Development Kit 2 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 25 Jun 2014 03:07:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Development Kit 2 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Oculus VR acquires Carbon Design, the developer of Xbox controller https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/anton-shilov/oculus-vr-acquires-carbon-design-the-developer-of-xbox-controller/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/anton-shilov/oculus-vr-acquires-carbon-design-the-developer-of-xbox-controller/#respond Tue, 24 Jun 2014 22:57:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=199885 Oculus VR on Tuesday said it agreed to acquire Carbon Design, one of the premier industrial design and product engineering teams. Carbon Design is known for the Xbox gamepad as well as the Kinect motion sensor. The design team will help Oculus VR to design its first commercial virtual reality headset and its successors. While …

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Oculus VR on Tuesday said it agreed to acquire Carbon Design, one of the premier industrial design and product engineering teams. Carbon Design is known for the Xbox gamepad as well as the Kinect motion sensor. The design team will help Oculus VR to design its first commercial virtual reality headset and its successors.

While Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift prototypes for software developers work pretty well, their design is far from being really good. They are too bulky, they are not stylish and they are generally consumer-unfriendly. With its own design team, which will work closely with the Oculus R&D team based out of Redmond, Oculus VR will address all the design issues of its final product that is expected to be released in 2015.

As part of the deal, the team will officially become a key component of the product engineering group at Oculus, operating from the Carbon studio in the Seattle area.

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“A few seconds with the latest Oculus prototypes and you know that virtual reality is for real this time,” said Peter Bristol, creative director at Carbon Design. “From a design and engineering perspective, building the products that finally deliver consumer virtual reality is one of the most interesting and challenging problem sets ever. This is an entirely open product category. With consumer VR at its inception, the physical architectures are still unknown – We are on the cutting edge of defining how virtual reality looks, feels, and functions.”

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The acquisition of the design studio indicates that Oculus VR has rather big plans for the future. It is highly likely that the company already foresees not only a successor to its first commercial product, but a lineup of various VR gear, possibly aimed at different types of customers.

Carbon Design has a 20 year history of taking consumer, industrial and medical products from concept to completion. Carbon is known for quality engineering, ergonomics, deep user insights, and rapid iteration.

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Oculus VR expects the deal to close by the end of summer.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Oculus VR clearly did a right thing by taking over a design studio. One of the things that the Oculus Rift VR headset lacks is style and that is something the commercial product due next year will clearly need.

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Oculus Rift is still a gaming VR headset first – company https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/anton-shilov/oculus-rift-is-still-a-gaming-vr-headset-first-company/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/anton-shilov/oculus-rift-is-still-a-gaming-vr-headset-first-company/#respond Thu, 12 Jun 2014 04:23:17 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=197786 While Facebook did say that the virtual reality technology is a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform when it acquired Oculus VR earlier this year, the main focus of the virtual reality headset that is under development today is gaming, according to Nate Mitchell, vice president of product at Oculus …

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While Facebook did say that the virtual reality technology is a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform when it acquired Oculus VR earlier this year, the main focus of the virtual reality headset that is under development today is gaming, according to Nate Mitchell, vice president of product at Oculus VR.

Many industries, including communications, media and entertainment, are expected to benefit from virtual reality technologies, so it is logical to expect that eventually there will be different types of VR headsets designed with various applications in mind. Nate Mitchell said that while Facebook had introduced Oculus VR to new ideas, the headset that is expected to hit the market next year is still intended for gaming.

“For us, we are all gamers, we are game developers, and if you look at our team, it is 90 percent industry veterans, so we have this big focus on games,” said Mr. Mitchell in an interview with Polygon. “We want this to be the best platform for VR games. I think, longer-term, we are all excited about the potential of everything you can do with VR, whether it's film or education or training or communication. Over time, I think you'll see more of that, but it's all really about games, and Facebook is excited about that, too.”

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While gamers demand realism and high-quality experience, they can live with relatively bulky and not really stylish devices that come with numerous wires. Therefore, it is pretty logical to create a gaming headset and then develop VR headsets for other applications based on the gaming device. To some extent, this is the strategy of the ongoing collaboration between Facebook and Oculus VR.

“Part of the Facebook deal is, ‘Here's a buffet of resources, take advantage of whatever you want.' On the flip-side, they've also been super proactive in suggesting ideas,” said the vice president.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is nice to see that there are no attempts to make Oculus VR’s first commercial virtual reality headset a universal consumer device from the very start. In a bid to build a perfect gaming device, no trade-offs should be made.

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Zenimax sues Oculus VR, Palmer Luckey, seeks compensation https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/zenimax-sues-oculus-vr-palmer-luckey-seeks-compensation/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/zenimax-sues-oculus-vr-palmer-luckey-seeks-compensation/#comments Wed, 21 May 2014 22:38:58 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=194429 After accusing John Carmack of stealing intellectual property earlier this year, ZeniMax on Wednesday started a legal battle against Oculus VR, which is about to become a subsidiary of Facebook. When John Carmack was asked why he left id Software (which is owned by ZeniMax Media) last year for Oculus VR, he said that the …

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After accusing John Carmack of stealing intellectual property earlier this year, ZeniMax on Wednesday started a legal battle against Oculus VR, which is about to become a subsidiary of Facebook.

When John Carmack was asked why he left id Software (which is owned by ZeniMax Media) last year for Oculus VR, he said that the company did not put enough efforts into development of virtual reality (VR) technologies, which, he believes, are the key to the future of video games. Ironically, but ZeniMax entertainment not only accused John Carmack of stealing its VR-related intellectual property last month, but also filed a lawsuit against Oculus VR on Wednesday.

ZeniMax Media and its subsidiary, id Software LLC, filed suit against Oculus VR, Inc. and its founder, Palmer Luckey, for “illegally misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets” concerning virtual reality technology, and “infringing ZeniMax copyrights and trademarks”. ZeniMax is also asserting claims “for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition against the defendants.” The suit was filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

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According to ZeniMax, the defendants unlawfully exploited its intellectual property, including trade secrets, copyrighted computer code, and technical know-how relating to virtual reality technology. ZeniMax claims that development of the VR-related technologies took “years of research and investment” and were allegedly provided to Mr. Carmack under a binding non-disclosure agreement. The software company asserts that its fundamental technology drove the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset “since its inception”. In 2012 and 2013 John Carmack, who is not mentioned in the lawsuit, helped Mr. Luckey to make the Oculus Rift prototype better.

It is noteworthy that ZeniMax revealed in Wednesday's court filing that Oculus offered it a 2 per cent equity stake in the company as a compensation for the intellectual property. The negotiations ended early in 2013 after Oculus and its founder Palmer Luckey “became increasingly evasive and uncooperative.”

Oculus VR and Facebook did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: There may be two key reasons why ZeniMax sued Oculus VR now (both are speculations at this point). The software company believes that this time the virtual reality technology will take off and it naturally wants to capitalize on it somehow. ZeniMax wants to sign a larger deal with Facebook concerning not only virtual reality technology in particular, but something considerably broader.

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Google Glass engineer lands at Oculus VR, might shrink headset https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/google-glass-engineer-lands-at-oculus-vr-might-miniaturize-headset/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/google-glass-engineer-lands-at-oculus-vr-might-miniaturize-headset/#respond Fri, 16 May 2014 12:22:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=193503 Adrian Wong, lead electrical engineer of Google Glass, has left Google to work for Oculus VR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Facebook. While people often change workplaces in Silicon Valley, the arrival of a specialist like Mr. Wong at Oculus VR may point to some interesting things about the future of the company’s virtual reality headset. …

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Adrian Wong, lead electrical engineer of Google Glass, has left Google to work for Oculus VR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Facebook. While people often change workplaces in Silicon Valley, the arrival of a specialist like Mr. Wong at Oculus VR may point to some interesting things about the future of the company’s virtual reality headset.

At Google, Mr. Wong was responsible for the main printed-circuit board (PCB) and display electronics subsystems used by the Glass smart eyewear, reports Androidcentral. While the engineer calls himself a “Professional Daydreamer for Oculus VR” on his LinkedIn page, he really is an electrical engineer who has experience in designing miniature devices.

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Google Glass in its current form is not the final version of the product that Google and its partners will eventually sell; yet, it is miniature and can actually be comfortably used while outside without attracting too much attention. As reported, hardware inside Google Glass closely resembles hardware inside smartphones, but in a considerably smaller package. The internal design of Google Glass looks simple on a picture, but it is rather hard to design as the level of integration is very high.

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Google Glass dissected. Image by Catwig.com

By contrast, Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets designed for game developers are very bulky and are not stylish at all, which is probably a result of a rather low level of integration and rough design of internal parts. The Oculus Rift virtual reality helmets can be used for gaming, but they are not as neat as Google Glass.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlHKSmATTng']

Oculus VR itself has said numerous times that commercial version of the VR headset will be a lot different from the development kits available now. The first thing that comes to mind about Oculus Rift is that it needs miniaturization and style. In a bid to make a device smaller, it is necessary to shrink its internal design by as much as possible. Perhaps, this is exactly what Mr. Wong will do at Oculus VR: rework internal PCBs and electrical systems of the VR headsets. At least, it is logical to assume that.

Keeping in mind that Facebook wants to spread virtual reality beyond video games, it will certainly need to design VR headsets and eyewear that will be useful in other areas. In a bid to develop such devices, a lot of engineers are needed, so Mr. Wong will be joined by other people.

Adrian Wong, Google and Facebook did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Without any doubts, Oculus Rift headsets need miniaturization because in their current form-factor they will hardly appeal to any audience other than core gamers. The best thing to shrink something in size is to integrate it more tightly using either more advanced off-the-shelf components or proprietary parts designed specifically for the device. In case Oculus VR needs exclusive hardware, we will see the company hiring a lot more hardware specialists.

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Oculus VR to reveal new Oculus Rift VR headset prototype ‘soon’ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/oculus-vr-plans-to-reveal-new-oculus-rift-vr-headset-prototype-soon/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/oculus-vr-plans-to-reveal-new-oculus-rift-vr-headset-prototype-soon/#respond Tue, 06 May 2014 13:24:58 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=191425 One of the reasons why Oculus VR decided to become a part of Facebook was the latter’s ability to invest vast amounts of money into research and development of hardware. That expectation seems to be paying off: the company’s chief executive promised to reveal yet another Oculus Rift VR headset prototype shortly. Speaking at TechCrunch …

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One of the reasons why Oculus VR decided to become a part of Facebook was the latter’s ability to invest vast amounts of money into research and development of hardware. That expectation seems to be paying off: the company’s chief executive promised to reveal yet another Oculus Rift VR headset prototype shortly.

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt conference, chief executive officer of Oculus VR – Brendan Iribe – said that the acquisition of the company by Facebook and access to its resources would quicken development process of the virtual reality headset hardware as well as games designed for such platforms.

“[The decision to become a part of Facebook] centered around being able to leverage their cash and investment into hardware R&D, which is expensive,” said Mr. Iribe, reports Cnet News. “[Oculus would pursue original vision], but doing it even bigger, faster.”

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Early this year Oculus VR introduced the code-named Crystal Cove prototype virtual reality headset that features 960*1080 resolution per eye at 75Hz refresh rate. The company’s Oculus Rift development kit 2 is based on the Crystal Cove. However, the DK2 will not be the only prototype from Oculus VR this year. According to Mr. Iribe, a new prototype of the company's virtual reality Rift headset is “coming soon”.

The head of Oculus VR did not elaborate regarding details about the upcoming headset’s specifications, but it is logical to expect it to support higher resolution, lower response time, lower lag and so on.

The new prototype will be Oculus VR’s second model to be introduced this year, a clear indication that the company is speeding up its development efforts.

It is likely that the new prototype aimed at game developers will closer resemble commercial version of Oculus Rift, which is supposed to hit the market sometimes in 2015, than currently available DK1 and DK2 versions.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Since even development versions of Oculus Rift are in high demand among video game enthusiasts, it is logical to expect Oculus Rift development kit 3 (DK3) to become popular among gamers too. In case you plan to buy a DK2 now, then it makes sense to wait a couple of months…

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Secret Oculus Rift prototype features photorealistic VR experience https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/secret-oculus-rift-prototype-features-photorealistic-vr-experience/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/secret-oculus-rift-prototype-features-photorealistic-vr-experience/#respond Fri, 02 May 2014 11:58:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=190801 Not a lot is known about the commercial version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset that is due in 2015. However, it is known that Oculus VR is developing a version of its VR gear that is considerably more powerful than the existing devices aimed at game developers and features photorealistic graphics, according to …

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Not a lot is known about the commercial version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset that is due in 2015. However, it is known that Oculus VR is developing a version of its VR gear that is considerably more powerful than the existing devices aimed at game developers and features photorealistic graphics, according to people, who tried it.

The first-gen Oculus Rift VR headset designed for software developers supported 640*800 resolution per eye, whereas the second-gen development kit features 960*1080 resolution per eye at 75Hz refresh rate. Both DKs are equipped with gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. Although the Oculus Rift DK2 based on the code-named “Crystal Cove” concept should be dramatically better than the DK1, it hardly can provide realistic image quality when virtual looks like real.

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However, Oculus VR has something that does offer photorealistic experience, according to Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon, an investor in Oculus VR, who tried the device in a secret room while at Oculus Rift headquarters in Irvine, California.

“Crystal Cove is 50% of what they are running in [their HQ],” said Mr. Dixon in a conversation with Business Insider. “You go into a room. It is a special room. Fancier headset. In user testing it gets to a level of realism where almost all people feel that it is realistic.”

No technical details about the prototype virtual reality headset are known outside Oculus VR. What is known is that the VR gear is connected to “a giant server” with “a massive amount of processing power” and takes up a whole room. Oculus expects, eventually, to be able to shrink the size of the prototype into units that can be sold commercially, according to Business Insider.

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It is highly likely that the secret prototype features an ultra-high-definition resolution display (or maybe a display with full-HD+ resolution and antialiasing) with very high refresh rate (at least 100Hz) and minimal response time as well as very advanced motion sensors. The unit is probably connected to an ultra-high-performance system that receives information from sensors and renders photorealistic graphics so fast and so smoothly (at a framerate that equals refresh rate of the display and adjusted to how human eye and brain receive and process information) that people cannot tell the difference between virtual reality and reality.

“Imagine everything you can see now, but it is a little bit pixelated. Eventually that [pixelation] will go away,” said Mr. Dixon.
An official from Oculus VR confirmed existence of the demo room with an Oculus Rift prototype which provides photorealistic experience.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: A relatively small UHD display with high refresh rate and which could be integrated into a VR headset is, perhaps, a year away from mass production (there is a 6.1” IGZO display with 2560*1600 resolution from Sharp and 10.1” LTPS display panel with 3840*2160 (4K) resolution from Japan Display already, smartphone with 4K screens are predicted to emerge in 2015), so, creation of a 4K VR headset is hardly a problem. However, computing power that would be required to process data from sensors and render graphics at a frame-rate that is adjusted to human eyes and brain may not be there for a couple of years at least. Moreover, to really create photorealistic virtual reality, software should work in absolute synchronisation with hardware. Such software is probably very far away…

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Commercial version of the Oculus Rift set to hit the market in 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/commercial-version-of-the-oculus-rift-set-to-hit-the-market-in-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/anton-shilov/commercial-version-of-the-oculus-rift-set-to-hit-the-market-in-2015/#comments Fri, 02 May 2014 10:42:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=190768 Having sold over 85 thousand of Oculus Rift virtual reality headset prototypes aimed at software developers, Oculus VR is still pretty far away from introduction of commercial versions of the device. The company said at the Facebook’s F8 conference that the consumer version of the Oculus Rift VR gear would hit the market in 2015. …

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Having sold over 85 thousand of Oculus Rift virtual reality headset prototypes aimed at software developers, Oculus VR is still pretty far away from introduction of commercial versions of the device. The company said at the Facebook’s F8 conference that the consumer version of the Oculus Rift VR gear would hit the market in 2015.

Business Insider reports citing a spokesperson for Oculus VR that the company and its new owner Facebook would be disappointed if the VR headset would not be available at retail for ordinary people before 2016, which points to availability during the holiday season 2015 at the latest. While many enthusiasts who bought developers version of the Oculus Rift would like to buy the commercial flavour of the product already this year, the official launch in 2015 makes a lot of sense.

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In a bid to make Oculus Rift a commercial success among gamers (even core gamers) there should be quality games developed with the VR in mind on the market. Development of video games takes a long time these days, those titles that are being built today will only show up sometimes in 2015.

The main issue here is that game publishers are reluctant to invest into development of games for new platforms until that hardware is at the hands of the consumers, who then will buy software. However, gamers will not buy a piece of hardware that is not supported by existing software. As a result, Oculus VR and Facebook should coordinate their efforts with game developers in a bid to release the first commercial version of the Oculus Rift simultaneously with games that were developed for VR headsets.

Keeping in mind that virtual reality titles should be developed differently than currently available games, expect software creators to learn how to make VR games in a right way. The first breed of virtual reality titles will, without any doubts, be very impressive (and certainly more impressive than games developed for monitors which are now experienced in the VR gear). However, eventually, as artists and programmers learn how to build virtual worlds and experiences, the VR games will get much closer to reality than the first wave of titles.

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At present neither the launch date, nor the lineup of launch titles, nor the price of the VR headset are known. However, several big developers have confirmed that they are working on titles that will use virtual reality gear. At present Oculus VR is in the process of building a team to work on marketing and branding of the product.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see how many more devkits Oculus VR will manage to sell to gamers before the commercial version becomes available. The interest towards the VR among the core gamers is so high that it looks like many of them are going to get current-gen Oculus Rift DK2 “Crystal Cove” in order to play select games that have support for it already this year…

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