Dangerous is still coming to the Oculus Rift

Those following virtual reality developments woke up to some surprising news this morning, with headlines blaring that Frontier's high-profile space sim Elite: Dangerous was dropping Oculus Rift support in favor of the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive. Those headlines were especially surprising considering that Elite: Dangerous had been one of the best showcases for the Oculus Rift development kits so far (just ask our own Lee Hutchinson).
It turns out that those initial headlines were wrong—or at the very least misleading. Elite: Dangerous is still planned for the Oculus Rift, as it has been all along. "This is not true. I wish people would check their facts," Elite CEO David Braben tweeted in response to one of those early headlines.

The source of the confusion seems to be a statement Frontier gave to Eurogamer, saying that "right now, we've chosen to focus on SteamVR. We haven't cut an exclusivity deal with any VR manufacturer, and we're still working with Oculus on Rift support."

Even though Frontier mentions the lack of exclusivity and continued work on Oculus support right there in the statement, Eurogamer's headline somehow became "Elite: Dangerous doesn’t officially support Oculus Rift..." That take was quickly parroted by numerous other outlets.

Frontier did stop supporting new versions of Oculus' dev kit SDK in October. At the time, though, the company said it was waiting for a final, stable development environment from Oculus rather than continually reworking the game for frequent pre-release revisions to the SDK. That final environment was released by Oculus in late December. Frontier reiterated this position today in posts on the Elite forums. "In case people are alarmed by the headline or confused on the details, we thought it best to reiterate what we've been saying since the release of the Oculus 0.6 SDK," Frontier Head of Community Management Zac Antonaci writes. "As quoted in the story, we are actively working with Oculus and will keep the community updated as soon as we are able to do so."

Further Reading

"I can confirm that there is no deal to release Elite on HTC first," Antonacci continues. "Valve released a stable driver before Oculus but we remain in close contact with Oculus."
Translation: Frontier is working on versions of Elite: Dangerous for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. Valve's headset is getting Frontier's immediate focus because it was the first to give the developer a finalized development platform to work on.

That's news in and of itself; it's surprising that the Rift version isn't a central concern for Frontier just over two months before the Rift will begin shipping to early-bird buyers. But it's not the potentially market-fragmenting news that was originally reported.

Asked for further comment on the story, a Frontier spokesperson told Ars "we’re not offering direct comment because the story isn’t true."

Oculus “Quill” Turns VR Painting Into Performance Art

Art doesn’t have to be an end product. Thanks to Oculus’ new internal creation tool, Quill, illustrators can draw in virtual reality and let audiences see their creations come to life stroke by stroke around them.

Quill works much like Tilt Brush, the VR painting app Google acquired. Using Oculus’ Touch controllers and motion cameras, Quill users can select different brushes and colors, swing their hands through the air, and each flourish appears instantly within the 3D canvas. Oculus has no plans to make Quill available to the public like Tilt Brush or its own sculpting tool Medium, at least not yet, and is reserving it for its own illustrators.

Oculus Story Studio built Quill to make its new VR short film Dear Angelica, where hazy watercolor drawings let a daughter explore the fantastical memories of her movie star mother. Oculus announced the film’s production at Sundance 2015 and it will be released later this year, but it’s now showing off a few scenes. Dear Angelica lets you watch flying fish, dragons, and a child’s bedroom be birthed into being one line at a time, reacting to where you look.

Even if Oculus doesn’t publicly release Quill, it could inspire a whole new medium of VR performance art by showing how to add dimensions of time and 3D space to live illustration. The order and cadence of Quill brushstrokes could let artists infuse suspense, humor, or crescendo into the journey of creation.

I sat down with the Oculus Story Studio team, including Wesley Allsbrook, the illustrator for Dear Angelica. She told me why Quill is such a leap forward for VR, and even gave me a crash course so I could paint a derpy little shark onto her 3D masterpiece.

Drawing Through Space And Time

“He made this tool for me to paint in space and time — something I’ve dreamt about all of my life” Allsbrook tells me. She’s referring to Inigo Quilez, a VFX supervisor for Oculus.

Allsbrook was tasked with drawing up the memories explored in Dear Angelica, but was frustrated trying to translate her 2D illustrations into VR. Over barbecue chicken wings one night, Quilez decided to build what Allsbrook needed as a hackathon project, and she named the tool after him. Here’s a video of her using it:

Oculus Story Studio’s technical founder Maxwell Planck explains Quill could assist with storyboarding, concepts, production design, and more. “Coming from computer animation at Pixar, we’d use a lot of illustrations to inform what we’d eventually build in 3D, but there were as a lot lost in translation.” He hints that after illustration, Oculus is trying to figure out the best way to handle cinematography elements like lighting and camera angles in VR. It might end up building an in-VR editing tool like Visionary VR.

Unfolding Around You

The experience of watching the Dear Angelica teaser and then drawing with Quill is overwhelming. The moment I stepped out of it, this was the stream of consciousness I typed out.

On Dear Angelica:

The genesis of image. Taking a journey to the output rather than simply arriving there. It feels participatory, responding to fill your gaze with motion. You choose whether to marvel at what’s already appeared or follow the brush strokes. You become spaceless and bodiless, as images spawn underneath and looking up at you while simultaneously inhabiting the more common planes. 

On Quill:

Creation becomes performance. It’s VR watercolor. There’s suddenly a relevance to what order I draw. jokes and feelings can emerge from the order, and you can build suspense through quickening the pace of visualization.

They’re both jaw-dropping. Imagine the infinite white construct of The Matrix. But in Dear Angelica, rather than filling with racks of guns, dainty streaks of color materialize around you. You can walk around and through the art as it emerges. If you want to inspect the tiny riders upon the dreamy dragon, you simply lean in close. Otherwise, you can spin in circles to see the latest brushstrokes emerge. While not overtly interactive like a video game, Dear Angelica adapts to your field of vision, dynamically moving the brushstroke action in front of you.

Director Saschka Unseld says Quill “makes sense with Dear Angelica on a story level because the main character is recalling memories. When I remember things, it usually starts with small, fuzzy details and then it grows.” That’s exactly how a few wisps of color evolve into drawings like this:

A drawing within Dear Angelica

In the second scene, the strokes start slow, filling in the desk and dresser around the bedroom, creating suspense. But as the music builds to a glorious crescendo, the strokes appear faster. The whole rooms springs to life as the bed and the main character Jessica are drawn into being in the center.

This is how Quill enables performance art. The artist’s choices of what to draw first impact the emotion that’s conveyed. Quill could produce humor by showing one figure character’s reaction to something you don’t see yet, then slowly drawing it in as a punchline. Or an artist could create tension or release by speeding up or slowing down the pace of their strokes.

Quill relies on Oculus’ Touch controllers

Creating In VR For VR

When it’s my turn to paint, I quickly discover the pallete, a cube that spawns from your left hand. Turning your wrist reveals the different sides, that include a color selector, brush sizes, opacity controls and more. It’s simple to select them with your right hand on the fly as you draw, giving a distinct feeling of dexterity. You can also grab whole portions of your drawing to re-angle or move them.

Dear Angelica illustrator Wesley Allsbrook

I draw the gray outline of my shark with a ribbon-esque brush with little depth. Then I switch to a sphere and enlarge it to fill in between the lines like a kid in a VR coloring book. Holding the cursor on any color on the canvas lets me instantly sample it. Drawing an exterior on the 3D figure is a bit tricky, as it’s easy to press too far and end up painting on the inside rather than the outside. It takes a few tries to get sharky’s toothy grin right.

I’m no artist, yet Quill was instantly intuitive. Making something worthy of a VR film will take skill and practice, but blunt sketches were easy just minutes after strapping in.

That’s why I see the rapid-prototyping potential of Quill as even more important that Dear Angelica. VR producers are constantly plagued with trying to develop scenes, characters, or action in 2D and then port them into 3D where everything works different. But with Quill, they could simply draw rough concepts of what they want, when and where. Finally, artists will be able to create in VR for VR.

Allsbrook has certainly become attached to the idea. She says she’s already asked Inigo, “If they fire me, do you think that I could have a build?”

Oculus VR Brings A New Reality To The Gaming Industry

After walking the floor of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, many gaming industry participants saw the virtual reality (VR) writing on the wall for the first time — and in a very realistic way. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) gaming has arrived, or gotten extremely close, with the official ship date for the Oculus Rift VR viewer set for March 28 and current pre-order acceptance now taking place.

Some issues remain in the technology and user experience, not to mention the price point. However, barring a major misstep by the Oculus unit of Facebook, none of these remain permanent obstacles to prevent a long-term VR trend from taking effect in 2016 (according to aJanuary 2016 report from SUPERDATA forecasting an install base of about 38 million VR gaming consumers by the end of the year and a July 2015 Business Insider estimate of VR headset shipments growing at a 99 percent CAGR between 2015 and 2020, reaching $30 billion by that end date).

Game console makers feel the heat from PC VR

While the Oculus Rift VR viewer existed in the purview of developers alone since June 2015, with this January’s announcement, the mainstream gaming public will now have an opportunity to experience VR firsthand. However, most of these potential gamers could remain on the sidelines unless they upgrade from Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox consoles to a fully decked-out PC. That’s unless the console makers get in the PC VR game.

“Nintendo either needs to adapt or be left behind,” Tim Lynch, CEO of Psychsoftpc, tells me. “Microsoft already has its own VR/AR HoloLens in beta now for developers. And since Xbox is essentially a PC-based system, it is better equipped to meet this.”

Actually, Nintendo is playing a wait-and-see game, according to Joanan Hernandez, CEO and founder of Mollejuo, an augmented reality (AR) company with a mobile app called Terra Icons.

“Microsoft is betting heavily on AR with HoloLens,” he says. “Thus, the only direct competition for Oculus is PlayStation VR and HTC Steam VR. There’s space for the three of them — Oculus, HTC, PlayStation — at least initially.”

In fact, HTC does a great job with physical-digital interactions, according to J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, a global research and advisory firm. “And it might have some advantages over Oculus in the features department,” he tells me. “For example, by tracking your movement throughout a room using base stations.”

Demand for VR technology looks good for console and mobile gaming platforms.

Expectations for VR exist at a high level. And with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets scheduled to hit retail in Q1 2016 and Sony PlayStation VR in Q2, demand for VR technology looks good for console and mobile gaming platforms. “This is positive for both our video game and tech brand businesses,” Eric Bright, senior director of merchandising at GameStop, tells me. “During our GameStop EXPO September 2015, we saw customers wait in long lines to experience the virtual reality demos Sony and HTC had with positive feedback.”

Price point and immersion

Some industry observers have questioned the $599 price point that Oculus chose for the formal introduction of the Rift, such as Mike Goodman, director of digital media strategies at Strategy Analytics, a consumer-focused business consulting firm.

“Oculus views the Rift as a ‘premium’ product and has priced it accordingly; however, there is ‘premium pricing’ and then there is pricing yourself out of the market,” Goodman tells me. “While there is a small segment of PC gamers who think nothing of dropping $2,300 on a high-end PC, $600 for the Oculus Rift plus an additional $1,500 for a PC capable of running Oculus VR games and entertainment is just too much for most of us. Considering Facebook spent roughly $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, they might want to rethink their premium price point.”

Rather than price, immersion will be the key factor in VR’s success.

— Olli Sinerma

However, others have seen that earlier breakthrough consumer electronics with elevated acquisition costs have gone on to perform well in the marketplace. It comes down to the value proposition of immersion VR versus price point.

“The future of VR will not be determined by its current cost,” Olli Sinerma, co-founder and project lead at Mindfield Games, developer of the forthcoming VR game P.O.L.L.L.E.N, tells me. “What Oculus can ship, it will sell, and others will develop cheaper alternatives like the already available Google Cardboard. Rather than price, immersion will be the key factor in VR’s success.”

Install base barrier

But immersion alone may not ensure that Oculus will surmount its seemingly lofty sales tag. Other barriers beside the console makers represent plausible pitfalls for Facebook’s VR gear maker. The install base of VR-capable PCs presents the largest hedgerow for Oculus to jump over.

“Oculus’s $599 price point was higher than many expected, but that’s not the core inhibitor for adoption — it’s having a PC that’s Oculus-ready,” says Gownder. “Aside from PC gamers — and not even all of them — very few people have PCs with the needed specifications. Most people would have to buy the Rift and a $1,000-plus PC to use the device.”

Concurring with that perspective, Goodman opines that the vast majority don’t have PCs that meet Oculus Rift’s minimum PC requirements to run VR games and entertainment. Overall, Gownder estimates that only 13 million PCs globally are currently compatible with the Oculus Rift.

Which comes first, VR hardware or software?

Seeing that the install base for VR-capable PCs remains at a low level, the market might not yet exist. The classic chicken-or-the-egg scenario pops into view. Without a critical mass of hardware to run VR software, who will write the games? And with a lack of first-person shooters, etc., who will build PCs and consoles with VR compatibility?

“When it comes to consumer entertainment, the content dilemma poses a significant hurdle for adoption,” Maurice Patel, industry strategist, media and entertainment at Autodesk, developer of 3D design software, tells me. “Many VR headset manufacturers try to kick-start content creation by funding their own productions through initiatives like Oculus Studio. However, it will take several iterations of hardware and successful production projects before the technology is mature enough to warrant generalized, large-scale production of VR content.”

Today, VR is an exciting, bleeding-edge technology for exploring new ways of telling stories, driving gameplay and communicating ideas. Where it will go from here is yours to dream.

Oculus Rift getting the most support from VR game developers

It's hard to make someone wearing VR goggles look cool, but this person pulls it off. 

Kyle Orland 

Further ReadingAs new, high-end virtual reality headsets from the likes of Oculus, Valve/HTC, and Sony prepare to hit the market in the coming months, potential buyers may rightly wonder which VR solution is most likely to get a critical mass of support from the game development community. A new survey released ahead of March's Game Developers Conference suggests that, so far, the Oculus Rift is drawing outsized interest from those developers. 



GDC's 2016 State of the Industry Report surveyed 2,000 professional developers who attended the popular annual trade show during the past three years, asking about their current work and interest in various virtual reality and augmented reality technologies (among other things). The Oculus Rift was by far the most popular VR headset among the surveyed developers, with 19 percent of respondents saying they were currently working on a game for the device. A number of Rift competitors were well behind in a statistical dead heat for second place among active VR developers: Samsung's GearVR at 8 percent of respondents, Google Cardboard at 7 percent, and HTC Vive and PlayStation VR at 6 percent each. 



The Rift's lead extends to respondents' thoughts about the platform for their next VR game project; 20 percent say it will be on the Rift, compared to 9 percent for PlayStation VR and 8 percent for the HTC Vive. 

Before Oculus backers get too excited, it's worth pointing out that the Rift was still beaten out in the survey by the 25 percent of respondents who said they "are not currently interested in developing for VR/AR headsets." A further 44 percent said they weren't currently working on VR or AR games at the moment but were at least open to the idea of working on VR games. 

The Rift's lead in active VR game development might also merely be an outgrowth of developers' generally larger familiarity with Oculus' headset. A full 77 percent of developers in the survey said they had tried the Oculus Rift, compared to just 46 percent for Google Cardboard, 31 percent for GearVR, 21 percent for PlayStation VR, and 19 percent for the HTC Vive. As developers become more aware of the Rift's competition, those platforms may begin to see more developers actively working on them. 

Overall, the survey shows increasing numbers of game developers think consumer-grade virtual reality is more than a quickly passing fad this time around. A full 75 percent of respondents said that VR/AR "is a long-term sustainable business to be in," and 86 percent said such headsets will be in at least 10 percent of US households by 2030. That doesn't mean those developers see VR taking over the entire gaming world, though: only 27 percent of respondents said they thought virtual reality headsets would ever surpass the roughly 40 percent of US households that currently have a traditional video game console. 

EXPERIENCE REALITY

Surgeon Simulator is all about struggling. It’s about the fight to save someone’s life while also coming to blows with a control scheme that doesn’t want you to succeed. It’s about picking up a saw and possessing the mental dexterity to position it over the patient and carefully lower it into a rib cage without destroying vital organs and killing him. Then again, it’s also about losing and laughing at your failure as lungs leap out of bodies and pieces of bone get lost down the back. It’s about taking game design in the other direction and the glorious results that can come from doing so. 

Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is not about these things. 

Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality screenshot 

This is the natural progression of the demo that developer Bossa Studios first revealed alongside the HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) back in March 2015. Surgeon Simulator has long been a supporter of the Oculus Rift, but here VR support becomes the focus and is bolstered by the latest breakthroughs in the position-tracked SteamVR controllers. Now it’s a full title, set to arrive on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive which at once completely changes the game and yet (ironically) keeps its heart intact. 

With position-tracked controllers, the Surgeon Simulator experience is no longer concerned with tying your fingers in knots and dropping sharp tools inside a mess of intestines. Instead, operations become quite possible, as you rely on the controller’s (in this case Oculus Touch) incredibly precise tracking to pick up an object and use it in an entirely natural way. It can actually prove to be quite a liberating experience going from, say, the PlayStation 4 version of the title in which the buttons, tilt-sensing and analogue sticks of the DualShock 4 are used to confuse you to these impressive controllers that provide unparalleled accuracy. 

But here’s why the comedy still works so well: you might have the right tools both in and out of VR, but you still don’t know what you’re doing, especially in the case of operating on an alien. That’s exactly what VRFocus got to try, having to remove a spherical organ from deep inside an extraterrestrial being. You pick up an axe, you know how to use it, and you take it to a ribcage like a mad doctor; it’s no less fun than it was when it released years back thanks to VR. In fact it’s even better. 

Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality screenshot 

It also helps that the challenge is still piled on elsewhere. You’re working against a timer here, and it adds a sense of desperation to the proceedings that make mistakes and rush jobs inevitable. Combined with the brilliant zero gravity effect, it’s not long before bits of alien are floating through the air along with tools and, amusingly, the body’s own hands. It’s one of the most convincing VR experiences yet to have to bat away a pair of thing scaly fingers that pesteringly insist on floating just in front of your face as you try to get the job done. 

Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is radically different from its predecessor, then, and yet it keeps the tone and hilarity intact. You might expect the slapstick nature of this beloved franchise to serve more as an excuse as to why it isn’t a polished piece of entertainment, but this isn’t the case whatsoever here. Surgeon Simulator has always been a great showcase for the diversity of videogames and the laughter they can provide. Now it’s about to do the same for virtual reality.

PREVIEW: EVE: VALKYRIE SINGLE-PLAYER

With EVE: Valkyrie confirmed not only as one of the launch titles for the upcoming Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD), but also offered as a free pre-order bonus for early adopters, CCP Games is keen to show off the latest build of its space combat simulator at every opportunity. After a detailed hands-on with the team-based multiplayer modes last month, a new build has been brought to CES showcasing the single-player gameplay. 



A mode referred to as ‘Convoy’, the intent implied is an escort mission. However, this isn’t a simple case of staying beside a defenceless AI ship as it poodles along at a snails’ pace attracting every enemy bullet and laser blast in the area. While at first the player is informed to stay close to the ship they are intended to protect, once the enemies arrive the same freedom is granted as in that of the multiplayer gameplay modes. 

The visual design is most certainly one aiming for spectacle. A leisurely cruise soon gets interrupted as dozens of enemy drop ships burst onto the scene, spewing from within a seemingly endless stream of small fighter ships. Luckily, these AI ships are ill-prepared to take on the might of their human-controlled adversary, and what ensues is a 5-minutes killstreak designed solely for empowering the player. 

Unlike the multiplayer build VRFocus recently got hands-on with, there is no choice of ship class or loadout in the build. Obviously designed with the intention of running a lot of people through it in a short space of time, this new vertical slice is all about getting into the action, making use of the longstanding headlook-based missile system and the various other abilities the basic fighter ship is equipped with. In that same regard, the mission ends abruptly as a large Death Star-alike ship enters the map and charges up a massive blast, ending the player’s run regardless of whether or not they’ve sustained any damage up to that point. 



Despite being a very quick and brutal taste of EVE: Valkyrie‘s single-player gameplay, this beginner-level mission was very much enjoyable. It showcased a number of the highlights of fast-paced action EVE: Valkyrie will offer: tight controls, detailed weapon systems, aggressive combat, high quality visuals. The lack of depth certainly doesn’t hinder this latest build as a showfloor showcase of what EVE: Valkyrie will offer the Oculus Rift early adopters in 2 months from now. 

Exactly where this mission fits into the final videogame is not currently known. CCP Games has stated time-and-time-again thatEVE: Valkyrie is not intended to be a single-player videogame, but yet are offering a small slice of the experience as such to be a training ground for the multiplayer gameplay. While it would be easy to assume that this mission is a piece of that content, it’s more than likely to have been adapted specifically for the CES showcase. It’s only a matter of months until Oculus Rift early adopters will get to see exactly how deep the single-player content will go in the final build of EVE: Valkyrie. 

ASCAPE VR ARRIVES ON IOS

There’re a number of virtual reality (VR) apps that allow users to view various countries and cities across the world as an interactive experience. Ascape VR launched its first tour back in August with, You Are Here: San Francisco on Android. Now the company has announced its app is available for iOS devices.  

The new iOS version has been built from the ground up for Apple’s platform, featuring over 45 destinations that span six continents. These include, Hawaii, Uganda, North Korea, India, Botswana, New York City and many more. All the tours feature immersive high quality 360-degree video with positional sound to ensure the best experience.  


 

The app is compatible with all current Google Cardboard style head-mounted displays (HMDs), like Zeiss VR ONE, DoDo Case VR, Homido and MergeVR. While the app is best used with a mobile headset, users can use the software without one. 

And also caters for 360-degree video filmmakers too. The company will accept submissions through its website for travel and virtual tourism based films, which producers can earn money from on a per download basis. 

ZEISS VR ONE trays up with Galaxy S6

The optics masters at Zeiss have revealed that they're expanding compatibility of their ZEISS VR ONE virtual reality headset to include the Samsung Galaxy S6. This means the Samsung GearVR won't be the only device to work with the Galaxy S6 for virtual reality with more than the bare minimum VR action - Google Cardboard, that is. The availability of Galaxy S6 compatibility is added here with a new tray that slides in to the VR ONE from the side. This is just the latest in a tray line that allows compatibility for a number of devices for the ZEISS VR ONE.  

ZEISS VR ONE

The ZEISS VR ONE mobile VR headset allows devices with display sizes between 4.7-inches and 5.2-inches to enter the virtual reality environment. Using a wide variety of apps available in app stores today - as well as the ZEISS VR portal - users are able to bring their smartphone into a new realm of possibilities. 

ABOVE: That's a generic "smartphone" device in a tray with the VR ONE. The finalized Galaxy S6 tray will fit the Galaxy S6 precisely. 

According to ZEISS, "The high-quality ZEISS lenses ensure that the VR headset always provide the right optics for virtually all users." 

"Complicated manual configuration, e.g. interpupillary distance, is not required. Plus the ZEISS VR ONE is also suitable for eyeglass wearers." 

We'll see about that when we get our hands on this headset in the near future. Stay tuned for such a hands-on experience. 

This headset will cost users $129.00 USD with one tray. Ordering through ZEISS' VRONE.US portal online has you choosing one of several trays from the outset: iPhone 6, Galaxy S5, or Galaxy S6. Individual trays can also be purchased separately for $9.90 USD.

 


ALSO: One place where ZEISS excels - outside of their camera lens business - is in keeping glass clean. They've got a "Lens cleaning swab for ZEISS VR ONE" that allows you to get in under the front - clean it up, keep your eyes undistracted by dust! 

Top VR headsets of 2015

 HTC Vive 

Virtual reality (VR) looks like it is ready, as a technology, to finally make it to the mainstream. With the help of great smartphone technology, VR headsets are now common – due mainly to the push of Google to make the technology more accessible to the market. Now, this holiday season of 2015, we break down for you the best VR headsets you can get for your money. Take note, though, that most of these will require a compatible smartphone for you to enjoy the technology to the fullest.  


 

With the HTC Vive headset passing through FAA recently, we might finally get a peek at what is possibly the best VR headset that will be available on the market. Most tech pundits have been really impressed with the VR experience that the HTC Vive gives, this in cooperation with gaming outfit Valve. The design of the headset is bulky but gives you impressive features. Motion sensors and a very clear display has made this headset the favorite of most tech blogs, saying that this just might be the future of gaming.Samsung Gear VR 

 

Made with Oculus technology, the Samsung Gear VR is not the highest quality VR experience around – but it is one of the easiest to get up and running. The original Gear VR only supported the Galaxy Note 4, but it has since been updated to accommodate Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Particularly when partnered with the Galaxy S6 – while it is a smaller screen – the pixel density of the flagship phone (577ppi) gives you the best viewing experience on the Gear VR. Get yours for USD$199 – steep, but that’s the “buy in” price for new technology.

Carl Zeiss VR One 

 

Like the Gear VR, the Carl Zeiss VR One uses a smartphone as its display – but the advantage here is that it will take an iPhone 6 or a Galaxy S5, giving you more flexibility if you happen to own that particular iOS device. You will be constrained somewhat by the amount of content and apps available for the VR One, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. The plus side, you can get the Carl Zeiss VR One at half the price of the Gear VR – at USD$99.00.

Homido VR 

 

If you want to dabble in VR and get the experience at the level of Google Cardboard (which is, for cheap) – Homido VR is probably the best Google Cardboard headset you can get. It upgrades your Google Cardboard experience so that you don’t have to hold the VR mechanism with your hands, and it will accept any 5-inch Android smartphone with a 1080p resolution like the Nexus 5 or the LG G4. You can get the Homido VR for a measly USD$80, which is a small price to pay to enjoy VR technology. It might not be the best around, but it certainly keeps you enjoying the VR tech.

Google Cardboard 

 

The essence of the Google Cardboard project is to make VR technology available to the masses, and that is exactly what it has done. It has made the headset “open source” – that is, if you have enough DIY skills, you can actually make the headset yourself. If you don’t want to do that, a number of manufacturers are selling pre-made Google Cardboard headsets for cheap as well. But the real kick of this device is that if you have the will and the skills (and an Android phone for display), you can actually jump on the VR bandwagon for free. 

Review: The Carl Zeiss VR ONE

The promise of truly immersive, virtual reality headsets for the masses is just around the corner with Oculus Rift launching its consumer version in 2016. In the meantime, a number of alternative solutions have been introduced including Google’s Cardboard, Samsung’s GearVR, and Carl Zeiss’ VR ONE headset. We’ll be taking a look at the latter to see if one of the world’s greatest optics manufacturers has what it takes to jump into the virtual reality space.  


 

I typically do not write reviews while dizzy or while experiencing skull piercing headaches; however, that is what I must do today. I have spent the last few minutes with the Carl Zeiss VR ONE headset in one last attempt to try and enjoy the virtual world. This is not my first encounter with the VR ONE, but I do hope it is my last. 

 

Putting Carl Zeiss aside, I have also played with Samsung’s GearVR headset in the past. As soon as I heard the company was offering an affordable version of virtual reality, I ran down to my local electronics store to test the display unit. It was exactly what I expected: a low-resolution version of Oculus Rift. Low resolution does not mean boring – I wanted a GearVR as soon as I tried it. However, my iPhone was not compatible and I didn’t fancy shelling out $200 for a temporary solution. 

 

When the folks at Carl Zeiss announced that they would be producing a consumer product for Apple and Android users alike, I was ecstatic. Even better, the VR ONE would only cost $129 and promised to be compatible with a number of readily available applications in the App Store. Naturally, I jumped on the opportunity to take the headset for a test drive. I was ready to experience 360-degree videos, immersive panoramas, and of course, exciting games. 

 

The Zeiss VR ONE showed up in subtle packaging that was quickly thrown aside to access what was inside: a Zeiss VR ONE headset and tray modeled for the current iPhone 6. In addition to the headset itself, you will have to purchase a ‘tray’ that holds your device. Available trays and supported devices include the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, S6, Nexus 5, and LG G3. 

 

The design of the VR ONE is exactly what you would expect from Carl Zeiss: high quality and sturdy. Some have looked down upon the headset for using plastic, but it helps to keep the weight down and doesn’t feel like it would crack or chip easily. The design is minimal and futuristic featuring a monochrome color design minus the small Carl Zeiss logo. 

I took out my iPhone and launched the App Store to grab the applications that Zeiss promised. Only three were present: an augmented reality experience, a virtual cinema, and a media launcher. I immediately downloaded all three and assumed that the majority of goodies would be within the media launcher. All applications were free to download. 

 

Once everything was installed, I fired up the VR ONE Media Launcher, slid the smartphone tray into the headset, and strapped myself into the unit. That is the exact moment all my high hopes began to die. Everything I viewed through the headset was extremely blurry and I could instantly feel my brain rejecting the experience. Luckily, headsets like these usually include an adjustment option for iris differences; this exact model, however, did not. 

 

Zeiss decided to ditch the adjustable lenses and aim for a ‘one size fits all’ experience. Sadly, one size does not fit all. In fact, my experience was not isolated. I had four other individuals try out the Zeiss VR ONE headset with half of them confirming that they felt dizzy or sick after the experience. Despite this fact, I continued my attempt in reviewing the included applications. 

 

The headset was extremely comfortable despite the strain the lenses were having on my eyes. Wonderful padding, along with three straps, kept the device firmly planted in place without digging into my skull. Many headsets tend to place weight upon the bridge of the nose, but the VR ONE did not have this issue. 

 

The augmented reality application provided by Zeiss was interesting for a few minutes as a tech demo but quickly lost its appeal. The Cinema app was also very fascinating, but due to the blurry quality one would have to wonder why they wouldn’t just watch directly on their smartphone. As for the Media Launcher, it merely linked to a few recommended applications from the App Store. 

 

It is also worth mentioning that Carl Zeiss did not choose to integrate Google Cardboard’s magnetic button, so a number of the available virtual reality applications on the App Store are incompatible with the unit. We love minimalism, but not when it cuts out major functionality. 

 

Needless to say, my reviewing was cut short when I had to remove the headset and pop some Tylenol to feel a bit better. My disappointment for this headset doesn’t seem to be expressible in words. I had used virtual reality headsets with smartphones before and had wonderfully enjoyable experiences, but the VR ONE simply was not one of those headsets.