Rift is VR. This is AR. Anyway I like that it's standalone. Tethered VR is fine. Tethered AR is asinine. As technology improves, they'll be able to pack more power into a smaller form factor. But for a dev unit to get the ball rolling this is a good start.
Luckey didn't announce shit about other companies PCs - somebody *asked* him about the Rift and Mac support and he gave them a straightforward answer right back.
I would hope so. Or at the very least, utilize the "ocular occlusion" method (I forget what it's called) to render more efficiently using pupil tracking.
I'm sure they're working on substantial upgrades across the board on the next-gen unit. But in the meantime they want to get devs out there making UWP apps that are AR-capable.
Idk why they're putting the computer on the peripheral. It should have a fancy wifi antenna and stream compressed video over lan. The added latency and potential for packet loss are concerns but the wii u is the perfect counter example. A handheld display/controller has displays compressed video over wifi ad hoc faster than most TVs do with uncompressed video via point to point copper. Pick a refresh rate and then pick your resolution based on your bitrate. People are going to have a much better time with an AR device if it isn't chugging along at 60 fps with circa 1996 resolutions. Don't tell me they'll be able to run 60 fps at that 1280 per eye number because it won't happen for another 5-10 years (see: why VR ventures failed in the past).
I think the Hololens is meant to be highly mobile - meaning, not confined to one room, or even to a house. You're supposed to be able to just walk down the street with it, like you could with Google Glass. Which would exclude any direct (WiFi or Bluetooth) tethering to a PC box.
However, I think there might be a compromise in separating the processing from the head gear, and wearing the CPU/GPU/main battery package as a backpack or as a belt. Use an extremely short-range, low-power, secure high-bandwidth wireless setup to communicate between the HMD unit and the main processing box. This would allow much beefier processing, longer battery life, and higher heat dissipation - while maintaining portability, lightening the weight/inertial load on the head and making the HMD unit more streamlined/stylish...
I'd rather it was either handled all onboard the Lens. The last thing I want is a Lens Backpack or BeltWare (tm). That would just be lame. Heck I wouldn't even really want wires connecting it to my smartphone. Otherwise I agree with what you said, this device is intended to travel.
Plus, whatchu talkin' bout Willis? Latency IS an issue. Streaming to a little handheld tabletcontroller with 2D input is nothing like trying to process and stream GOBS of data in two directions in 3D. I mean when you try to use your hands to manipulate 3D virtual objects, it would have to capture and stream to the PC, which crunches what you're doing and sends the results back. That adds some serious latency and would result in a really horrible experience.
Nope, their engineers are on the right path. They'll continue to improve it, too. These are the early days of AR.
By gobs of data you mean literally just the cameras and sensors from the hololens to the computer and the display output from the computer to the hololens? It's not impractical. It's not even that hard as Nintendo demonstrated. Idk why everyone who doesn't make embedded systems for children seem to have a hard time with it.
Multiple live feeds getting streamed, processed (like Kinect on crack), and then having the resulting visuals and sounds streamed back? In real time? You don't think you're adding delay? Yeah it's not just a question of raw average bandwidth. It's a question of reliability and latency for fairly large streams of data both ways. AR/VR experiences are much more sensitive to latency to begin with than your example.
Even the Meta 2 guys (who went external hardware route) opted for wired. But I guess their engineers are actually all morons and you know better than they do.
You know what adds delay? Computing. A 5W power budget isn't going to produce 90 fps even at their suggested 1996 resolution. Saying " it can't be done" is a cheap excuse because it can. Not at unrealistic bit rates but what they're promising with their power budget is unrealistic. Cabled is obviously better because nothing needs to be compressed but those smart designers probably never stopped and asked themselves if people would mind a cable hanging from their face.
Have you played with a wii u? It's sub 10 ms latency and I cannot feel it even when trying. That will make people sick is chugging down to 50 ms frame times because you're trying to play crysis on a toaster.
...and the next Microsoft product to be hacked, and infected with a virus will be.....
I sure hope they'll have sense enough not to charge that $3K price tag for people wanting to purchase one of these, when they come out. Of course, seeing the price of the Xbox units they have produced, I won't be very surprised to see a price of half that amount, for this.
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SaolDan - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
Neat!nathanddrews - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
Conker, no! What have they done to you? :(nathanddrews - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
I love that they use him to demonstrate contextual sensitivity. It's sensitive... to context.name99 - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
"The Microsoft HoloLens is custom-built wearable personal computer running Windows 10 "FLASH: Palmer Luckey has just told us that this PC cannot run Rift, and that Microsoft needs to "prioritize higher-end GPUs"...
Alexvrb - Thursday, March 3, 2016 - link
Rift is VR. This is AR. Anyway I like that it's standalone. Tethered VR is fine. Tethered AR is asinine. As technology improves, they'll be able to pack more power into a smaller form factor. But for a dev unit to get the ball rolling this is a good start.althaz - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
Luckey didn't announce shit about other companies PCs - somebody *asked* him about the Rift and Mac support and he gave them a straightforward answer right back.eek2121 - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
I wonder if this year's GPU die shrink is going to help out with the FOV at all.nathanddrews - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
I would hope so. Or at the very least, utilize the "ocular occlusion" method (I forget what it's called) to render more efficiently using pupil tracking.Alexvrb - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
I'm sure they're working on substantial upgrades across the board on the next-gen unit. But in the meantime they want to get devs out there making UWP apps that are AR-capable.willis936 - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
Idk why they're putting the computer on the peripheral. It should have a fancy wifi antenna and stream compressed video over lan. The added latency and potential for packet loss are concerns but the wii u is the perfect counter example. A handheld display/controller has displays compressed video over wifi ad hoc faster than most TVs do with uncompressed video via point to point copper. Pick a refresh rate and then pick your resolution based on your bitrate. People are going to have a much better time with an AR device if it isn't chugging along at 60 fps with circa 1996 resolutions. Don't tell me they'll be able to run 60 fps at that 1280 per eye number because it won't happen for another 5-10 years (see: why VR ventures failed in the past).boeush - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
I think the Hololens is meant to be highly mobile - meaning, not confined to one room, or even to a house. You're supposed to be able to just walk down the street with it, like you could with Google Glass. Which would exclude any direct (WiFi or Bluetooth) tethering to a PC box.However, I think there might be a compromise in separating the processing from the head gear, and wearing the CPU/GPU/main battery package as a backpack or as a belt. Use an extremely short-range, low-power, secure high-bandwidth wireless setup to communicate between the HMD unit and the main processing box. This would allow much beefier processing, longer battery life, and higher heat dissipation - while maintaining portability, lightening the weight/inertial load on the head and making the HMD unit more streamlined/stylish...
Alexvrb - Friday, March 4, 2016 - link
I'd rather it was either handled all onboard the Lens. The last thing I want is a Lens Backpack or BeltWare (tm). That would just be lame. Heck I wouldn't even really want wires connecting it to my smartphone. Otherwise I agree with what you said, this device is intended to travel.Plus, whatchu talkin' bout Willis? Latency IS an issue. Streaming to a little handheld tabletcontroller with 2D input is nothing like trying to process and stream GOBS of data in two directions in 3D. I mean when you try to use your hands to manipulate 3D virtual objects, it would have to capture and stream to the PC, which crunches what you're doing and sends the results back. That adds some serious latency and would result in a really horrible experience.
Nope, their engineers are on the right path. They'll continue to improve it, too. These are the early days of AR.
willis936 - Saturday, March 5, 2016 - link
By gobs of data you mean literally just the cameras and sensors from the hololens to the computer and the display output from the computer to the hololens? It's not impractical. It's not even that hard as Nintendo demonstrated. Idk why everyone who doesn't make embedded systems for children seem to have a hard time with it.Alexvrb - Saturday, March 5, 2016 - link
Multiple live feeds getting streamed, processed (like Kinect on crack), and then having the resulting visuals and sounds streamed back? In real time? You don't think you're adding delay? Yeah it's not just a question of raw average bandwidth. It's a question of reliability and latency for fairly large streams of data both ways. AR/VR experiences are much more sensitive to latency to begin with than your example.Even the Meta 2 guys (who went external hardware route) opted for wired. But I guess their engineers are actually all morons and you know better than they do.
willis936 - Sunday, March 6, 2016 - link
You know what adds delay? Computing. A 5W power budget isn't going to produce 90 fps even at their suggested 1996 resolution. Saying " it can't be done" is a cheap excuse because it can. Not at unrealistic bit rates but what they're promising with their power budget is unrealistic. Cabled is obviously better because nothing needs to be compressed but those smart designers probably never stopped and asked themselves if people would mind a cable hanging from their face.Alexvrb - Wednesday, March 9, 2016 - link
Man they should hire you because your Wii U controllertablet derived prototype is working so much better than anything their engineers can cook up.Murloc - Saturday, March 5, 2016 - link
how are you going to play pacman on the street or do virtual spear hunting if you're stuck in a room?Friendly0Fire - Saturday, March 5, 2016 - link
The WiiU's display isn't AR. You can't afford the wireless streaming latency, you'll make people sick.willis936 - Saturday, March 5, 2016 - link
Have you played with a wii u? It's sub 10 ms latency and I cannot feel it even when trying. That will make people sick is chugging down to 50 ms frame times because you're trying to play crysis on a toaster.marvdmartian - Monday, March 7, 2016 - link
...and the next Microsoft product to be hacked, and infected with a virus will be.....I sure hope they'll have sense enough not to charge that $3K price tag for people wanting to purchase one of these, when they come out. Of course, seeing the price of the Xbox units they have produced, I won't be very surprised to see a price of half that amount, for this.