Is today the day Oculus left PCVR?

kenshingintoki

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I can't help but get the sad feeling today is the day Oculus left PCVR.

Oculus got what they wanted in the Quest. They fought so hard with the Rift to get their walled garden, walled proprietry hardware, a social vision for VR. But the Rift always struggled because of the vive, and then the index. It fought back with exclusives, some won people over, some didn't.

But the Quest has quielty and confidently given Oculus what they always wanted. They got their walled garden, they have an entire ecosystem dedicated to portable VR, they have no competitor in the portable VR space and they have are the only headset in town at their own price point.

Oculus connect today didn't even feel like an Oculus event. It was a Facebook connect. There was no cutting edge hardware, there were no eye watering new PCVR games pushing systems to their limits. Years ago Lone Echo 2 would be a headliner but today? No. Its just a swan-song which for the Rift whenever they get around to releasing it. Medal of Honor they let go to the Steam store; again, just not a move Oculus would do. They wanted to dominate PCVR no matter what, and aggressively did this exclusives.. but today.. they don't care.

I can't help but feel the dream of an inside out tracking, cutting edge headset from Oculus with ASW 2.0 to power next generation graphics with eye tracking is now a thing of the past. I feel as if maybe they should finally open up the Oculus store or just start porting their Oculus titles over. One of the Oculus developers mentioned dependant on MOH's success, they might just do that.

This is a company which fought back against the Vive wands with one of the most premium controllers of all time. But now in the face of threat from the Index controllers? They just re-hash the same controllers for the third time.


Its sad because the PCVR war never really got started. Valve versus Oculus would have been a good show, but it seems as if the Quest just gave Oculus, well now Facebook, what they wanted. I wanted Oculus to be present to give us good exclusive games and push Valve to their limits... but it seems like its over for them in high end PCVR.

What're your thoughts?
 
Well they haven't entirely abandoned PC VR because of Oculus-Link.

Depends on how the Oculus-Link with the Quest 2 compares to the G2 I think.

It won't be as good but at less than half the price you'll see it rising up the ranks in the SteamVR Survey in quite short order.

With regards to Medal of Honor I think that the developers chose to do that to increase multiplayer numbers, some titles funded by Oculus/Facebook have been permanently exclusive, some have been timed exclusives. Facebook don't get anywhere as much credit as they should for not demanding full exclusivity in return for funding development.
 
Well they haven't entirely abandoned PC VR because of Oculus-Link.

Depends on how the Oculus-Link with the Quest 2 compares to the G2 I think.

It won't be as good but at less than half the price you'll see it rising up the ranks in the SteamVR Survey in quite short order.

With regards to Medal of Honor I think that the developers chose to do that to increase multiplayer numbers, some titles funded by Oculus/Facebook have been permanently exclusive, some have been timed exclusives. Facebook don't get anywhere as much credit as they should for not demanding full exclusivity in return for funding development.


The Oculus representative on reddit said based on sales, they will be reviewing each title on a title by title basis for whether they now release it to steam. Seems like from a PCVR perspective, they're just looking to make money on their old games now and no longer care about tying people into Oculus PCVR.. because there is no Oculus PCVR headset to even dedicate to people.

Oculus Link they slept on too. They didn't provide a wireless feature or mention how they will increase the visual fidelity via the cable given the new processing power of the headset. It really just seems like they don't care. PCVR is just a side note, its all about what the Quest can do. Even footage they use now is all Quest-based.

(The Link obviously won't compare to the G2 as its video encoded. My Quest via Oculus Link could not keep up with my Rift S. There is a snow balls chance in hell its keeping up with the G2.)

It'll definitely rise up the ranks of SteamVR. It'll be the most used headset in the world, but Oculus won't care where it is on steamVR. They only care about their Oculus Quest store and the Oculus quest usages now. Thats where things are sad.

I know you're a gigantic Oculus fanboy but surely even you are concerned.

They've even dropped production for the Rift S and will probably in the next 12-24 months drop support. Its just very sad as Oculus had the potential to really push VR gaming to the next level, but it seems as if they want social media domination and casual short gaming instead.
 
I honestly think they dropped support for the Rift S because they were ashamed of it and saw it as a travesty of a VR headset which hurts their own high standards for hardware.

They could have even thrown the few Rift S owners a bone and released a Rift S with the Oculus Quest panels and painted it a different colour, and routed the cable properly across the middle-back of the headset for £249 or £199... or £299... but no. :(
 
Just about every video they showed today was PC footage, so the likes of Population One, The Climb 2 and Jurassic World will all be available on the Rift/S. Same for Medal of Honor and Lone Echo 2.

We'll have to wait and see what happens at F8 next year before we can tell whether Oculus are abandoning PC VR.

Like I've said before it makes absolutely no sense to bung the Half Dome tech in a Quest anytime soon, especially now the Quest has come down to $299.

All we know for certain is that the Rift S is being discontinued in Spring next year. There were rumours on Reddit a few weeks back that the Rift 2 is coming next year, we'll have to wait and see what happens at F8.
 
Half Dome tech may come to the Quest at some point, but not for a very long while I suspect.

Like I've said before, it wouldn't be the first time a big tech company showed off a proof of concept that never materialises in a product. Quite often they just hold onto the patents to sell or license to other companies (or in some malicious examples, preventing others from ever using it).
 
my thoughts are Oculus have done more for VR than any other company, its a good move to streamline things a bit, there isnt a market for multiple headsets within their brand (or anyone elses) as the sales/software just isnt there, one headset moving forward that can do PC VR (if there are any PC VR games made) and portable makes sense.

Look at Nintendo, had to do the exact same thing with the Switch replacing both portable and home console lines.
 
my thoughts are Oculus have done more for VR than any other company, its a good move to streamline things a bit, there isnt a market for multiple headsets within their brand (or anyone elses) as the sales/software just isnt there, one headset moving forward that can do PC VR (if there are any PC VR games made) and portable makes sense.

Look at Nintendo, had to do the exact same thing with the Switch replacing both portable and home console lines.
It doesn’t do pcvr well at all. The quest 1 via link is terrible compared to the competition.

this is what I mean by turning their back on pcvr. They’ve clearly gone portable
 
It doesn’t do pcvr well at all. The quest 1 via link is terrible compared to the competition.

this is what I mean by turning their back on pcvr. They’ve clearly gone portable

I beg to differ, Ive used the Quest for PC VR and it does a great job using the link cable, and a more than acceptable job wirelessly via VirtualDesktop (although image not quite as good), dont think any others can offer that option at this time, although I would hope thats in the future.

I have no doubt that there are superior headsets for PCVR, but with no games to take advantage its getting harder to justify them.
 
It doesn't seem long ago that we were all saying the future would be in dual purpose devices, i.e. standalone devices that could optionally be linked to the PC for better quality. That seems to be the direction Oculus are headed, which I think is a good thing in principle.
What I don't like is the dumbing down of the headsets, with poor audio and lack of decent IPD adjustment (particularly relevant for my 72mm+).
 
Is today the day Oculus left PCVR?

No. It might be the day Oculus stopped supporting their Oculus Store with PCVR exclusives.

But as long as you can connect a Quest2 to a PC and play VR titles on Steam they technically haven't left.

I'm happy either way. :p
 
I beg to differ, Ive used the Quest for PC VR and it does a great job using the link cable, and a more than acceptable job wirelessly via VirtualDesktop (although image not quite as good), dont think any others can offer that option at this time, although I would hope thats in the future.

I have no doubt that there are superior headsets for PCVR, but with no games to take advantage its getting harder to justify them.


Its terrible. I’ve owned one, a Rift S, a CV1 and an Index.

For PCVR, its the worst one. There is compromises to EVERYTHING including:
1. Comfort and weight distribution
2. Dark scenes with huge compression artefacts
3. Latency
4. Refresh rate
5. Visual quality being remarkably less sharp
6. Higher processing power to encode and decode

To name but a few.


Really It is awful, it sucks compared to the competition. Anyone who has a high end gaming PC which can play VR should not do themselves the disservice of using a Quest if they can use a better headset.

Once you add in the Quest 2 + Link cable + extra cost for higher memory version + controller grips + head strap + etc. Its fairly close a far far far superior headset (G2).
 
I beg to differ, Ive used the Quest for PC VR and it does a great job using the link cable, and a more than acceptable job wirelessly via VirtualDesktop (although image not quite as good), dont think any others can offer that option at this time, although I would hope thats in the future.

I have no doubt that there are superior headsets for PCVR, but with no games to take advantage its getting harder to justify them.


The VD experience is trash I don’t know ‘more than acceptable means’ but VR is about immersion and lacking latency, size scaling and image quality is bad.

The problem is that it sounds like you haven’t experienced the alternatives of VR.

If the Quest is all you’ve used or can afford, then its hard IMO to give a proper opinion on the alternatives.

We all thought the CV1 and Vive were amazing until we got the new generation of headsets for example.
 
Ive owned/own a CV1, S, Quest, and used my friends HTC a fair bit too, admitedly I havent tried an Index yet but I never claimed anything different, perhaps there was something wrong with your setup.

"more than acceptable" in my case means I expected a some compromises from a 1st gen portable headset and Im happy enough to make them at this point, Im sure we all could go off on a tangent about problems with EVERY headset, as far as I know the perfect one doesnt exist yet.

I never said it was "the best" no need to jump on the defensive.

IMO There is no point banging on about a "high end VR experience" when most games are shovelware visually on par with something last gen, the only exceptions being some sims and a handful of titles.
 
Ive owned/own a CV1, S, Quest, and used my friends HTC a fair bit too, admitedly I havent tried an Index yet but I never claimed anything different, perhaps there was something wrong with your setup.

"more than acceptable" in my case means I expected a some compromises from a 1st gen portable headset and Im happy enough to make them at this point, Im sure we all could go off on a tangent about problems with EVERY headset, as far as I know the perfect one doesnt exist yet.

I never said it was "the best" no need to jump on the defensive.

IMO There is no point banging on about a "high end VR experience" when most games are shovelware visually on par with something last gen, the only exceptions being some sims and a handful of titles.


Thats the point. Oculus are now promoting shovel-wear VR. Before they weren't. They were one of the only developers trying to push for fully fledged VR experiences.

There recent change to shovelwear is because the Quest can only support that natively, and thats where their priorities lie....

Hence why as per the topic of the thread, I feel they're leaving PCVR.
 
perhaps a better title would be "is PC VR dead?" I think its certainly starting to look a little shakey, I think it can still be a success, but I think all involved companies are going to have to work together to make that happen, with a united front of sorts.
 
perhaps a better title would be "is PC VR dead?" I think its certainly starting to look a little shakey, I think it can still be a success, but I think all involved companies are going to have to work together to make that happen, with a united front of sorts.


I think Oculus leaving PCVR is still more relavant.

Just speaking plain facts. They had a facebook connect where:
1. They refreshed their headsets and didn't release a native PCVR headset.
2. Had a Facebook connect where they spoke about the Quest and its ecosystem for 99% of the time
3. Their biggest name IP and game, Lone Echo critically acclaimed as a PCVR game, didn't even get a video segment.
4. Stopped production of the Rift S
5. Didn't mention improvements to their Oculus Link technology (e.g. wireless)
6. Showcases their games on Quest hardware graphically (I was shocked by this as they ALWAYS used the Rift footage before).

If that doesn't speak lack of commitment to VR from Oculus, I'm not sure what does.


PCVR longterm.. very difficult to predict. The next couple of years will be telling. I'll be honest.. if Valve bother to release a competitive multiplayer game like CS:Go or TF2 in VR, then VR will absolutely explode. They haven't done it, and I'm not sure why not. Once it does, it'll make COD and a-like feel ancient. But they have to do it and they have to do it properly.

If they don't and just walk away from VR like they did the steam link box and steam controller... then yeah I'll never buy Valve hardware again.
 
1. Quest 2 is the new headset, replacing both Quest and Rift S moving forward.
2. Of course they would focus on Quest as thats the way forward for them.
3. They seem to be taking the foot off with game dev, probably reworking LE2 so that it would be a Quest 2 title
4. see point 1
5. They seem to do a fair bit of improvement as they go along, I imagine Link is no different atm vs Quest 1, but will see some love in future.

I dont think its fair to say they are lacking commitment, show me 1 other company contributing as much to VR, they are simply moving forward in what they see as the best way for them.
 
1. Quest 2 is the new headset, replacing both Quest and Rift S moving forward.
2. Of course they would focus on Quest as thats the way forward for them.
3. They seem to be taking the foot off with game dev, probably reworking LE2 so that it would be a Quest 2 title
4. see point 1
5. They seem to do a fair bit of improvement as they go along, I imagine Link is no different atm vs Quest 1, but will see some love in future.

I dont think its fair to say they are lacking commitment, show me 1 other company contributing as much to VR, they are simply moving forward in what they see as the best way for them.

Oh god, you once again missing the point.

I'm talking about Oculus's committment or lack of to PCVR. The fact you're trying to debate this is insane. Oculus CLEARLY love the Quest as its love child. They CLEARLY have always wanted a closed market, with a closed eco system and the Quest is that.

Once again you shift the argument from PCVR to VR, can you please stop doing that.

Oculus ARE committed to VR. They are NOT committed to high end PCVR and fully fledged experiences like they were a couple of years ago. They are now a portable VR company who care about small shovel wear experiences rather than fully fledged games. Its OBVIOUS by their own Facebook Connect.

Oculus are not going to expand the VR market via their social media and short colorful expeirences following the more disposable Apple model of buying games, and THEN make a U-turn and start becoming a high end PCVR game developer again. Why would they do that when their end-game since facebook Aquisition has always been Facebook/social media based?


I'm an Oculus fan. I've owned a Rift S, CV1 and 2 Quests.

But I'm not going to defend their actions. They're clearly shafting their PCVR fanbase in favour of the Quest. The Rift S was a warning sign and now they've followed through.
 
Facebook/oculus have been pulling out of the PC play space for some time now. I think they're actually just left it now to Steam to support, instead concentrating on a sufficiently closed platform that they can control.

That's not to say they've ditched PC completely (I suspect Quest hardware will continue to have it as an option) - it's now just a very distant secondary focus for them.
 
Facebook/oculus have been pulling out of the PC play space for some time now. I think they're actually just left it now to Steam to support, instead concentrating on a sufficiently closed platform that they can control.

That's not to say they've ditched PC completely (I suspect Quest hardware will continue to have it as an option) - it's now just a very distant secondary focus for them.


Thank you.

How people can think they're committed to PCVR as they were a couple of years ago is beyond me.

No native PCVR headset refresh, killing their current PCVR headset and no release of upcoming native PCVR games which will take advantage of a PC. Ignoring the multitude of other factors, such as the fact they now have a stanadlone ecosystem and Quest store which is going to make them far more money and their aim always being social media domination as opposed to gaming, coupled with the now mandatory facebook account rule coming into account...

It's just blindingly obvious. Oculus aren't even trying to hide it.
 

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