Tmmrn
Joined 14 years ago
Karma
161
Submissions
124
Member since
Feb 26
Recent submissions
Comment · 9 years ago
Comment · 10 years ago
Yes, but this server application was only introduced with the DK2 and the 0.4.x SDK which was delivered after the facebook acquisition. Whether they would have hold back the source code without facebook - who the hell knows?
Comment · 10 years ago
The user will have to have steam running and steamvr installed.
The developers only link to the libopenvr_api library found on github and can distribute their game including this library on whatever store they like.
It's certainly not a good situation that the user still needs steam, but the games themselves can really be sold and distributed anywhere.
Comment · 10 years ago
Unfortunately it doesn't matter much - The Vive will likely soon get Linux support, but all the Oculus games will remain exclusive to Windows, because that's the only operating system Oculus supports - even though most of the popular game engines used for VR do have a Linux version.
Comment · 10 years ago
Before the facebook acquisition you could download the source code for the SDK and it had cross platform support.
After Facebook: Closed Source, Windows-only.
Comment · 10 years ago
> You don't really want your sister scrolling through the news with you when you're on the train. But you might be totally happy to have her sitting next to you in a flowery meadow in VR while you both catch up on your news feed.
You mean when she's not on the train too? That's not going to happen anytime soon, because mobile networks are far too crappy. On public transport in a major city in germany I regularly get latencies of 60+ seconds (yes, seconds) and a bandwidth of a few kilobytes/s max. There are also spots where you don't get any connection at all or you get a connection but it's so congested that you can't even make a DNS request that doesn't time out. Yes, I'm still talking about the middle of a big city. That's on the Eplus/O2 network.
Comment · 10 years ago
You could... return it? I thought they were very clear it wasn't refundable and there were some discussions in the forums about it with some negative quotes from the customer support...
> I won't send them more money unless they're going to support Linux.
Careful, they already said they support linux with the dk2 and we know how that went. Don't rely on what they say they "are going to do". Only buy it when they demonstrate complete and fully working linux support, not earlier.
Comment · 10 years ago
The problem is that most AAA games that are benchmarked on Linux vs Windows are 3rd party ports for a tiny minority among the customers. They put as little resources as possible into the ports, that's just enough to deliver something that is well playable.
Once you can compare an engine/game that has been optimized for OpenGL with equal effort than for D3D, then you can make a fair comparison.
But it's true, OpenGL drivers are often worse. Not just on Linux. Look at what happened when RAGE came out. Presumably that's also only because drivers for D3D are optimized and hacked on much, much more because there are so many AAA games that use it.
That there are already cases where AAA games run at times better on Linux than on Windows, even through a wrapper, is a very, very good sign for the performance to come if only a little more effort is put into the drivers and ports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZYIa-6UooM
That said, Unity and Unreal are the engines that matter most for VR right now. Both have linux versions. Unity 5.3 was recently released and they have updated their OpenGL backend significantly. I've not seen benchmarks yet...
Comment · 10 years ago
I have no enthusiasm left for Oculus.
> But if you're browsing HN because you're a hacker / developer / dreamer you are crazy to discount how substantial this release is (especially if you haven't TRIED it yet!).
I bought a Rift DK2, because they said that they support linux. Their linux support was never complete and always pretty bad, especially mesa support was always buggy. So I haven't seen much in the DK2 until I sold it after oculus dropped linux support.
Enthusiasm for VR is still there, but for oculus? They didn't deliver what they promised for their DK2. The only good thing is that - unlike with the DK2 - linux users know for sure not to buy it now.
Maybe Valve will get it right with Steam OS.
Comment · 11 years ago
What's wrong with 3d rendered avatars? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zP0E2atshw
Comment · 11 years ago
> Our mission isn’t to connect a billion people, it’s to connect everyone in the world.
I wonder whether he is aware that Oculus has been moving away from that goal for a while now. They are now a company that works with Microsoft, AMD and nvidia on Windows-exclusive APIs and have dropped support for all other operating systems.
That's why all "social" VR applications for the Oculus Rift are a joke. Sure, you can get together in VR. But only when you use windows and only with other windows users. Zuckerberg says he wants to connect everyone. Right now Oculus is working on connecting Windows users exclusively. I wonder what Zuckerberg thinks about his newly acquired company acting this way.
Comment · 11 years ago
It fits then that Oculus partnered with Microsoft, cut out support for all operating systems except windows, cut back their source code releases and are working with Microsoft, AMD and nvidia on windows-exclusive proprietary (and as of now secret NDA'ed) APIs.
I think a world in which technology is a black box that is controlled by corporations by means of proprietary software WAS Bill Gates' vision for Microsoft.
Comment · 11 years ago
Alternatively "Oculus Rift SDK gets tied to proprietary windows-only APIs".
Comment · 12 years ago
> It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
- Edsger W. Dijkstra
Their Linux support sucked anyway. They only got their unity plugin working on Linux actually one day before they published this blog post. They never supported unreal engine on linux even though they said they were working on it before the DK2 even came out.
A Valve rep has said in an interview before the Vive release that they intended to have Linux support on launch. The preorders showed SteamOS support, but they changed it right before the actual launch: https://i.imgur.com/MA2377D.png
Valve has given a demonstration with SteamVR on Linux, but they have yet to release anything to the public.
The OSVR SDK and the OSVR HDK2 work on Linux. But only with their core SDK. Their unity plugin and their unreal engine plugin still do not work on Linux. So far I haven't found an application with OSVR SDK support that works on linux.