Oculus Rift $599.00 (£410) fair price?

Cavallino said:
Ah thanks for this.

What are Fresnel lenses exactly?

To be honest, I could have done without the games, but do need the xbox controller.
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Fresnel lenses are really thin lenses developed a long time ago for lighthouses, probably used to reduce the distance that the screen has to be away from the lenses themselves, and lower the weight of the rift.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens
 
The checker tool is a bit stupid. It just looks at the model of your CPU and not the actual clock speed. It thinks the 2500k is too old and slow, ignoring the fact that a 4.5GHz 2500k is significantly faster than their minimum CPU. I run a 4.5GHz 2500k myself with a 980ti so should be fine.

I ordered my Rift yesterday at 16:01. As a DK2 user I absolutely get VR and how awesome it can be. Really looking forward to it.
 
I trialed one at an iseries event a year ago, what I dont understand is what can you actually do with this? Other than act like you are on a rollercoaster.

Bring me SAO like VR and then we can talk.
 
infernox said:
I trialed one at an iseries event a year ago, what I dont understand is what can you actually do with this? Other than act like you are on a rollercoaster.

Bring me SAO like VR and then we can talk.
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Play games with it?
It's an old game but Half-Life 2 is awesome in VR. Elite Dangerous is out of this world.
More games will be coming - EVE: Valkyrie looks fantastic and comes with every Rift.
 
I was a bit shocked at the price at first, but given gaming monitors go for similar prices (and more!) and this promises to be so much more I think it's priced correctly for the tech and market.
 
Got mine on pre order if by April comes and there is a new nvidia 10** card out around the same money ill end up getting that instead if not ill get the rift win win really :)
 
Steeps said:
I was a bit shocked at the price at first, but given gaming monitors go for similar prices (and more!) and this promises to be so much more I think it's priced correctly for the tech and market.
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Hmmm you cant really compare it to your gaming monitor. Would you use your VR headset for browsing the internet, typing emails in the same way you would with a monitor ?
Plus without a VR headset you use your monitor with your PC 100% of the time. You wouldnt use the VR headset 100% of the time. It also needs game compatability.
Enthusiast on here have spent £700-£1000 on a monitor then £500 on this headset. Thats a lot of money but thats their choice and I respect that.
Then think of a "normal" user who spends £100-£200 on a monitor are they then going to go for £500 on this ?

Its clearly priced for early adopters like any new tech and I think its caught a few people by surprise. What will be interesting is the next VR headset release will they undercut and jump on the same pricing bandwagon? Early days yet so I will be watching with interest and I've not tried it but I couldn't afford one anyway and it doesnt really appeal to me and I've just spend £729 on a monitor!

-edit

just read this

"Early adopting PC gamers are likely to be less price sensitive," he said. "This is the type of audience that spends $400-$500 every other year on graphics cards and large amounts on games."
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So yes quite clearly a price premium for early adopters. Cheeky sods.
 
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Absolutely it's priced too high for mass-market. Only dedicated individuals are going to buy one and you're not going to get the average man on the street interested at that price.

This, IMO, is a good thing. Because of the extremely high system requirements for a good experience there would be a lot of folk buying them and then returning them because their PCs can't run them. A situation like that rapidly turns in to "VR is crap" and before you know it the tech is dead in the water.

By pricing it at a level that which only enthusiasts who know what they are doing and buying are getting it, you create a halo whereby the users extol the virtues of the technology. This will drive further adoption once the technology matures.
 
You get a nice box, controller, headset and 2 games. I think that's reasonable for £500. I suspect eventually they will release a standalone version (maybe another dev version) that feels like it should be priced around £350, but the extras and early adopter part do justify a £150 bump.

As Rilot said i'm happy that it's being priced (and hopefully developed) as a premium product... the amount of damage that cheapo Android tablets did, and still do, to the whole ecosystem is huge..

Best to price it high and make the experience as good as possible first.
 
Steeps said:
If the cost is too high, there's a 1080p Android based (with HDMI in, soon to be completely wireless) VR headset available to pre-order for February/March for around £175 including a pad. http://www.auravisor.com/
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Wow, I mean like wow. That's not even close to the Rift, HTC Vive, or Sony Morpheus. It's essentially just a Gear VR that uses a screen wirelessly from your phone rather than your phone as the screen.
Only head tracking - no positional tracking (positional tracking massively helps with nausea).
Lower resolution - It's the same as the DK2 which just isn't high enough at 1920x1080 (960 x 1080 per eye).
Android phone isn't powerful enough for a decent VR experience. Try some of the Google Cardboard demos. You will feel sick after 2 minutes due to the latency. Same deal here. There's a reason the Rift requires a 970 as a minimum GPU.

So yeah, it's £175 for a reason.
 
Rilot said:
Wow, I mean like wow. That's not even close to the Rift, HTC Vive, or Sony Morpheus. It's essentially just a Gear VR that uses a screen wirelessly from your phone rather than your phone as the screen.
Only head tracking - no positional tracking (positional tracking massively helps with nausea).
Lower resolution - It's the same as the DK2 which just isn't high enough at 1920x1080 (960 x 1080 per eye).
Android phone isn't powerful enough for a decent VR experience. Try some of the Google Cardboard demos. You will feel sick after 2 minutes due to the latency. Same deal here. There's a reason the Rift requires a 970 as a minimum GPU.

So yeah, it's £175 for a reason.
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Problem is Joe Public will think as its badged as VR you are getting the full experience and buy into it because its cheaper than say £500 of kit. They then get a rotten experience and ditch VR as an option.

?
 
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