Oculus VR is an American technology company founded by Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov and Nate Mitchell in July 2012 in Irvine, California, now based in Menlo Park. It specializes in virtual reality hardware and software.
In April 2012, Luckey announced Rift, a virtual reality headset designed for video games, and launched a Kickstarter campaign in August to make virtual reality headsets available to developers. The campaign proved successful and generated $ 2.4 million, ten times the original $ 250,000 target. Two pre-production models were released to the developers: Oculus VR DK1 (Development Kit 1) and Oculus VR DK2 (Development Kit 2). Consumer products released on March 28, 2016 with a new design that incorporates a special VR display, position audio, and infrared tracking system.
In March 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to acquire Oculus VR for US $ 2.3 billion in cash and stock. In 2015, Oculus VR acquired Surreal Vision, a British startup focusing on 3D reconstruction and mixed reality, stating that it is possible for Oculus VR to develop products with the concept of telepresence.
The company also partnered with Samsung to develop Samsung Gear VR in November 2015, for Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Video Oculus VR
Histori
Pendirian
As a head-mounted designer at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Palmer Luckey gained the reputation of owning the world's largest private HMD collection, and is the old moderator of the Meant to be Seen (MTBS) discussion forum.
Through the MTBS forum, Palmer developed the idea of ​​creating a new head-mounted display that is more effective than what is currently on the market, and is not expensive for gamers. To develop new products, Luckey founded Oculus VR with co-founders Scaleform Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov, Nate Mitchell and Andrew Scott Reisse.
Incidentally, John Carmack of id Software has done his own research on HMD and happened to the development of Palmer as a fellow member of MTBS. After taking samples of the starting unit, Carmack liked Luckey's prototype and shortly before Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 (E3), id Software announced that their upcoming update version of Doom 3 BFG Edition , will be compatible with the display unit mounted on the head.
During the convention, Carmack introduced a channel-mounted screen based on the Oculus Rift Palmer prototype, which runs Carmack's own software. This unit features high-speed IMU and 5.6 inches (14 cm) LCD, visible through a double lens positioned above the eye to provide 90 degree horizontal and 110 degree vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective. Carmack later abandoned Software id when he was hired as Oculus VR Chief Technology Officer.
Funding for Oculus Rift and company
Following the prototype demonstration of Rift Oculus at E3 in June 2012, on August 1, 2012, the company announced a Kickstarter campaign to further develop the product. Oculus announces that Oculus Rift's "dev kit" version will be awarded as a gift to supporters who promise $ 300 or more on Kickstarter, with the expected delivery date in December 2012 (though they will not actually ship it until March 2013).
There is also a limited run of 100 prototype Rift kits that have not been assembled for appointments over $ 275 to be shipped a month earlier. Both versions are meant to include Doom 3 BFG Edition , but Rift support in the game is not ready yet, so to fix it they include a choice of discount vouchers for Steam or Oculus store. Within four hours of the announcement, Oculus secured the desired amount of US $ 250,000, and in less than 36 hours, the campaign had surpassed $ 1 million in funding, eventually ending up with $ 2,437,429.
On December 12, 2013, Marc Andreessen joined the company board when his company, Andreessen Horowitz, led the $ 75 million Series B funding. In total, Oculus VR has collected $ 91 million with $ 2.4 million collected through crowdfunding.
Facebook acquisition and chief scientist
Although Oculus VR has just released its headset development prototype, on March 25, 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will acquire Oculus VR for US $ 2 billion, pending approval from regulators. The deal includes $ 400 million in cash and 23.1 million Facebook common shares, valued at $ 1.6 billion, and an additional $ 300 million assuming Facebook reaches a certain milestone. This move is ridiculed by some supporters who feel the acquisition contradicts an independent crowdfunding ideology.
Many Kickstarter supporters and game industry figures, such as Minecraft developer Markus Persson, have criticized Oculus VR's sale to Facebook. On March 28, 2014, it was announced that Michael Abrash had joined the company as Chief Scientist.
In January 2015, Oculus VR Headquarters has been moved from Irvine, California to Menlo Park, California, where Facebook's Head Office is also located. Oculus has stated that this step is for their employees to be closer to Silicon Valley.
Oculus Story Studio
In 2014, Oculus VR founded Oculus Story Studio to pioneer content creation for the VR cinema. The studio is headed by Creative Director Saschka Unseld, a six year old Pixar veteran. The studio was first launched publicly at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. They launched three VR films - Dear Angelica, Henry, and Lost - before closing in May 2017.
Partnership with Samsung
In 2014, Samsung partnered with Oculus to develop the VR Gear, following the success of the Rift being developed.
During 2014-15, two Innovation Editions (development versions of Gear VR mainly sold to developers for research and a single understanding) were developed, manufactured, and sold. The device used by the Innovator Edition is Note 4.
On November 20, 2015, the consumer edition of Gear VR was released to the public, and sold out during the first shipment. This device supports Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, and then, Samsung Galaxy S7, and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
Acquisition of Surreal Vision
In May 2015, Oculus acquired the British company Surreal Vision, a company based on the reconstruction of 3D scene mapping and augmented reality. News reports that Oculus and Surreal Vision can create "mixed reality" technology in Oculus products, similar to the upcoming HMD, Microsoft HoloLens. They reported that Oculus, with the help of Surreal, would make possible telepresence.
Acquisition Eye Targets
On December 28, 2016, the media reported that Facebook Inc., Oculus's parent company, had acquired Danish startup The Eye Tribe for an undisclosed amount. The company provides eye tracking technology that is used to enhance the virtual reality user experience and has developed a technology that only renders at the highest resolution where users search. Lower resolution is used farther from the visual field center, reducing computational time.
ZeniMax Media demands
After the acquisition of Oculus VR Facebook, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Software id and company John Carmack earlier, sought legal action against Oculus, accusing the company of intellectual property theft associated with Oculus Rift due to Carmack's transition from id to Oculus. This case, ZeniMax v. Oculus , was heard at a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and their verdict was reached in February 2017, discovering that Carmack had taken the code from ZeniMax and used it in developing the Oculus Rift software, violating his non-disclosure agreement with ZeniMax, and Oculus's use of the code is considered copyright infringement. ZeniMax was awarded $ 500 million in the verdict, and both ZeniMax and Oculus were seeking further court action.
Maps Oculus VR
Products
Samsung Gear VR
In November 2015 Oculus VR and Samsung released the Samsung Gear VR.
Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality screen mounted on the head. Software, especially video games, must be specifically programmed to use Rift. The developer preorder kit is available for $ 300 through the Oculus VR website starting September 26, 2012. The kit is sold at a rate of 4-5 per minute for the first day, before slowing down throughout the week. In March 2014 at GDC, Oculus announced the upcoming Devkit 2 (DK2) which is expected to begin shipping in July 2014.
In January 2016 at CES 2016, Oculus announced it would begin sending Oculus Rift headsets to customers in 20 countries on March 28, and cost $ 599. In January 2016, as a token of appreciation, Oculus announced it would provide 6,855 people participating in the Kickstarter project 2012 Oculus Rift special edition one day before new product goes on sale to the public on March 28, 2016.
The Oculus Touch movement controller is officially launched on December 6, 2016 for $ 199. The touch gesture controls have 53 game options at launch. Oculus Rift Earphone also starts shipping on December 6, 2016 for $ 49.
On October 11, 2017, Oculus reduced the price of the Rift Touch package to $ 399 in the US.
Oculus Go
On October 11, 2017 Oculus announced a stand-alone VR Headset called "Oculus Go", which was later released without prior announcement (other than the release window in the first half of 2018) on May 1, 2018 during the Facebook F8 conference. Oculus developed Oculus Go in partnership with Qualcomm, China's largest mobile designer SOC, and Xiaomi, China's largest smartphone maker. Oculus Go consists of a stand-alone headset with 3 degrees of freedom tracking and controller. Oculus Go has two storage configurations available, with 32GB of internal storage for $ 199 USD or 64GB of internal storage for $ 249 USD. The headset has no headphones, but chooses to have two spatial audio speakers built into the headstrap, but the headset has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, allowing the use of stand-alone headphones. User interface is available in 25 languages.
Oculus Studios
Oculus Studios is a division of Oculus that focuses on funding, publishing and providing technical advice to third-party studios to create games and experiences for Oculus Rift. Facebook promises to invest over $ 500 million USD at Oculus Studios for the game.
Game published by Oculus Studios (Rift Only) Incomplete)
References
External links
- Official website
- Official Oculus developer forum
- "Tuscany Demo" using AstoundSound on TrueAudio on YouTube - Oculus VR special version "Tuscany Demo" featuring AstoundSound from GenAudio with calculations transferred to AMD TrueAudio .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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