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Oculus Connect 4 Discussion Thread

L

Lakuza

Member
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This is a discussion and news thread for all things Oculus Connect 4.

Oculus Connect 4 is basically the e3/gamecom for Oculus. With a keynote from Oculus to kickstart the event, expect tons of new announcements (games and even hardware) that will come out over the next 12 months. Following the keynote, the 2 day event is packed with talks from engineers, devs and creatives from the VR industry.

Why should I pay attention?
Multiplatform VR games are also announced in this event too so it may be of interest to psvr owners too. However, if you own PC vr headset that isn't oculus, all the games announced for Oculus will be playable on headsets like Vive (just like how oculus rift owners can play steam vr games).

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Like previous years the keynote should be livestreamed to Oculus twitch and facebook. Individual talks from devs may be livestreamed by the devs themselves so its worth keeping an eye on their twitter (if oculus don't livestream it for them).



I'll add more links in as others post them in this thread :) These can be livestreams and also liveblogs too.

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Times are in PDT (GMT-7)

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The official site has more info on each event scheduled above: https://www.oculusconnect.com/schedule

For those in uk, keynote should be 6pm-8pm on 11th.

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What was announced at last years Oculus Connect:
  • Oculus Touch Controllers unveiled
  • Standalone wireless headset announced in development with inside-out tracking (not to replace or compete with oculus rift, aimed at mobile market like Gear VR)
  • New minimum PC specs thanks to the use of Asynchronous Spacewarp
  • Oculus Social Spaces and Rooms
  • Robo Recall (epic games)announced for 2017 and as a free game for anyone who buys Oculus Touch controllers
  • Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn) announced for 2017 alongside multiplayer standalone Echo Arena.
  • Arktika.1 (4A Games) announced for 2017 - it actually released this week too
  • Unspoken (Insomniac Games) announced
  • Dead and Burried announced (another game available for free for oculus touch owners)
  • Rock Band VR (Harmonix) announced
  • Wilson's Heart (Twisted Pixel) announced
  • Medium announced(Scultping app)
  • Quill announced (VR painting app)
  • Kingspray announced (graffiti simulator)
  • +tons of existing vr games announced to have touch support (such as job simulator, I expect you to die, space pirate trainer, Arizona Sunshine)
  • Face your fears (Turtle Rock Studios) announced as a collection of experiences for gear vr and pc vr.
  • React VR - Web browser VR tech
  • "NextGen", helping educational institutions to create their own VR creation programs

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*Will try to keep this post updated with all the announcements from this event*


Oculus Hardware announcements:
  1. Oculus GO uses Next Gen VR optics (New lenses WQHD 2560x1440)
  2. Oculus GO binary compatible with gear vr (apps and motion inputs)
  3. Oculus Go uses LCD (full RGB) with screen switching/shutter being faster than what LCD's has traditionally had.
  4. super quick boot, always in the environment (still Android at the base)
  5. built-in sound, even less hassle than Rifts built-in solution
  6. full software-stack control (no more updates every time you turn it on)
  7. Wi-Fi only
  8. Aimed at being the new tablet in your bag, instead of replacing phone
  • Santa Cruz project (another standalone headset below rift in product range)dev kits going out to devs in 2018 with 6DoF (ie. positionally tracked) controllers that don't require sensors or base stations of any sort.
  • Oculus for Business program announced. Offers and licenses for vr use for businesses.
  • New price $399 for Oculus Rift and touch controller bundle
  • "Gear VR < Oculus Go < Project Santa Cruz < Oculus Rift" product range from weakest to strongest

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(image from reddit)

Oculus software announcements:
  • Oculus Dash announced as the new "home", as part of the new system update for rift (titled Rift Core 2.0)
  • Oculus Dash is designed with touch in mind. Acts as a 3D overlay over whatever you're doing in rift.
  • Oculus Dash supports desktop access and apps
  • Oculus home rebuilt - Customisable with interactions and exploration. Can launch apps inside it and visit friends spaces too
  • Rift Core 2.0 beta available in December free for all rift users
  • Dev Tools: "Lost frame capture" being released this week (shows where fps drops occur)
  • Dev Tools: multiview is now available for mobie for devs to use. Tech that boosts framerates, reducing draw calls by up to 40% and freeing developers to create more complex scenes with less overhead.
  • New Oculus avatars announced (offers more diversity in options). Supports custom clothing accessories. launching in 2018.
  • Oculus avatars are cross platform so are usable on steam and daydream too
  • Platform level saftey tools announced for 2018 (blocking, report and friending). These are system wide.
  • "Explore" store feature coming to rift in 2018, explore tailors suggestions to your interests. Basically an interest feed. Already on gear vr.
  • Live streaming features coming to rift in 2018
  • Facebook Spaces coming to other platforms soon
  • New social games coming to Facebook spaces.
  • live 360 video features coming soon
  • Quill art now supported by facebook spaces
  • Facebook 3D Posts: VR created objects can now be shared to facebook with a native 3D viewer.

Game Announcments:

  • Onward coming to rift store next month
  • Stranger things experience coming to Face your fears
  • Echo Combat coming in 2018 - new entry to the lone echo series, online multiplayer Zero-G FPS.
  • Lone Echo story will continue, announcement coming soon. not sure if dlc or sequel.
  • COCO vr (Disney) announced for 2018
  • Unspoken :Acolytes (insomniac games)singleplayer campaign for Unspoken - winter 2017
  • Marvel power united VR - Thor revealled and gladiator hulk
  • Respawn Entertainment partnering with oculus for a 2019 release game (war based)
  • Windlands 2 announced
  • Republique VR announced for gear VR, winter 2017
  • ]Red matter (Vertical Robot, Oculus) announced for Rift

Experience Announcements:

 
V

vermadas

Member
Nice thread Lakuza. There's some speculation we might get some more new rendering tech.

Iribe tweeted some hype last week, and a redditor posted some observations on one of the session descriptions:

Well, the description of the Day 2 session at OC4 called "Deep Dive Into the Oculus Rift SDK" says:

The Rift SDK has just introduced a number of new powerful features for advanced VR rendering and composition. We’ll discuss each of these and what you need to know to use them.

They recently introduced the new near-field HRTF audio system, but that's not "rendering and composition."

So I'd expect some announcements that are similar to ASW.

Interestingly, foveated rendering is mentioned twice: a session explicitly called "Optimizing Graphic Performance: Temporal Foveated Rendering for VR" which describes AMD's efforts, and in a session called "High Fidelity: Leveraging Engine Integrations and Graphics Optimization to Level-Up Performance" in which they mention "Qualcomm foveated rendering" as a topic.

IMO, having two topics from two different third-party companies implies that this won't be one of the integrated SDK features we'll hear about.
Click to expand...
 
ArtHands

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Hoping to see some new announcement.

Last year Oculus showed off Santa Cruz.

And Google announces their own standalone headsets, so perhaps we should get some new updates regarding Santa Cruz or any standalone VR headset plan

Also perhaps we might get some new game announcements or update, like MARVEL power unite.
 
B

Bsigg12

Member
Will definitely be watching the Keynote. Should be a refreshing year for them not having to bring Luckey onto stage ever again.
 
L

LemonGremlin

Member
We should hopefully get a much better look at some generation 2 devices today which is exciting, both PC and mobile standalone. Carmack's been pretty quiet the past few years too beyond incremental updates so hopefully we get to learn more about what he's been working on.
 
P

Plasma

Banned
I'm more interested in what they show of the software than the hardware. I think it's too early for gen 2 just yet they should save that for a big leap in the technology. It's hard enough persuading people to buy the headsets at the price they are now without people thinking they should avoid buying them because the new one will be out soon.

I've been really impressed with most of the games Oculus have published this year and they've been released steadily enough so there always seems to be something new out each month that's worth playing. I hope they continue that next year as well, I know they have that Marvel game slated for early next year but beyond that they've been a bit quiet on anything else.
 
V

vermadas

Member
Non-hardware related stuff that I'm hoping to see:
- Cylindrical Timewarp Layers in the PC SDK.
- OVRDrop equivalent
- A standard format for 360 photos with 6DOF. FB showed off 360 camera tech earlier this year that would be able to create a limited depth map that would allow some positional tracking inside of what is normally static spherical imagery. Awesome if this could apply to video as well.
 
L

Lakuza

Member
just under half an hour left for the keynote to start.
Anyone watching it in vr?
I'm tempted but might stick to normal streams so I can keep an eye on this thread.
 
S

samred

Member
can confirm that the first official Marvel VR experience will be demoed. source: the kiosk behind a few curtains in OC4 press room.
 
W

Wollan

Member
Very curious about their inside-out-tracking / standalone VR headset and the current state.
With Palmer now long gone I think there will be more positive buzz and less reservations.
 
L

Lakuza

Member
samred said:
can confirm that the first official Marvel VR experience will be demoed. source: the kiosk behind a few curtains in OC4 press room.
Click to expand...

Nice :) I think the inhumans characters (tv show version) were the previous announcments which made me laugh, hopefully they choose better ones to announce today :)
 
S

stoke1863

Member
Lakuza said:
just under half an hour left for the keynote to start.
Anyone watching it in vr?
I'm tempted but might stick to normal streams so I can keep an eye on this thread.
Click to expand...

I'm going to watch in VR

Unfortunately I can't see this thread taking off, VR still isn't a big deal on GAF it seems
 
T

Tain

Member
The tracking looks good going by that video?

Like looking up and having the controllers down at your waist still track? Man, I hope that's reliable.
 
W

Wollan

Member
"Spreading empathy", "making reality better"... post Palmer talk.

The $199 Oculus Go (Spring 2017) obviously doesn't have inside-out tracking. The Santa Cruz devkits shipping next year to devs is the full package that we want.
 
P

Primus

Member
So would Santa Cruz be the first official second-gen VR headset to hit the market? Been waiting for inside-out tracking.
 
Tajaz2426

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Subbed for this one. I have a PSVR and a Rift and I have been using my Rift with Tridef playing games like Witchern3 in 3D. It is FricKen ridiculous and fun. Has anyone else used TriDef?
 
S

stoke1863

Member
Tajaz2426 said:
Subbed for this one. I have a PSVR and a Rift and I have been using my Rift with Tridef playing games like Witchern3 in 3D. It is FricKen ridiculous and fun. Has anyone else used TriDef?
Click to expand...

ok your going to have to explain this to me...
WItcher 3 is my fav game ever.
 
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