Samsung, Oculus Partnering on Gear VR

So what's stopping me from just duct taping a Note 4 to my forehead and calling it a day? Is there any actual tech in that thing or is it just a shell?

@enigma777: The Gear VR system is not just some plastic and lenses. In addition to the added touch panel control scheme on the headset itself, The Gear VR accessory uses Oculus' own sensor system to augment the speed of various sensors in the Note 4 by something roughly around a factor of 10 (don't quote me on that since I don't know the exact figure off the top of my head). This allows the rotational tracking latency for the headset to be negligible enough that it is not physically perceivable.

I mean, you are welcome to just strap on some cardboard with a Note 4 or whatever with duct tape and some plastic lenses, but good luck doing anything for more than a minute without vomiting. :)

So what's stopping me from just duct taping a Note 4 to my forehead and calling it a day? Is there any actual tech in that thing or is it just a shell?

The power usage had been my fist thought when i saw this, also the Gear VR prototype does not seem to consider the possibility of using the Note 4 camera for AR? Guess the grey semi-transparent cover could be replaced with a transparent one. That way the camera feed could be projected into the VR or vice versa a VR overlay over a live camera feed for AR.

But in the end all of this will be limited due to power issues, guess it's about time there's some large breakthrough in battery tech :/

Yes, you need to own a Galaxy Note 4, then you buy the head mount to slot you device into....I assume the software is free or part of the cost of the mount.

I really liked trying out the Cardboard VR stuff. Therefore, I'm interested in a cheap VR solution. But really, really I just want a consumer product out soonish.

Wait, I don't get it. Do you need a Galaxy Note 4 for it to work?

This is probably the best recap of the Gear VR / Oculus stuff that I've seen.

@chris_hall: I don't think it's naive to say I'm waiting to scope out what is going to happen with VR. We know next to nothing of Microsoft's version, and Sony's we know very little of. How is it naive to want to wait until they're all out there? I would simply rather get behind a Microsoft or Sony product and wait for theirs to see what they're like.

Yeah most at the office watching the video usually skipped ahead, too.

@jrad: When you are doing something like this, I assure you non-game folk and even some of the less co-ordinated ones will unplug stuff. Apologies for the vertical video - I wasn't the one recording.

Will there be faux leather with faux stitching on the front?

I just wanted to admire your restraint in not using "the" photo of Will Smith.

@monkeyman04 said:

@hammondoftexas said:

YUP! first thing I thought of reading this was of that.

This still looks way cooler when you wear it.

Carmack was awesome! I guess as an engineer myself I like the technical specs rather then the PR bullshit.

this makes sense Samsung practically make parts for every other company in existence so why not and take advantage of there screen tech. it will probably end up making rift better in long run

Woh, thank goodness you have gone back to using your names... was worried 'Giantbomb Staff' was going to be on every news story :)

@vessel28: That would be great if it were a standalone device that you pair to your phone/tablet, but that's not what this is. It's like Google Cardboard, where you slip the phone in and it uses the phone's screen. Imagine how big this thing would have to be to fit a tablet inside, and how uncomfortable and heavy it would be. (The Note 4 is big, but still considerably smaller and lighter than even the smallest tablets.)

I hope Oculus/Samsung release something for non-Samsung devices that will work with other VR headsets. The selection of VR apps right now is pretty slim. My hopes are low since Samsung locks up their stuff.. my hopes are raised slightly because it's Oculus.. and then lowered slightly again because Facebook.

@xyzygy: That's a bit naive to say. Would you have invested in Oculus before Facebook's buyout? They're still the same company they were then, except they have a much bigger financial backing. Nothing changed aside from there just being an extra step on the ladder. If you climb it you're still going to the same place.

@jarmahead: I will wait and see what comes of this. I just do not like Facebook and I do not like them having so much information about so many people. I will put my support behind Sony, Microsoft, maybe others who do VR. I realize that right now it seems like Oculus has this entire thing in the bag, but we don't know what the future will hold and I have no qualms with waiting it out to see what the landscape is like. If Oculus becomes the only VR on the market after failures by Microsoft and Sony, then so be it, I will probably end up investing in them, but only because I have no other choice.

I know that Sony and Microsoft are still corporations and I stand by my view that they don't care for any of us customers as long as they get their money, but I would simply choose them over Facebook (Oculus) any day because I don't like Facebook. That's it. I also know that Sony and Microsoft have information about people as well, but it's not in the SLIGHTEST to the same extent that Facebook corporations do.

As for Samsung, I was never a fan of their phones. I know they make GREAT televisions and displays, but that video makes it looks like you insert your phone into the headset, and I don't want to get a Samsung phone just to be able to use something like this.

Hey, I have a Samsung phone, a few Samsung HDTVs, and I had netbook computer (my favorite computer I have ever owned)...so, sure I'll get some Samsung Gear VR.

@jdp83: thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. Seeing Carmack onstage again made me happy. Seeing him excited made me pretty excited as well. I really dislike TouchWiz and the bs features Sammy usually puts in their products, but this is impressive stuff.

Makes sense, considering the DK2 uses a Note 3 display. Like, literally, it's Samsung-branded and includes the holes for the speakers and buttons you'd see on the cellphone once you take off the shell.

@jdp83: Admittedly, I haven't tried the DK2 yet (just own the DK1, myself) but I'm not really sure how it's possible to be unplugging the HMD unawares? I guess if you're standing up and moving around a lot, but that doesn't seem to be what the Oculus is designed for. I mostly use mine seated (in a rotating chair) and haven't run into any problems -- and that's with the Oculus wires and my headphone cables as well.

@amafi: Like I said, just that they have never played games. And these are guys not working on our project. Just other teams in our office.

No one on the VR team ripped anything out.

Wow, you guys must employ some dumb engineers. We have a bunch of HMDs and various things at work and I've never heard of anyone ripping any chords out.

The bubble that will pop.

Hmm, this'll probably be pretty popular and essentially where VR goes in general. No one wants to be tethered to a pc.

I still can't get over the whole Facebook thing :(

So many of these are going to get stolen right off people's heads.

This can only be a good thing for the Oculus proper.

Holding our for Galaxy Gear Xrd Sign

@patrickklepek That's not a Will Smith picture.

Its cool that some of this new VR tech will finally be hitting the consumer market in some fashion this soon. But it also is really weird that the full consumer version of their tech will be out before the Oculus. I feel like this is really the final straw of thinking of Oculus as a Kickstarter thing.

It's like you kickstarted a scifi fps for PC. However before release you teamed up with Activision and release a 'completely' different scifi fps using the same engine.

It make sense given how Oculus has grown but it seems weird to complete another project before finishing the one you first promised.

I was considering an upgrade to a Note 4 and this just made me want to do it that much more.

Que pedestrian fatality spike.

Hahaha! I have to share this with my teammates. I hope you don't mind! :)

@jarmahead I was working in sales in an electronics store and a phone store over the last two years, and indeed Samsung screens are by far the best quality. I don't mean they are light-years ahead, really it is all a matter of very small degrees when it comes to the high-end stuff, but Samsung are consistently good. Very few returns on their products due to malfunction etc, their screens are tougher. Only thing I don't like about them are their tablets... I think they are over-priced for what you get. The TAB 3.0 and the LG 8 inch tab were roughly the same price with a slight size difference, and man that LG tablet was miles better.

It got very frustrating trying to get people to buy the superior tablet for the same price, but people would always go with the brand they knew. In Europe, Samsung are incredibly popular.

[Solid Snake voice]

@dorkymohr: Trust me, as many demos for the DK2 we've had visit here and have non-game people test out - a tether is the LAST thing you want on a VR headset... 3 engineer guys who've never touched a game controller before unplugged a PC running a demo multiple times before they were able to grasp the concepts needed which most game-playing folks have had their whole lives to give themselves an "awareness" of the cords that they kept unplugging.

Either that or the DK2 plug needs to be another 12 ft long... :)

Oh stop it. If you had any idea how many "bad" companies had ties to companies you like, you'd either stop complaining about things like this or go live on an island. Either way, this is pointless.

Samsung is fine, even if you don't like their devices and they are one of the premiere display makers out there (I believe they make many of the panels for displays such as Dell's UltraSharp line, often touted as the best consumer level screens you can get. And they have been pushing resolution on their screens for a while so a partnership with a company that has manufacturing down on very high density displays is extremely good news for Oculus.

And I don't know how much you've been following Oculus news since the Facebook acquisition, but it's been pretty much nothing but good news. People were worried that it'd be a Facebook box for your face for some reason, and that games would take a back seat, and you know what? Neither of those (frankly hilariously off base) "predictions" have come true. In fact, Oculus is pushing harder to directly contribute to games coming to the platform.

I fail to see why people are getting so fanboyish with this stuff. "I don't like Facebook therefore their money is going to ruin the Oculus!" Then it proves to be pretty great because they got just about every smart mind on the matter on their team in a pretty small amount of time. And now they are clearly courting a company that is arguably the optimal partner for display technology and people are once again (less often, but often enough) complaining just because they have some unrelated issue with that company.

Samsung makes excellent displays. If they can make a really high density, fast response low persistence display for Oculus, why does any of the random crap you have against them matter?

I don't think they really have the Gear stuff really on their site besides press releases. And that makes sense, this seems like it'll start as an Oculus sided initiative to get people interested and they'll start pushing it to other avenues after a bit of that.

The Oculus page for Gear VR has plenty of information, even has screenshots of the apps they are helping to develop.

Awesome-o. I have a feeling this Mobile VR stuff might end up being way more accessible to the masses, thus easier to market. And with the processing power we are getting out of phones this days, the possibilities are getting more interesting as time goes on.

Hmm positional tracking is a weird one. Do the sensors the phones use for positioning (flipping the screen, etc) not have the right amount of fidelity? Is the camera facing out of the headset? A PS move type of set up might work... I have no idea what I am talking about though.

It's not the Oculus side of things I'm concerned about. It's Samsung.

@mariachimacabre: John Carmack seems excited about it. :)

It's a pretty natural fit. Phone technology is a huge reason that displays have gotten to the point where they're suited for head mounted displays. It's good news that we're already losing the tether so quickly into VR's resurgence.

@splodge: The team I'm on has spent more time in the prototype headset that was leaked on the Verge than most people in the world. I would get sick after only a few minutes of wearing the DK1 and not get sick wearing the DK2 or the Gear VR prototype.
I've only worn the final Note 4 version a couple of times but I will say it's awesome. The only issues right now are power usage, no positional tracking (not internally at least... yet though there are some ideas), and the fact that designing for VR is pretty much all new territory and all the 2D designers are pulling their hair out trying to learn what works and what doesn't.

Harmonix is already at work on something for this ridiculous thing.

Honestly, I thought that they would have stopped developing games for unproven tech the moment Microsoft burned them by making the Xbox One Kinect completely optional.

Hey! Sounds like a fascinating job. Must be cool to be working at the forefront of this kind of tech!

Can I ask if you have tried it? My worry is that inserting a phone into the headset might mess with the carriage for the lenses. Is there a chance that there could be some eye strain? That is my main worry about VR really, is that it seems like it is not fucking up your vision, but could be making it worse.

This thing seems like it could be really cool. But it feels more likely that it'll turn out to be a misguided waste of money.