My take: this a bandaid, so they can get the headset out in Q1, ahead of the proper controllers in Q2. Not what they wanted to do, but Vive forced their hand on timing.
For example, a spaceship piloting game that allows the players head to rotate and look out the windows could very easily be controlled with a traditional gamepad.
Even just a few years ago most people were thinking that game genre popularity would just map into VR - i.e. Witchers and CoDs would be king. What's becoming more and more apparent is that VR is such a different medium that we need a whole new set game genres and mechanics.
For instance: locomotion with the left controller stick, head movement with the right (which the current controllers are brilliantly adapted for) is such a core controller "idiom" right now, but when applied to VR it's just horrible - a recipe for nausea and disorientation.
If you look at the kinds of experiences that are being developed around Valve's controllers, they're all huge departures from the games we currently play, and the reason is that Valve, as game designers, realized from an early point just how far back to the drawing board we need to go. VR is just too different, with different objectives (immersion), possible modes of interaction, and human weaknesses to address.
I for one am looking forward to GTA 5 which I'm convinced they added a first person mode to future proof against VR.
It also great increases the chances of hitting something while you're waving you arms around...
http://majornelson.com/2015/06/09/new-xbox-one-1tb-console-u...
Fair point, but instead of a custom controller you could use any old controller you have lying around. Bundling it just increases the price.
I guess this also explains the earlier announcement dropping OSX and Linux support.
Valve on the other hand seems to fully embrace OSX/Linux (with both Steam and the Vive) and have done plenty to improve gaming on those platforms.
I think I know which HMD I'll be purchasing.
I am sure the Vive will be great, but let's face it the vast majority of titles on Steam are Windows only. Valve may like the idea of Linux gaming, but they push a lot of Windows games...
I think developers should not bother developing for Rift then. There are alternatives which are cross platform and not beholden to MS walled gardens.
Stronger competition will make them change this stupid attitude.
Come on man, give credit where credit is due.
Rift is likely to be purely gaming/social. HoloLens seems to be far more productivity/goal driven.
[0] - http://www.gamesradar.com/video-designing-xbox-one-controlle...
The potential is there, it's just up to developers to actually use it. Keep in mind that the PS4 didn't even have a single truly good exclusive game until Bloodborne came out recently. It's taking this new generation of consoles a long time to really kick off.
ds4drv: https://github.com/chrippa/ds4drv
DS4Windows: http://ds4windows.com/
Nintendo never made anything that would connect to PCs.
I used to own a pair of Joe Grado HP-1 HP-1000 supra-aural headphones and they were excellent and did a great job with binaural recordings. Since selling those, I moved on to the Denon D7000 circum-aural headphones. Far more comfortable. Bar none the best audio experience I have had was with AKG K-1000s hooked up to 75-watt tubes monoblocks. However, that wouldn't have worked for VR presence because of the latency from the tubes. With solid state speaker amps to keep the audio in sync, the presence would probably be unreal, assuming the K-1000s do well with binaural recordings, but that is something I'm uncertain of.
I know tech. has some way to go before it gets there, but that is the missing piece that would make this the next level of computing (and probably one that would cause Half Life 3 to finally show up).
A wireless....
Xbox one controller"
I closed out of the stream at that point.
Turn around and sell the Xbox controller on ebay if you feel the need, nothing says the two are wedded or the controller is required to use Oculus.
Oculus keeps spreading tons of hype and making very disappointing announcements.
A bundled xbox one controller is nothing to get excited over. Their supposed new input is, but they had virtually nothing to show for that.
Because it caused you to abandon the livestream literally at the very beginning.
It feels like they've cut corners in an effort to beat Valve's VR platform to market.
Rift won't be here until Q1 2016 (and their input solution later still).