Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset Going Mobile Only for Android

[roseofbattle]

Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset Going Mobile Only for Android

The virtual reality headset will be used for mobile gaming on Android devices.

Oculus VR announced yesterday it will launch a mobile version for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset as close to possible as the launch of the headset for the PC version. The announcement came during a keynote chat at GamesBeat, a video game conference presented by Venture Beat. Oculus VR has made no plans for an iOS version.

"We have some exciting plans on the mobile VR side as the PC VR side," CEO Brendan Iribe said. "We're really looking at hitting the consumer market. We're very excited about what we're seeing." Iribe said he was skeptical about mobile virtual reality on a small platform but now feels much better about the idea since id Software cofounder John Carmack began working on mobile VR. The mobile virtual reality headset will be lighter and marketed as a consumer version, using the Android mobile device's processor.

Oculus VR has not released the consumer price for the virtual reality headset. The developer kit version costs $300. The consumer version of Oculus Rift is still underway, and Iribe says the market will be "blown away."

Iribe noted his interest in additionally bringing virtual reality to home theaters, saying it would be cool to watch films in virtual reality. He provided recently released science fiction film Gravity as an example. "VR is going to have a big impact on film," Iribe said. He added virtual reality is compelling for games as well because there are new ways of inspiring an emotional connection to videogames.

"You have a sense of presence where you're connected to the environment," Iribe said. "In VR, you look up and you're still there. You get that sense of scale. And you'll now have characters that know where your eyes are."

Source: GameSpot [http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/29/oculus-rift-ios/]

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[Ed130 The Vanguard]

There were a couple of dev kits available for the public to try at the Armageddon Expo last week.

A little uncomfortable, but what is there has heaps of potential. I'm not too sure about linking it to a mobile phone however.

 

[littlewisp]

"... And you'll now have characters that know where your eyes are."

Well that has the potential to get creepy fast.

 

[Lightknight]

There were a couple of dev kits available for the public to try at the Armageddon Expo last week.

A little uncomfortable, but what is there has heaps of potential. I'm not too sure about linking it to a mobile phone however.

I don't think they said "phone" necessarily. We're talking things like tablets, for example. Though phones wouldn't be impossible, I agree that they likely aren't quite powerful enough to provide a legitimate experience. Maybe I'm wrong though.

 

[Frezzato]

I'm clearly missing something here. A lot of the articles I've read hint at using the eye-enveloping Rift goggles to play games on your phone [EDIT: "Android device"]. Huh? I think it's clear that if someone is playing on their phone that they're not going to be at home, i.e. somewhere that could be considered "public". Who would place goggles on their face and block their view of external world in public?

And considering that the mobile version would connect to Android devices, how would people use the controls on their touch screens?

 

[Scrythe]

Two things:

1) The Android OS is (somewhat) compatible with the Raspberry Pi
2) People have made some clever stuff with the RPi/Camera combo

I've only had a passing interest in the Oculus Rift until recently, but now I'm hanging on the edge of my seat with anticipation.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

That's confusing. I could have sworn they were making headsets that would run Android, not hook up to a phone to it. It sounds cumbersome but I guess it would just act as a monitor so compatability with different models shouldn't be a problem and you can save money using your own phone

There were a couple of dev kits available for the public to try at the Armageddon Expo last week.

A little uncomfortable, but what is there has heaps of potential. I'm not too sure about linking it to a mobile phone however.

I don't think they said "phone" necessarily. We're talking things like tablets, for example. Though phones wouldn't be impossible, I agree that they likely aren't quite powerful enough to provide a legitimate experience. Maybe I'm wrong though.

If I'm not mistaken they simply use the same processors in smart phones as they do in tablets so if you have a top of the line phone then it's as powerful as a top of the line tablet. The recent Snap Dragon 800 for example is a quad core that can be clocked to 2.2 ghz (in addition to some gpu optimizations). Given that android and iOS are more than capable of playing 1080p games, it shouldn't be too hard to make some good Oculus Rift games for it. Obviously the PC set up will blow the mobile one out of the water but in terms of price and simplicity (one headset and a battery powered phone vs being tied to a computer), I'd imagine it would help the Rift catch on

 

[truckspond]

I have to agree with the article; Gravity would be AWESOME in VR!

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I'm clearly missing something here. A lot of the articles I've read hint at using the eye-enveloping Rift goggles to play games on your phone [EDIT: "Android device"]. Huh? I think it's clear that if someone is playing on their phone that they're not going to be at home, i.e. somewhere that could be considered "public". Who would place goggles on their face and block their view of external world in public?

Lunch break at the office? I could see some sort of virtual relaxation environment being popular. Kind of like that scene from Heavy Rain.

 

[r0seyp0m]

I see potential here but I'm not sure. Wouldn't it kinda be like playing on a PC with a controller plugged in, only much less powerful? Would have to think of some really original use of the phone in some way.

 

[Lightknight]

That's confusing. I could have sworn they were making headsets that would run Android, not hook up to a phone to it. It sounds cumbersome but I guess it would just act as a monitor so compatability with different models shouldn't be a problem and you can save money using your own phone

There were a couple of dev kits available for the public to try at the Armageddon Expo last week.

A little uncomfortable, but what is there has heaps of potential. I'm not too sure about linking it to a mobile phone however.

I don't think they said "phone" necessarily. We're talking things like tablets, for example. Though phones wouldn't be impossible, I agree that they likely aren't quite powerful enough to provide a legitimate experience. Maybe I'm wrong though.

If I'm not mistaken they simply use the same processors in smart phones as they do in tablets so if you have a top of the line phone then it's as powerful as a top of the line tablet. The recent Snap Dragon 800 for example is a quad core that can be clocked to 2.2 ghz (in addition to some gpu optimizations). Given that android and iOS are more than capable of playing 1080p games, it shouldn't be too hard to make some good Oculus Rift games for it. Obviously the PC set up will blow the mobile one out of the water but in terms of price and simplicity (one headset and a battery powered phone vs being tied to a computer), I'd imagine it would help the Rift catch on

Almost nothing uses processors anymore. Processors are glorified switchboard operators that direct the software towards the RAM and any GPU.

So the CPU basically doesn't matter. It just has to be powerful enough to accomplish that task and that's it. That has changed drastically over the past decade. When I was a kid, the CPU was king. Not anymore.