Oculus Rift Surprise

I think most people that know about the Oculus Rift know that just a few months ago this was a small startup company trying to get crowd source funding. Now I see an article where one of the titans of the game world has come on board as the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

The video here is an older video. 1 hour. It is NOT related to the article about John as Oculus’s CTO. But, it has a load of information about the people involved with Oculus Rift and their accomplishments.

The titan is: John Carmack. Type “John Carmack” into Google and you’ll get about 1.9 million hits. That’s about two-hundred times more than me. John is considered a gaming pioneer, visionary, and somewhat a legend among gamers and game designers. He was the lead programmer on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and others. 

Over on the Oculus VR Blog they have an article up that is dated 7PM PDT today… several hours into the future from when I am writing this. I suspect the server clock and time zone settings are wacky in the blog server. Whatever, the article is: John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO.

There is a lot of interesting information in the article about John’s connection to Oculus as it has developed.

I would say this is a big boost for Oculus. I think it also shows how the game design community is thinking of the Rift.

The video keys you into where this is going. One has to think about Google Glasses and their ideas on augmented reality. Mix with that the ideas we see all the time in the movies of heads-up-displays and holographic displays that seem to float in the air. Then add in the Kinect, Wii, and LEAP Motion type controllers.

Imagine an Oculus Rift being used to make a HUD that fits into a see-through head set. You can see this display and the world around you at the same time. The Rift would be providing an overlay to what you see in RL. That should start to clue you into why people see this moving to mobile devices.

The booming mobile market is exploding. My parents would never have imagined paying US$600 for a phone. But, they had problems imagining what they call a Dick Tracy or Star-Trek phone being something they would ever have. But, today the greater mobile market is estimated at over a trillion dollars per year.

So, AR, Augmented Reality, is the goal aimed at capturing a share of that trillion dollars. But, VR, Virtual Reality, is here now. That is what Second Life™ and Cloud Party™ are. VR provides a starting point for those working toward AR. Valve is intending to work on both. I expect to see results in VR well ahead of AR. Actually, about next summer and possibly a little sooner.

Using VR with SL or CP will allow developers to run into problems and start working on solutions. VR is going to be the precursor to mobile AR.

 

2 thoughts on “Oculus Rift Surprise

  1. Carmack’s always been obsessed with the minutia of displays. At this years QuakeCon 2013 he gushed about head-mounted displays even more.

    I think this is really great news for gamers since Carmack can have a lot more influence over one popular product than he’s ever been able to have over an entire industry of display makers, whom all have concerns for more than just optimal gaming.

    Still doubt the Rift will have tremendous impact on Second Life, even if it was given out for free to new sign-ups. But I can’t wait to use one on a product built with it in mind, and I’d like to think if Linden Lab continues it’s trend of 1-3 new products a year, something entirely Rift focused is in the pipeline.

  2. What a bunch of BS, how do you type with goggles on? How much do they weigh? How do they affect one’s vision over X period of time? I’ll just wait for the holodeck…

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