Valve is working with Vive and AMD to seriously bring VR to Linux. The big thing that I'm eager to see is a VR desktop environment. Linux has always been ahead of the game in terms of desktop features. If Valve and AMD can bring VR and Vulkan to a functioning level on Linux, then we could see some really crazy innovations. Nvidia is basically dead in the water on Linux at this point imo. They don't have an open source driver to compete with AMDGPU, they have screen tearing out the ass, no Wayland, and so on. The main obstacle to progress is Oculus/Facebook.
I bought a PSVR, it's actually pretty cool, and will likely be hacked for PC use very quickly (USB interface seems pretty open, and video's just HDMI), but VR desktops will never work because the resolution is shit. I do think there are professional uses for it, but text is generally pretty awful. Might be usable once we have 5K mobile displays or so.
Tyler Thomas
This is obviously going to be solved with the next models.
Bentley Cox
First of all OSVR on GNU/Linux is a complete disaster, to give you an idea of just how terrible it is there's built in Microsoft telemetry and no real support for anything that isn't Windows;
As for Oculus they've dropped support for anything that isn't Windows. The licensing terms for their 'open source' SDK are so draconian that many FLOSS projects like Blender or Dolphin have licensing issues preventing them from supporting it and are forced to do unofficial workarounds
For these reasons I foresee the Vive becoming the HMD of choice for FLOSS. The lighthouse tracking system is technically superior and their GNU/Linux support isn't fictitious. It's not perfect but it's decent enough and compared to the competition they seem to have their shit together.
Alexander Nelson
wow, that is a whole lot of shit. it's so infuriating that these companies are trying to turn headsets into their personal gaming consoles. VR goggles need to be like computer monitors: totally interchangeable. I hope the gaymurfags catch on and stop supporting Oculus.
Noah Rivera
Is >>>/vir/ dead? It almost had 3000 posts.
That's very unlikely. Even if they double the PPI it's not enough for reading text comfortably that close to your eyes. Plus small screens aren't seeing such dramatic increases in resolution as in the last decade. Had smartwatches and other wearables caught on it might have happened but now they're focused on color gamut and low power/production cost.
The way the optics currently work it simulates a focal point around 1.4 meters away, which is how far the average person walks in a second. You'd have to use different lenses for a close up virtual desktop and most high end HMDs are built in clean rooms.
From what I've seen the reddit community around VR has mostly switched to the Vive for this very reason. Paying developers to make games exclusive to the Oculus was the last straw.
Caleb Jackson
vr is a meme and tech industry buzzword.
fuck off.
vr was created to enslave the normies. there are beneficial uses of technology and there are harmful uses. vr as currently implemented is harmful. it's used to pacify, and for escapism - rather than to enhance man's reach and power over nature, or ability to create or improve himself.
the most practical non-harmful applications of vr today would be for simulation / training and possibly certain teleoperation needs where an element of realism beyond just a camera display may be beneficial.
Nathan Perez
All I read out of that.
Ryder Wilson
Then maybe a year from now their driver will have caught up to where intel's was 6 months ago :^)
Isaac Harris
intel's driver is... useless for VR or 3d in general?
Jack Johnson
Still the only way to get Vulkan on a free OS right now
Easton Taylor
nope, vulkan for amd is already getting merged into mesa. it's not the official amd solution, but it already works.
Luke Harris
I couldn't agree more, let's say you want to make something for VR and publish it to general public. Here are your options
Even when not looking at this from a FLOSS or 'bread and circuses' perspectives it's simply enslavement. The platforms you're allowed to publish on or the tools required to create content ensures there's no real freedom of expression. Everything is locked down. No real creativity or innovation.
Compare that to the internet and personal web pages or BBS 20 years ago that anyone could create and host whatever they wanted without issue. People from all walks of life were web mistresses and masters who owned their own servers and wrote their own HTML. In the VR realm you're a serf sharecropping on a feudal Lord's land using rented equipment.
James Gonzalez
Pics of it running an actual workload (Dolphin/M64-ParaLLEl) or it didn't happen
Adam Hernandez
But Oculus Rift is open source. I mean, you can see the code. I thought the freetards here supported that. is the Oculus SDK license even OSI-approved?
VR is literally just a method of displaying images to people. The whole point of this thread is to talk about libre VR, rather than proprietary. Take your fedora-tipping bullshit elsewhere.
Tyler Young
Being able to see the source code is better than not being able to do that, but it's not enough. Open source is a lot more than that. The practical requirements are almost equivalent to those of free (libre) software. In a nutshell, you need to be able to use it however you want, modify it however you want, and distribute it however you want.
You can't use the SDK with any "commercial" products or hardware without special permission, you have to send back all your changes to Oculus, and a few other rules apply that make it proprietary and not open source. It's better than nothing, but not acceptable.
It's like saying "they leave one arm instead of amputating all your limbs, why aren't you supporting them"?
Caleb Perez
...
Josiah Campbell
I'm looking forward to tinkering with Vive on Debian. Also, people bringing up Oculus need to
1) Stop inhaling Zuckerberg's dick 2) Read the first sentence of the OP
Owen Ramirez
Enjoy waiting two years to get the drivers in your repos.
Easton Collins
Enjoy having Microsoft and Facebook literally watch you masturbating over VR and have that data recorded in voluminous detail under their control.
Daniel Moore
I didn't know that was a consequence of using Arch, Gentoo, Fedora, Manjaro/AntergOS, Tumbleweed, etc.
Henry Garcia
I don't give a fuck about VR. They should be working to make fucking usable video drivers instead.
Austin Carter
what in the fuck is wrong with people
Bentley Morales
lol kid
Jack King
For those doubting this you can't use Oculus without an internet connection.
>The headset currently requires Oculus's software suite to operate, which headset wearers must use to load games and find more software in the online Oculus Store. The software requires an Internet-connected process called OVRServer_x64, which sends and receives data even when you're not in a game, and the privacy policy spells out at least some of what's included in those transmissions.
I'm sure Valve is just as bad when it comes to data mining but at least it can be used offline.
But Oculus is 100% open source, if the OP didn't want it discussed in here maybe he should have heeded Stallman's warning that the term 'open source' would become a vacuous buzzword and stop proliferating it.
