Update On Elite: Dangerous Status For The Oculus Rift

Those following virtual reality developments got up to some surprising news this morning, with headlines blasting that Frontier’s high-profile area sim Elite: Dangerous was dropping Oculus Rift support in favor of the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive. Those headlines were particularly surprising considering that Elite: Dangerous had been one of the best displays for the Oculus Rift development kits up until now.

It turns out that those preliminary headlines were wrong– or at the minimum deceptive. Elite: Dangerous is still prepared for the Oculus Rift, as it has actually been all along. “This is not real. I wish people would examine their truths,” Elite CEO David Braben tweeted in response to among those early headlines.

The source of the confusion appears to be a declaration Frontier gave to Eurogamer, stating that “right now, we’ve decided to concentrate on SteamVR. We haven’t cut an exclusivity deal with any VR maker, and we’re still working with Oculus on Rift support.”.

Despite the fact that Frontier points out the lack of exclusivity and continued work on Oculus support right there in the declaration, Eurogamer’s headline in some way ended up being “Elite: Dangerous doesn’t formally support Oculus Rift …” That take was quickly parroted by numerous other outlets.

Frontier did stop supporting brand-new variations of Oculus’ dev kit SDK in October. At the time, however, the company said it was awaiting a final, steady advancement environment from Oculus instead of continuously remodeling the game for regular pre-release modifications to the SDK. That final environment was released by Oculus in late December. Frontier restated this position today in posts on the Elite online forums. “In case people are alarmed by the headline or confused on the information, we thought it finest to repeat what we’ve been saying since the release of the Oculus 0.6 SDK,” Frontier Head of Community Management Zac Antonaci writes. “As priced quote in the story, we are actively working with Oculus and will keep the neighborhood upgraded as soon as we are able to do so.”.

Spaceship simulator will flaunt Vive assistance at EGX this week.
“I can validate that there is no deal to release Elite on HTC initially,” Antonacci continues. “Valve released a stable driver before Oculus but we continue to be in close contact with Oculus.”.

Frontier is working on versions of Elite: Dangerous for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. Valve’s headset is getting Frontier’s immediate focus since it was the first to provide the developer a settled advancement platform to deal with.

That’s news in and of itself; it’s unexpected that the Rift version isn’t really a central issue for Frontier just over two months prior to the Rift will begin shipping to early-bird buyers. But it’s not the possibly market-fragmenting news that was originally reported.

We’re still not sure of when Elite: Dangerous will be available for the Oculus Rift; however you can be sure to expect it at some point.  If you still have not placed your pre-order for the coolest looking VR headset coming out, and don’t want to have to spend a ton to get one, why not enter a nice little giveaway.  You can enter to win a free Oculus Rift VR headset and keep your cold hard cash for spending on awesome games like Elite: Dangerous.

Oculus Rift Vs HTC Vive Pre

Pre-orders are now open for the first Oculus Rift consumer virtual reality headset and the company finally revealed the all-important price: $599 (€699 in Europe and £499 in the UK). Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey knows that the long-term success or failure of the Rift depends a lot on that number, but he appears to have calculated well. The initial ship date was marked as March 28th, but started showing as April soon after, so it appears that the early run sold out after just 15 minutes. While $599 is a considerable chunk of change for most consumers, early adopters appear to have jumped on it, thanks no doubt to the years-long launch buildup.

I should point out that my hardcore gaming days are quickly fading. I simply don’t have the time or energy that I once did to sink into the role-playing games and first-person shooters that I prefer to play. That’s not to say I won’t spend eight hours on a Saturday powering through Far Cry 4 , but I’m no longer blowing every Saturday that way. More often than not, if I am spending that downtime on my couch, it’s going to be binge-watching Netflix. As such, I want whatever I buy next to give me the broadest entertainment options possible – including games, video, audio and social content.

Let’s start with the Xbox One. The Xbox One is Microsoft’s latest and greatest entertainment console. Beyond having the exclusive Halo and Gears of War franchises, of which I’m a huge fan, the Xbox One also offers Blu-ray playback and my preferred mix of streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and HBO Go (which, as a Comcast customer, I wouldn’t have access to on a PS4). What it doesn’t offer, however, is a compatible virtual reality headset. Granted, Microsoft talks a good game about the augmented reality-based HoloLens, but there’s not much chance that it’ll be compatible with the Xbox One when it debuts.

The PS4 also holds an advantage over the Xbox One since Sony is already hard at work developing an honest-to-goodness VR headset, the PlayStation VR (formerly, Project Morpheus). Microsoft has promised the ability to stream Xbox-to-Windows games on the Rift, but that effort lags far behind what Sony’s managed to do with the PSVR. PlayStation’s headset is slated to debut in the first half of 2016, though there’s not much beyond rampant speculation as to the price. Still, between games like Eve: Valkyrie , Tekken 7 , Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and RIGS , throwing down for a PSVR headset seems like a no brainer, regardless of its price.

The Oculus Rift giveaway, on the other hand, is still a very big unknown. We’ve seen a bunch of playable demos illustrating what the system is capable of and a number of indie game developers have already jumped on board, as well as a few console emulators However, the list of top shelf studios signed on to produce game and movie content is still pretty thin. That’s likely to expand exponentially after the the Rift actually hits store shelves, but jumping onto an untested console like this is a gamble I’m not sure I’m willing to take – especially when you look at what the Rift is supposedly going to cost.

Damaged Core, VR Sports Challenge, Esper, AirMechVR and Lucky’s Tale will be available on oculus rift vr headset next year and are all going to be in attendance at E3 2015. Harmonix and Square Enix were confirmed to be other developers working on games for Oculus, though their titles were not specified. Oculus also announced that $10 million will be invested in indie games in the coming months.

The Oculus Rift Costs $599 And Ships In March

Oculus Rift’s hefty price tag has disappointed many a would-be VR fan, and founder Palmer Luckey has taken full responsibility for that.

Oculus VR was purchased by Facebook in late March for $2 billion. However, Mark Zuckerberg reassured fans that the development of the enter our Oculus Reift giveaway for the gaming side should remain intact. The headset accessory is expected to arrive either in late 2014 or early 2015. You can take a look at the development kit version of the product from the official Oculus VR Facebook page with the photo attached near the top of this article.

You’re going to experience thrilling adventures in Lucky’s Tale and Edge of Nowhere, feel your heart race as you scale mountains in The Climb, and become a rockstar in Rockband VR. You’ll create and share something magical in Oculus Medium and participate in the oculus rift vr headset ultimate space dogfighting in EVE: Valkyrie. As one of the early supporters of Oculus, you helped make this revolution happen. And before we open Rift pre-orders to the world, we wanted to share one more special update with you, our Kickstarter community.

YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!!! You have identified the most important VR supporters perfectly, and I am SO HAPPY you guys are doing this!!! 😀 😀 What company does something like this on this scale?!? You guys are so generous, forward thinking and honestly good and awesome. I’m extremely excited to get my hands on this thing, and I’m already bragging to my friends and bugging developers to either adopt VR natively or sell a plugin for complete support.

I can understand that some of the other, smaller backers are a little upset, so yes, maybe a coupon for the rift would be a nice consolation for their support. At least sell them it at cost so that it doesn’t eat too much into your well deserved profits and it gets more rifts out there to spread the word that VR is here and it is ready for primetime.

The Rift has another major competitor that is also about to launch, the Sony Playstation VR , which was earlier known as Project Morpheus The Playstation VR will work with the Playstation 4 and this means that there’s a huge installed base of potential buyers, unlike the Rift or the Vive, both of which will also require people to buy a fairly powerful (and expensive) computer, over and above the cost of the headset.

Oculus Rift Release Date, Price And System Requirements

Magician Penn Jillette has revealed that he is working with Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford on an updated version of the title for VR devices.

The oculus for developers weighs 379g. It feels quite heavy to use, so this will have to come down for the OR to be a true consumer product. The headset also has a motion-tracking system that uses an external camera which tracks infrared dots located on the headset. The consumer Oculus Rift may include a 1000 Hz Adjacent Reality Tracker. This should reduce to almost nothing the sensation of lag in tracking. Oculus Rift uses a combination of 3-axis gyros, accelerometers, and magnetometers.

Expect DVI and HDMI inputs. There’s also a USB interface for sending tracking data, and a power adapter to connect the control box to a power outlet. (See also: Hands-on (or eyes-on) with the new and improved win a free Oculus Rift) According to CNET , Oculus is also developing motion controllers that let you use your hands and body movements to interact with objects in games.

Which is not to say that the experience was an unqualified success. For one thing the headset is not comforable to wear. It’s big and heavy – not as heavy as the old school VR headsets, but heavy enough. And it takes some adjusting and tweaking before it feels comfortable. There are a variety of lenses, too, but you may still have to keep on your glasses if you are visually challenged.

Technically speaking, the Vive is currently better in practice, but the Rift is far from disappointing. Design-wise, the Touch controllers are leagues ahead of the Vive, and the stick and button placement will be much better suited to traditional gaming. They need polish, particularly in terms of accuracy, but the Oculus and its Touch controllers are absolutely a worthy contender for the Vive.

The Price Of The Oculus Rift Is A Sad Reality

With the Oculus Rift contest now taking pre-orders and officially priced for the mass market, attention has turned to Sony and the PS VR headset. Many expected Sony to use CES as a venue to announce official launch details – such as price and release date, but no such announcements were made. Although Sony remains silent on such details, online retailer Amazon Canada may have accidently revealed the price for the PS VR headset per a product page listing. According to a report by BGR from January 8, the Amazon page listed a Canadian price for the PlayStation VR set, but the price was removed soon after being discovered.

These specs will make it possible for the Oculus Rift to render heavy, 360-degree graphics smoothly without making users feel motion sick (hopefully, since results will vary ). But expect to shell out at least $300—about the cost of an Xbox One or Playstation 4—for a compatible graphics card. It is possible to meet the minimum specifications by building your own computer with about $650 worth of parts, though it might not necessarily be future proof. Forbes has outlined different price points for building an Oculus-compatible PC ranging from sub-$1,000 to more than $2,000.

Counter-reaction to the Oculus sticker shock has mostly fallen along the lines of Of course the Rift is expensive. What new technology isn’t expensive upon release?” And comparisons to PCs, smartphones, and high definition televisions ensue. None of those are good comparisons for the Rift. The best way to understand the situation is by looking at Tesla.

The seeds of demand for these products however, were planted decades before HDTVs, iPhones, or powerful laptops hit the marketplace. Motorola introduced the first handheld mobile phone, those huge, white, blocky things, in the early 1970s. The ubiquity of television sets began taking shape in the 1950s, which is the same decade that IBM began laying the groundwork for personal computers, by making the computer a popular tool for science and industry.

Virtual reality demos have been consistently different from game demos in that the VR tech is rough, and developers make no attempts to hide that. That’s why seeing how VR operates in the real world, where no one is controlling the demo environment, is so important. No one can really gauge the effectiveness and value of virtual reality, until this happens.