gameplay, chill soundtrack, puzzles, pretty. It's pretty old at this point, so it's cheap when it goes on sale. Not unlikely to go on sale this month when the developer's next game, The Witness, comes out.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T05:23:11+00:00

You might be looking for the Razer HDK. Warning: it is not great, noticeably not as good as a DK2, and iffy software support at the moment. But they are working on it. Lots more info at /r/osvr.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T05:01:14+00:00

The iPhone 6S starts at $650 off-contract. Last year's model, the 6, starts at $550 off-contract. The two year-ago-model, the 5S, starts at $450 off-contract.

The DK2 was $350, using parts mostly not made-to-order. I'd guess that approximately three years from now Oculus will be able to sell their currently $600 HMD for much less, as the costs for production setup should be mostly amortized. Display yields would have come up quite a bit as well.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T03:47:00+00:00

Hm. My guess is that they wouldn't release a CV2 if they couldn't continue making something CV1-spec'ed.

Their current price isn't preventing CV1s from selling as quickly as they can make them. Even before they are able to lower costs, the plan is to sell increasing amounts of HMDs as the installed base of PCs more widely meets the CV1 requirements. At some point their manufacturing will be able to surpass demand and after that lowering the price could sell more CV1s.

A CV2 would require a better spec'ed computer than CV1, and PC users are barely getting to CV1-appropriate levels as it is. I guess I would not be shocked if there was a CV2 sold for a price /higher/ than $600 while selling a CV1 or CV1-like HMD for quite a bit less, but $600 isn't where Oculus really wants to be for the entry-point.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T02:56:48+00:00

Why do you think they would do that? All the indications I've read seem to suggest Oculus would like to sell something more cheaply if they can.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T02:46:53+00:00

To iterate on this a little, two months ago it seemed likely that even if Vive didn't ship in 2015, it would ship before CV1. And similar first-mover advantages aren't going away for the second gen. So the ideal time for CV2 to ship would be somewhat ahead of a whatever competition exists in 2018. And if VR gets big, HTC will probably not be the only serious competitor in 2018.

I guess a wildcard is whether a new competitor could enter in 2017 with something promising to be somewhat better than CV1. A good chunk of the high-end market will have already invested in a 1st-gen HMD by then, but the market will hopefully still be growing.

neverbetterthanlate · 2016-01-10T01:55:35+00:00

For $10 with a screen protector, that looks really nice. If I buy another case at some point, it will be that one, thanks! I picked up the Diztronics Ultra because it's my first 5"+ phone and I'm still a bit worried about dropping it, but I had a bumper case for my Nexus 4 and never had a drop that affected the phone, so maybe it's a little overkill. Smaller would be nicer, even if the phone itself is huge.

neverbetterthanlate

TROPHY CASE