Google Unveils $79 Daydream View VR Headset, Attempts To Reduce VR's Complexity (theverge.com) 43
With its Cardboard, Google showed the world (and other companies) how people can experience VR without spending a premium for it. Today, on the sidelines of Pixel announcements, Google outlined its next step in the nascent technology category. Enter Daydream View VR, a $79 headset that is more comfortable and friendly, and with more capabilities. The Daydream VR comes with a Daydream controller, which has three-degrees-of-freedom. The Verge adds: The goal of Daydream View is to make a VR headset people can get their phones into and out of within a few seconds. To that end, it's revealed a few new features. When you put an unlocked phone on the front panel, an NFC chip will tell it to launch Daydream, after which you can close the panel and start using the headset. When you latch it shut with the elastic loop on the top, a pair of rubber nubs on the face will help the phone detect its position and automatically center the image. While we've already seen the basic Daydream controller design, Google is now showing it off as an actual piece of hardware. The controller has one home button and one menu button, plus a clickable trackpad on the end, volume buttons on one side, and internal sensors that can detect motion -- it can't tell your absolute position in space like Oculus Touch or the HTC Vive, but it can sense which direction it's pointing, and loosely follow your hand. When you're not using it, the controller fits into a slot on the inside of the headset, so the whole device is self-contained.Here's the official blogpost with more details.
Pixel Only? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, it's really $79 + a new phone + potentially switching providers.
Google definitely made VR available to everyone with this one!
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"Currently, Daydream is only working on Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL phones, but the View is supposed to hold any phone that ends up supporting the platform "
They made the API available is what I take away from that. So if it isn't supporting other phones, maybe ask your vendor of choice why not.
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I'm interpreting it as a software problem instead of a hardware one. I imagine it will already do everything but support the handheld remote and the NFC sensor with every phone out there, and the remote should be a quick driver write away. I have a knock-off Cardboard that everything works on my G3 except the magnetic click sensor for example.
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VR is at least 2-3 years from being truly mainstream, so I can see why google wouldn't be concerned about supporting current devices. 'Course the problem is that they'll cancel it in a couple years because it hasn't dominated the market yet.
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It's likely that the gyros in most current phones are not accurate enough for VR to work acceptably. They were never specced out for something so sensitive.
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And by the time Daydream's certification requirements, specs, API, etc. is available for OEMs and they have a chance to release products for it, Google will drop it and move on to some other shit.
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And by the time Daydream's certification requirements, specs, API, etc. is available for OEMs and they have a chance to release products for it, Google will drop it and move on to some other shit.
To be fair, though Google are fairly harsh about killing off their own products, they've been pretty consistent about supporting and developing Android stuff atleast.
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They love killing products and APIs people use. Remember Reader? Latitude? Useful Google Voice? Hangouts with merged SMS conversations?
The fact that they also kill of shit like Wave and Buzz doesn't matter.
As for Android, remember SD support? Remember informative permission descriptions? Remember being able to root without Google's "SafetyNet" helping apps block rooted devices? Remember useful file browsers that didn't need root access?
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OK, I'll give you the permission descriptions - that's annoying, but SD card support is still in the OS (and continues to get better in new releases). You can't claim they're killing a feature just because they haven't released a subsequent product that contains it. The other things also come down to security fixes - and that's a damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don't problem.
Latitude still exists as part of Google+ (I know, ew, but things change). And yes some stuff we like gets cancelled. Such is the inte
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No, not Pixel only. Pixel is just the first compatible phone. So, if you want it today then yes, you have to buy a Pixel phone (Daydream VR is included with the phone). No need to switch providers, you can buy an unlocked Pixel. Or, if you don't want to spend more than $79, then you have to be patient until a your next phone which will likely be compatible as well.
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or instead of being patient, just buy one of the existing products on the market that will work with today's devices and forget this turd
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just buy one of the existing products on the market that will work with today's devices
You mean all of the proprietary solutions like the Gear and the Rift?
Where you can choose between being locked to one hardware vendor or one notoriously capricious platform?
forget this turd
I rather like the idea of an open VR API, and I look forward to seeing how this develops.
But your opinion is good too. I heard you can polish turds, after all, so there is some hope for you.
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You mean all of the proprietary solutions like the Gear and the Rift?
Where you can choose between being locked to one hardware vendor or one notoriously capricious platform?
This isn't a big deal right now because all HMDs do the same thing and translation shims are not all that difficult to implement.
What we desperately need is more competition in the HMD space with multiple vendors pushing optics, tracking, and VR specific display technologies.
I rather like the idea of an open VR API, and I look forward to seeing how this develops.
But your opinion is good too. I heard you can polish turds, after all, so there is some hope for you.
Google is a little late. There is already a well architected solution introduced some 15 years ago with broad industry support: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Or we can have companies like Facebook, Google and HTC reinvent piecemea
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Google definitely made VR available to everyone with this one!
So, can we all run out buy it at a local retailer on Black Friday ? This is better than Tickle me Elmo!! I want to meet Triumph the Insult Dog in the lines Walmart!
Buy! Buy! Buy!
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You can still buy the unlocked version, or get it through project fi (google's cell carrier), just like any nexus phone. Partnering with Verizon is more of a marketing ploy than anything
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If someone demands my lunch money in bitcoins we'll complete the loop.
Enough SLASHVERTISEMENT for today (Score:1)
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Re: Enough SLASHVERTISEMENT for today (Score:2)
Plenty such devices on market already (Score:1)
Google were first out with the Cardboard concept that actually used real cardboard for low cost, but other manufacturers have been producing "proper" headsets using Cardboard's approach for a while now.
In the UK, the Farnell Group company CPC [farnell.com] offers several brands of this type of headset, and the cheapest costs under 10 UK pounds. Google's a bit late to this market, and overpriced.
Please stop toying around with phones (Score:1)
VR needs high resolution, like 4K minimum per eye. A headset with tracking is a nice novelty, but the effect wears off quickly without adequate image quality.
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Oculus Rift is 461 PPI. Pixel phone is 441 PPI.
Note that 4K is a pixel count, not a resolution. A 4K 24" monitor has a different resolution than a 4K 50" monitor.
Comparing HMD PPI to smart phone displays is worthless because subpixels have a significant impact on quality in VR. Most cell phones cheese out on this shit for marketing reasons knowing full well that users are incapable of seeing a difference anyway.
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A headset with tracking is a nice novelty, but the effect wears off quickly without adequate image quality.
As someone who has tried both 6DOF and 3DOF HMDs ... 3DOF = puke fest. The moment you translate without the scene moving accordingly is a recipe for instant nausea. 6DOF isn't a gimmick or novelty it is an absolute requirement.
Not better than Rift or Vive so no point. (Score:1)
The already low bar for passible VR has been set. Anyone failing to meet or exceed is DOA as far as I'm concerned.
Other than a portable "big screen" for watching 2D content on the go I'm not sure what the point of any of this is other than giving VR in general a bad reputation with vintage graphics, crummy optics, inferior tracking and phones that run their batteries down and overheat after minutes of use.
no they unvieled cardboard pro (Score:3)
This is a phone holder, nothing more. you have been able to get these for years now.
Come on google, give us Glass 2.0 or throw your weight behind real VR.
Attaching your phone to your face? (Score:2)
Why does your phone need to be strapped into this device that then gets wrapped around your face? Cant the two communicate via Wifi or even Bluetooth? Or must it have USB connectivity? Seems silly. Googles got smart folks, so I figure its for a good reason, I just can't imagine what that reason is.