I’m really glad I have an IPD of 64 mm. If you’re < 58 or > 70 then the software IPD adjust thing is problematic. Ironically it was something criticized on the WMR low end stuff (Lenovo etc), and the Oculus Quest actually has an IPD mechanical adjuster.
I do wonder why they didn’t just take the guts of the Quest and ‘PC’ it by taking stuff out for some nicer Rift S features. Like they said, the Lenovo partnership was really about getting this to market ASAP.
This.
I was expecting the S to build on the Quest…
I think everybody was.
Has anyone else stopped buying games from the Oculus store? If it isn’t offered on Steam, I won’t buy it.
Yes. Ok, I had $15 store credit that was about to expire, so I bought Angry Birds. But other than that, I’m future proofing by shopping on Steam.
I checked last week, as got an email my store credit was expiring (which was nice of Oculus) and had $105 in there (3 redeem codes and that $15 of 'sorry we had an outage). I passed it on to my son, who covets the Rift like a dog with a bone, and he bought a bunch of things to use it up. I think out of what he bought he said that this was the most fun, even if a bit short:
I still have an unused Viveport code for a month to use as well. Time is the main issue… 
I bought Lone Echo with the apology rebate. Personally I am disappointed with the S announcement. The controllers are as important to me as the headset itself. I like the desktop sensors because they seem to give the Rift an edge on controller battery life. That’s worth sticking with what I have. The O+ experience instilled me with a real fear of upgrading without near-certainty that I will be happy with the upgrade.
It sounds a lot like they gave up investing their time on the PC side, and just licensed another very different product as a Rift replacement. It looks like they chose the Oculus ecosystem to be much more like console gaming, and let the the PC market to be lead by SteamVR or, most probably, WMR.
I haven’t thought of it that way but this sounds plausible. And maybe it’s a good move. The Quest is their own system. A peripheral attached to a PC is really nothing more than another piece of junk littering Microsoft’s lawn.
I wonder if they probably knew that with a higher resolution only people with very expensive graphics cards would have a chance to run games smoothly.
But those make up a very small part of the market, so basically they looked at which resolution people with a 500 bucks graphics card (instead of a 1000+ bucks one) could still run decently.
The Rift S looks like a decent mid level VR device to me. Better than the Rift, relatively cheap, neither as demanding nor as expensive as the HP set for example.
With space games (Elite Dangerous etc) it will be interesting if the choice of an LED panel will cause issues with grey/blacks.
One interesting thing is that they stopped selling the Rift completely today. You can’t buy it anymore:
I heard they were losing money on the hardware, and the store wasn’t do as well as they expected, so maybe with this Lenovo partnership they see it as either a holding over period until new tech arrives or just a way to leave the PC market and concentrate on the mobile Quest direction.
I don’t think Facebook were ever shy about the fact that they saw the future of VR as a stand-alone non-PC device. It was just a happy accident that the PC stuff could run niche stuff like flight sims, but I don’t think it was anything they saw as interesting.
Stand alone VR is probably a good idea if you want a large customer base… But those buyers probably won’t pay up the same chunk of green as a flightsimmer hooked on VR.
So, I kind of get the effort in stand alone VR.
I also think that their PC VR efforts make sense. If you’re aming for the present market, why should they go for a resolution that most users won’t be able to run?
So, the Oculus/FB efforts makes sense, to me.
But I put in months of my own spare time to build stick grips for maybe 100 flightsimmers, so I’m probably not the guy you should call for great PC hardware advice… 
The happier way to think about it (hey, it’s a Friday etc!) is that they still are going to do the ‘cutting edge’ stuff on the PC, but that the timing isn’t right.
Things like reliable eye-tracking for foveated rendering, enough people with RTX GPUs for variable shading, the demos of varifocal displays (so we can focus on things < 6 feet) are all still happening and are being actively researched/worked on, but they aren’t happening in this product refresh’s timeframe.
They treat the PC as the ‘high-end lab’ (and we sim enthusiasts benefit, albeit in small numbers) and then the commodization of these improvements happens for the mobile VR folk. Everyone wins as VR grows.
The true ‘Rift 2’ will be 2022 or 2021, and this is just more a ‘S’ refresh like they said.
It is good that there is competition and alternatives though, as while I want all those nice new things I also don’t want to wait 3 more years to play with better toys. It might be a huge waste of money to buy these ‘interim’ steps, but I’m not in it to save money afterall
Yeah…and hey, if we can get 3 million FaceBookers running around with VR, playing Beat Saber or gazing at Kim K’s huge butt in VR…the more widely the technology will be adopted, and the more likely we are to see hardware improvements that will filter UP to the PC requirements. I’m just glad we are making progress. The O+ was a fair step forward for me personally, and I’d probably preorder an HP if it were available today. This is my hobby and I’m gonna spend money on it. It could be worse, I could own a sailboat right @Hangar200?
Man I hope they release the HP R, the Samsung O+, and the Rift S in Europe so I actually have a choice.
Right now the choice is basically only between Vive and Rift S.
I think I read the HP would do Europe again, as it is sold via the Microsoft Store.
The v1 headsets are in Europe, or rather this HP one is in the UK:
Samsung with the O+ were the only one to make the weird decision to be US/Asia only.
too late for 1st gen VR, it is already overpriced - like discounted 379.99 pounds ?? ha !!
From cca 1 year old yt video
edit: or was it always overpriced in EU !?
Correct…and tomorrow it gets rechristened …add a bottle of champaign to the cost.
Here’s something funny. There has been zero marketing on Oculus Home. Nothing. Plenty of software bundles and game marketing but nothing about the S. If you are proud of a new product wouldn’t there be some desire to share the news with existing fans?
