Xbox and Oculus: A Partnership Designed To Blow Your Mind

[Guest]

During Oculus' live presentation showing off the retail version of Rift, the company announced a surprising partnership with Microsoft.

Xbox and Oculus: A Partnership Designed To Blow Your Mind : Read more

 

[NightLight]

shut up and take my money, and my virtual money too!

 

[skit75]

Xboculus - Christmas 2015

 

[blabh]

Streaming isn't going to work. It's crap on teh playstation tv from the ps4, its crap on the nvidia game stream to a rp2, 1080p 30fps. It's going to be crap on this too.

 

[hasten]

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

 

[cats_Paw]

Am I the only one who thinks this is way overhyped?
Microsoft has a tendency to screw up .
Still, once the dust settles we will see what remains.

 

[eklipz330]

This, my friends, are the fruits of competitive pressure. I can't imagine the pressure one would experience with an xbox connected to a pc to an oculus, but here's to surprises!

 

[colson79]

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

This deal doesn't even compare to Morpheus. Morpheus will connect directly to the PS4 an do VR. This Oculus thing with microsoft will need an Xbox to stream the game to a high end PC. Then you need to be sitting in front of the PC using an Xbox controller connected to the PC. And then your Xbox game isn't even in VR, you just see a virtual theater with your game playing on the theater screen. This is a stupid gimmick if I have ever seen one.

 

[Puiucs]

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

This deal doesn't even compare to Morpheus. Morpheus will connect directly to the PS4 an do VR. This Oculus thing with microsoft will need an Xbox to stream the game to a high end PC. Then you need to be sitting in front of the PC using an Xbox controller connected to the PC. And then your Xbox game isn't even in VR, you just see a virtual theater with your game playing on the theater screen. This is a stupid gimmick if I have ever seen one.

to play games from the xbox on a PC you don't need a high end PC because the console is doing most of the work. the only problem i find with this is the lag, visual artifacts and other problems that other streaming devices have.

 

[quilciri]

The Xbone....that can't even run demanding games at 1080p...is going to run them on the 1440 Rift screen...at the 75+ fps recommended for a good VR experience?

Wasn't this the math they used prior to the housing bubble collapse?

 

[dstarr3]

This is exciting from just a PC gaming perspective, as well. I plan to buy a Rift on launch, and now I got an X-Box controller with it, as well. Awesome!

 

[scolaner]

"Xboculus," that's perfect, haha!

 

[wirefire99]

I generally agree that the environment required for proper streaming of video games is not there yet. There are many problems with "streaming" but the 2 big ones are the video latency and input lag. Both of these in a VR environment have been known to cause motion sickness, not to mention a poor gaming experience.

It is great in a lab, where you have one wireless AP connected to one wireless device and have it shielded from all other wireless traffic, but in the real world like my house where I can see 20+ wireless LANs on any given day it is not possible to have the stability and latency required for "streaming" gameplay. I have a PS4 and a PSVita and I cannot EVER get the streaming to work in my house (and I am an IT service technician. I know how you set the darn thing up.) It may work for a minute or two but in general the gameplay has stuttering, delayed reactions to my movements, and looks poor when compared to its native counterpart.

 

[colson79]

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

This deal doesn't even compare to Morpheus. Morpheus will connect directly to the PS4 an do VR. This Oculus thing with microsoft will need an Xbox to stream the game to a high end PC. Then you need to be sitting in front of the PC using an Xbox controller connected to the PC. And then your Xbox game isn't even in VR, you just see a virtual theater with your game playing on the theater screen. This is a stupid gimmick if I have ever seen one.

to play games from the xbox on a PC you don't need a high end PC because the console is doing most of the work. the only problem i find with this is the lag, visual artifacts and other problems that other streaming devices have.

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

This deal doesn't even compare to Morpheus. Morpheus will connect directly to the PS4 an do VR. This Oculus thing with microsoft will need an Xbox to stream the game to a high end PC. Then you need to be sitting in front of the PC using an Xbox controller connected to the PC. And then your Xbox game isn't even in VR, you just see a virtual theater with your game playing on the theater screen. This is a stupid gimmick if I have ever seen one.

to play games from the xbox on a PC you don't need a high end PC because the console is doing most of the work. the only problem i find with this is the lag, visual artifacts and other problems that other streaming devices have.

The requirements for the Oculus or pretty high, so if you are going to buy it your going to need a pretty good PC, and it doesn't matter how much of the load the Xbox is doing because the PC has to create the virtural theater. The Oculus requrements are:
NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

 

[biohazrdfear]

Streaming isn't going to work. It's crap on teh playstation tv from the ps4, its crap on the nvidia game stream to a rp2, 1080p 30fps. It's going to be crap on this too.

Sounds like you have a slow internet connection. I'm able to stream my games with no problem to my Nvidia Shield. And Nvidia just announced that they will support 60FPS streaming to their Shield devices. I don't use Sony or Microsoft so I don't have any knowhow about the Playstation TV, but my Shield has been phenomenal. I'll soon be getting the Shield TV as well. Streaming will be WONDERFUL on the Shield TV due to direct ethernet.

 

[Quixit]

Streaming isn't going to work. It's crap on teh playstation tv from the ps4, its crap on the nvidia game stream to a rp2, 1080p 30fps. It's going to be crap on this too.

I've been using Steam streaming @ 1080p and found it works pretty well. I can get 60fps in a lot of games, granted I'm using 1Gbps ethernet, but it works pretty well so it's certainly possible.

 

[computerguy72]

Sony, your move. Morpheus better be awesome!

This deal doesn't even compare to Morpheus. Morpheus will connect directly to the PS4 an do VR. This Oculus thing with microsoft will need an Xbox to stream the game to a high end PC. Then you need to be sitting in front of the PC using an Xbox controller connected to the PC. And then your Xbox game isn't even in VR, you just see a virtual theater with your game playing on the theater screen. This is a stupid gimmick if I have ever seen one.

VR system requirements are really high. XBox can often not achieve 30fps at 1080p and the PS4 can often barely do it. PS4 is roughly 18% the pixel pushing power that are the recommended system requirement for the Oculus. To avoid a very uncomfortable gaming experience you need about 90FPS.
*So for the Morpheus on a PS4 it will have to ***dramatically lower the number of vertices, texture size and much, much more to get to 90FPS. So the graphics on the PS4 via the Morpheus will be... Almost Colecovision'ish... I think you will be disappointed to say the least.

 

[jaber2]

Cool, now I have one more thing to toss in trash when I get it.

 

[blabh]

to Reiterate, I have gigaether and I had 1 switch between my rp2 & i7&970GTX gamestream and the stream was broken. I removed the 1 switch and things got almost perfect 30fps, except it wasn't perfect. The playstation TV works fine but its a blurred mess in order to create its illusion. Don't be a newb and downvote if you've never tried. And if you have, why don't i see you solving the problems on github? Just read teh shitty nvidia shield streaming review on this site, toms didn't get anywhere near 1080p 60fps. Streaming is going to be CRAP. I'm going to be first in line to download win 10 and get an oculus so don't think i'm just hating.

 

[somebodyspecial]

to Reiterate, I have gigaether and I had 1 switch between my rp2 & i7&970GTX gamestream and the stream was broken. I removed the 1 switch and things got almost perfect 30fps, except it wasn't perfect. The playstation TV works fine but its a blurred mess in order to create its illusion. Don't be a newb and downvote if you've never tried. And if you have, why don't i see you solving the problems on github? Just read teh shitty nvidia shield streaming review on this site, toms didn't get anywhere near 1080p 60fps. Streaming is going to be CRAP. I'm going to be first in line to download win 10 and get an oculus so don't think i'm just hating.

Toms didn't even have a 30mbit connection...LOL. He was getting 23...Nuff said. Did you read the review? Other reviews that had the appropriate connection don't read like this (hilarious someone reviews a product without proper requirements, but whatever toms). NV says 50 for 1080p60 so no surprise they crapped out some when someone was ALSO using netflix. Why would YOU dog someone who says it works fine on his shield with a connection that SHOULD work?

http://www.pcgamer.com/turning-the-raspberry-pi-2-into-a-35-streaming-pc/
Perhaps you just don't know what you're doing, then again I just don't think rp2 (we talking the raspberry pi 2 here?) is even capable of handling the job shield TV is built for. You're comparing a $35 hobby toy to a $200 console with FAR more power at it's hands...LOL. For example:

"at the moment I still haven’t found a way to get my Xbox controller to play nicely with the current build. I am a little concerned as to whether that would help or hinder the game streaming. The Raspberry Pi 2 shares bandwidth between the Ethernet and the USB ports—if the controller is continually hammering the port with analogue input data there’s a chance it will turn the stream into a laggy mess."

A machine NOT built for what you're trying to do...Shield devices, used AS INTENDED (with requirements met) will do better than your crap rp2. It would appear it has problems with anything over 720p and even then who knows due to it just not being built for this purpose. Quit making me laugh. That isn't to say I think this partnership is golden (rather stupid IMHO), just saying your comment on shield is dumb at best, and based on a review that fully admits it didn't even meet requirements to get the job done. The reviewer shouldn't have really expected more than 720p to work right in his setup...ROFL.

 

[vaughn2k]

So it will be a VR and a Hololens for Windows 10..

 

[Puiucs]

The requirements for the Oculus or pretty high, so if you are going to buy it your going to need a pretty good PC, and it doesn't matter how much of the load the Xbox is doing because the PC has to create the virtural theater. The Oculus requrements are:
NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

you are misunderstanding something. these requirements are for playing the big games on PC with it (like eve valk). you can do other things on the rift without any problem on less powerful systems. (watching a video for example is much less taxing)
try researching what the oculus rift headset needs and does. google is a powerful tool.

 

[falchard]

This is a pretty good move and good news for PC gamers. Microsoft has been a company that puts its eggs in every basket possible, the sole exception is the Xbox. Fully supporting Oculus instead of competing gives the technology a chance.
The other move by Microsoft here is the inclusion of an Xbox controller. It cements the companies hold on PC input devices. From a developers standpoint, you either use xInput or rawInput APIs when developing PC applications. xInput only supports the Xbox controller, where rawInput supports anything. Developers will still use rawInput for keyboard and mouse, but they will be less likely to use it for controller input opting for xInput instead if they major market share is there.

 

[oxxfatelostxxo]

Streaming isn't going to work. It's crap on teh playstation tv from the ps4, its crap on the nvidia game stream to a rp2, 1080p 30fps. It's going to be crap on this too.

I've been using Steam streaming @ 1080p and found it works pretty well. I can get 60fps in a lot of games, granted I'm using 1Gbps ethernet, but it works pretty well so it's certainly possible.

There is the key: your PC did the streaming, and a modern PC has a lot more processing power than a console system. I tried streaming AC:black flag with my dual core and it was getting its butt whooped with graphics up high. However my new system runs it flawlessly.

Its all gonna come down to how efficient they make the streaming program and if the console has enough oomph... def not the best way to do it.

Just go build us a little add in card for a PC that allows xbox one games to run on the PC without a emulator. =P now that I would buy in a heartbeat even if they wanted near xbox one prices.

 

[blackbit75]

It is an intelligent move for Microsoft, that benefits Oculus Rift, and in general the VR development. It's been long, since computers played with VR. I remember 90's, 80's maybe, Tv programs talking about the devolment of this technology.

It seems that here is an oportunity to join efforts to make succeed VR, and convert VR to something adapted to and assimiled by society. The success it is like when computers found mouses for OS and we found that it was better the experience than without them. Nobody had to convince us that it was a cool thing.

There have been half suceed in 3D TV for example. At last we don't see every film in 3D, even if we could. ¿Why? Not sure. May be it is cheaper the old way. May be people prefer to see without the glasses. May be it must evolve, and grown up the tech. May be is a niche for the media, and will never absorb every content. May be could die in the future. Who knows it. Like nintendo 3Ds. A cool idea, but, how many people turned it into a 2D device?

Well, hope it's going to be a success for both companies.

Cheers