Oculus/Facebook reveals "Half Dome" VR headset prototype at F8 keynote - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-oculus-half-dome-prototype-vr-headset-140-degree-varifocal-f8/ Highlights: -140 degree FoV -Variable focus lenses -Eye tracking They also showed: -Full body tracking with just the sensors - no separate tracking pucks needed like what the Vive currently uses -Finger tracking without gloves or controllers -Facial tracking and full lipsyncing for VR avatars by using machine learning technology Now, this is most likely the Gen 2 Rift prototype and not just some random experiment made in their workshops. True gen 2 VR instead of just an incremental upgrade. The Touch hand controllers were codenamed Half Moon, and were then released later as a consumer product, so it's very very likely this is going to end up in the Rift 2.

Give me that finger tracking plz

That's a lotta features, this ought to be finger lickin' good

Varifocal lenses that move depending on where you are looking / focussing? Fuck me that's incredible, going to be interesting to see how they make it quiet / not noticeable to the user.

Facebook developed the tech faster so now open source sets might not be able to have these features, rip Hope you guys like fully immersive tactile Candy crush

Yeah this is in the article: She said that much attention has been paid to making Half Dome’s display actuation system silent and otherwise imperceptible to the user.

Did this headset use the inside-out tracking from Santa Cruz? Even if it didn't this sounds amazing. high FOV and full body tracking (inc fingers????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) would be insane for immersion. If they can really pull that off to a reasonable degree of tracking quality even with controllers it would be life-endingly good immersive quality when combined with decent software. just need a consumer-grade omnidirectional treadmill and a AAA-level MMORPG and you have your population growth under control...

Sounds like it'll be expensive as fuck.

Does it still use USB cameras, or have they finally made it competitive with the Vive?

Probably similar to how the Rift started very expensive but with the price taking a nosedive over the course of two years. Rift+Touch used to cost 800$, and now costs half that.

I would be super hyped if not for the fact that it's oculus, every bit of good news from them is tempered by the fact that facebook will track everything about your VR habits and milk that data dry, creeps me tf out. For example, Oculus Go requires your GPS location every time you use it, even if the app you use doesn't require GPS.

At this pace it is my firm belief that the next generation of Virtual Reality (Gen 3), or the generation after, will be a defining one. We joke about how what we have now is like in the movies we grew up with, but it won't truly be that until we no longer rely on anything other than the headset itself. If the tracking for the Rift 2 can be done without sensors, and still get down to a finger-tracking level, then it won't be long until that technology is perfected. Not only this, but also the lenses. We went from 1080p in both eyes and a very narrow field of view with an insane screen-door effect and tons of blur, to what the Vive Pro offers, and now this, in the span of 6 years. That is amazing.

The Vive was the clearly dominant (besides price) headset for Gen 1, but it looks like Oculus is going to be releasing an extremely superior product for Gen 2. I hope Valve's been prioritizing well if they want to compete. Or Valve could let Oculus make VR stuff and they could make games again.

The vive controllers were hot garbage. I'd like to see Valve's knuckles design actually come to market, though.

We've not seen Gen 2 Vive yet, only a 'pro' version

This post is on the level of "Lol you're gonna buy oculus? Enjoy farmville VR and ads popping up in your face xD" back in 2015

I hope there's a way to disable eye tracking because man's got a proper wonky fuckin eye so that shit's gonna be going everywhere lmao

Im really curious what valve will put out. Competition is always a good thing and it got us this far

Uh it's perfectly competitive even now. I don't have any problems playing roomscale games in my 2.5x2.5m playing area (my living room). The Rift's sensors are more of a hassle to setup because of the USB cables, but once you do have it setup, it's virtually identical to Vive in terms of tracking quality, plus you get to use the way better Touch controllers rather than Vive's wands.

Well I guess I'm waiting for this to release before I buy a VR set.

Looks great but I can’t help but feel kind of disappointed about the fov comparing it with the Pimax 8K headsets that have 200 degree fov. Even though they are still prototypes, a fov of around 200 is probably going to be amazing for immersion, whereas 140 seems like it’s certainly a nice upgrade to have, but still a bit too much “looking through goggles”, which really hampers the feeling of actually being somewhere else.

wow, those are alot of features that I didn't expect to see for awhile. Where does it say in the article that they showed off finger tracking? I only read what they had to say about the varifocal lense prototype. I assume it was covered earlier in the event?

There is more to a headset than just high FoV.. Pimax is riding on the 200 FoV as their main gimmick with high res as second, don't expect it to be good in other areas like comfort, pupil swim, lense quality, etc. If making a 200 FoV 8K res headset was as easy as becoming a Chinese kickstarter company I wonder why Facebook, Sony or HTC haven't done it before with their billions of dollars? And the Pimax keeps getting delayed as well.

I never had a problem with the FOV on my rift, it's the blurriness that I dislike but I get over it by playing games where I don't have to read and instead, I just bash in the heads of other gladiators

Now they just need to keep the price. Seems like it got an awful lot more complex though. Price is still the #1 factor holding VR back, of course I don't expect this to be cheaper then current Rift but I hope it doesn't go Vive/Vive Pro area suddenly.

to put some perspective on the new FOV, the oculus is 110, this new thing is 140, and the naked eyes are 200-220

Rift was $599 on release, before it even had any hand controllers. Now you can often get it for $350 in a bundle with the headset, 2 controllers and 2 sensors. Prices will come down, always. Plus they just released the Oculus Go today which is essentially a smartphone headset without requiring a smartphone (it's a self-contained system). For $199. Doesn't have motion controllers and doesn't have positional tracking, but for its price it's a good headset and it'll get many people into the ecosystem. The screens and lenses in the Go are better than consumer Rift's, even if it lacks in other "big headset" features.

You're right, Facebook is a respectable company that is responsible with handling its consumers in an ethically pragmatic fashion. big think

I have that mindset and im sure I will never ever own one like that

For sure it’s their main gimmick at the moment and like you said, as a whole it will probably be a headset that is nowhere near as solid as a Vive or Rift. But that doesn’t mean that the fov of Pimax itself is useless marketing trick. From what I’ve read, most people that tried it would have a really hard time going back to a limited fov headset like we have now. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Rift I have, it’s very fun, but the fov on it is just very limited. I wasn’t expecting gen 2 to have 200 fov but it would certainly be amazing and a different experience