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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours – all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Oculus VR and Palmer Luckey being sued by CTO's former employer (update)
Oculus VR and co-founder Palmer Luckey are being sued by Zenimax Media and id Software, the former employer of Oculus VR Chief Technical Officer John Carmack. The suit claims that Luckey and Oculus VR, which worked with Carmack while he was still employed by id Software (owned by Zenimax Media), stole and misappropriated "trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology." The suit was filed in Texas (where id Software is located), and follows up on legal claims Zenimax was already making publicly. For its part, Oculus VR denied Zenimax's previous claims in a followup response, which stated, "There is not a line of Zenimax code or any of its technology in any Oculus products." Carmack openly worked with Luckey in the lead up to the Oculus Rift's tremendously successful Kickstarter campaign, and he eventually joined the company full-time last year.
Virtual reality's biggest enemy is bad virtual reality, says Oculus founder
Palmer Luckey can hardly take a step without being stopped for pictures, questions or just friendly handshakes. I'm not surprised; we're at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Expo, and Luckey just closed a speculative panel on the future of VR. Here, he's a celebrity, and with good reason -- the Expo floor is littered with Oculus headgear, almost without competition. As we make our way to a more quiet area, Luckey tells me that his hardware isn't enough. "What we have that's impressing all these hardcore gamers and technology enthusiasts isn't good enough to be a consumer product."
Norway's VR test helps soldiers see through armored vehicles
There's a good reason why games like Battlefield rarely offer a realistic view of what it's like to steer armored vehicles: actual drivers have to either look through tiny portholes or risk getting shot. The Norwegian Army may not be so restricted in the future, though. It's testing a system from MakingView that uses Oculus Rift VR helmets to help soldiers glimpse through a vehicle's protective plating. The headset is linked to a set of cameras that, like a recent drone experiment, lets drivers simply look in a given direction to see what's outside.
Oculus denies John Carmack stole VR tech from his former employer
When word came out last week that Oculus VR Chief Technology Officer John Carmack was being accused by his former employer of stealing intellectual property for use in his new gig, the nascent Facebook subsidiary only issued a cursory statement: "It's unfortunate, but when there's this type of transaction, people come out of the woodwork with ridiculous and absurd claims. We intend to vigorously defend Oculus and its investors to the fullest extent." The company's expanding on that statement today, and pushing back on the claims made by Zenimax.
John Carmack's former employer claims he stole tech for Oculus VR when he left
The man who co-created Doom, who co-founded id Software, and who later left id Software for Oculus VR, is being accused by his former employer of taking intellectual property with him to Oculus VR. Lawyers for id Software's parent company, Zenimax Media, sent claims to Oculus VR stating, "It was only through the concerted efforts of Mr. Carmack, using technology developed over many years at, and owned by, ZeniMax, that [Oculus founder] Mr. Luckey was able to transform his garage-based pipe dream into a working reality." The Wall Street Journal obtained copies of the correspondence. Oculus denies Zenimax's claim. The company provided the following statement: "It's unfortunate, but when there's this type of transaction, people come out of the woodwork with ridiculous and absurd claims. We intend to vigorously defend Oculus and its investors to the fullest extent." Update: John Carmack took to Twitter to respond, where he said, "No work I have ever done has been patented. Zenimax owns the code that I wrote, but they don't own VR."
Hear Palmer Luckey explain why Oculus VR joined Facebook
Last month's news that Facebook bought startup Oculus VR for $2 billion spurred many loud and often furious reactions from gamers and especially those who participated in the project's initial Kickstarter. If you're among those wondering what's next for Oculus and haven't been convinced by the written words of founder Palmer Luckey and others (including John Carmack and Sony's Shuhei Yoshida), perhaps hearing them will make a difference. Reviewed.com tracked down Luckey at the PAX East event today and got him on camera talking about Oculus and Facebook. As he's expressed before, Luckey says the plan is to "promote the long-term adoption of virtual reality, not short-term financial returns." In his words "the games industry is the only industry that's really well equipped to build interactive immersive 3D worlds," so don't expect the focus of Oculus to suddenly change now that it's in cahoots with Zuckerberg and company. So, after a couple of weeks to think about it -- and the addition of notable former Valve / iD software employee Mike Abrash to the Oculus team -- how do you feel about the acquisition now? (Iribe/Luckey Photo:Ana Venegas/The Orange County Register/ZUMAPRESS.com)
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida loves that Facebook bought Oculus, says it helps validate PlayStation's efforts
"I woke up that morning and saw the announcement," Shuhei Yoshida tells us, remembering the day Facebook acquired Oculus VR. "And I was like, yeah!" Yoshida laughs and thrusts his arms in the air like an excited child. "For me, it was a validation for VR." As head of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, virtual reality (and Sony's Project Morpheus) has become important to Yoshida. He wants to see it, as a medium, succeed.
Oculus VR's John Carmack sees bright future in Facebook deal
When Facebook said it would buy Oculus VR, many eyes turned to Oculus CTO John Carmack. Would Quake's co-creator be happy with the deal when Facebook sees virtual reality gaming as just the beginning? Thankfully, it looks like he's staying put. In a response to jitters about the acquisition, Carmack says that Facebook appears to "get the Big Picture" -- it understands the impact of VR and will help the technology grow. The executive also isn't worried about the social network's privacy issues. While he believes that privacy is important, he also sees data mining as a valuable tool for successful companies. The statements won't completely assuage fears that the acquisition could lead Oculus astray, but Carmack clearly believes that the company is still headed in the right direction.
Valve's VR guru jumps ship to become Oculus' head scientist
As it turns out, not everyone is bummed that Oculus VR will soon fall into Facebook's gaping maw. Valve's Michael Abrash -- one of the most notable names in the company's ambitious VR group -- just announced that he's joined Oculus as its new chief scientist. After long stints as a developer (he worked on Quake and Windows NT, among other things) and technical writer, Gabe Newell finally convinced Abrash to join Valve in 2011. It didn't take long for him to start dishing out the good stuff, either. Since then, he's been tackling the difficulties of making VR truly work... and trying to deal with the very real possibility that VR would never be as pervasive or as meaningful as it could be. But now? He's confident that VR can become "the Final Platform -- the platform to end all platforms." And it's all because of Facebook. "Facebook's acquisition of Oculus means that VR is going to happen in all its glory," Abrash wrote. "The resources and long-term commitment that Facebook brings gives Oculus the runway it needs to solve the hard problems of VR -- and some of them are hard indeed." While we may never get that Oculus-friendly version of Minecraft, at least one brilliant guy thinks we're on the verge of something great. We'll soon see how right he is.
Can Oculus survive the Facebook effect?
The response was swift, and almost universally negative. Within minutes of Facebook's announcement that it was acquiring Oculus VR for $2 billion, the internet had begun to mobilize against the deal. From Twitter to Reddit to our own forums, the message from early commenters was clear: This was bad for Oculus, bad for virtual reality, bad for gaming -- just bad. Part of this was the normal reaction to any popular, independent startup being bought out by a big company. There's a natural -- sometimes justified -- suspicion that the acquirer will ruin everything that made the small company successful, and the onus is on the newly merged business to prove otherwise. In Oculus' case, however, there was more than the typical anti-acquisition backlash. Facebook has become known as a company that is built around one thing: monetizing your social interactions. On Facebook, you're the product, with everything you do sold to advertisers, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. As Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson said in a tweet announcing that he had scrapped plans for a version of the hugely popular game optimized for Oculus' head-mounted display, "Facebook creeps me out."
Facebook is buying Oculus VR for $2 billion, plans to 'unlock new worlds for all of us'
Mark Zuckerberg is following up his Whatsapp buy with another big acquisition: virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2 billion in stock and cash (curiously, news of the talks may have leaked on Reddit a month ago). In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg talks at length about how Facebook plans to make Oculus a platform for "completely new kinds of experiences," and gaming is only the first one. Examples he suggests include sitting courtside at a big game, studying in a classroom with other students virtually or getting a face to face doctor consultation from anywhere. The idea that virtual reality may be the next big thing gained more credibility last week when Sony showed off a prototype VR headset for developers, Project Morpheus. That also means Oculus is suddenly staring down a massive competitor -- with others likely on the way -- and now it has the resources of the social network to rely on.
The new Oculus Rift costs $350 and this is what it's like
If you're still not paying attention to Oculus VR and the Rift headset -- the folks at the forefront of virtual reality's recent rebirth -- what are you doing? Okay, we'll forgive you. It's still just a development kit after all, and even the latest prototype ("Crystal Cove") is far from the expected final product. Today though, you've got one less excuse to stay in the dark: The second Oculus Rift development kit is available for pre-order; it costs $350; and it's really, really impressive. That's two reallys.
Oculus VR exits first virtual reality collective
Just five days ago we told you about the Immersive Technology Alliance, a group of companies that are working on virtual reality coming together to support the burgeoning medium. At the time, we told you that Oculus VR -- the company behind the Oculus Rift -- was part of the group. That said, the announcement was notoriously missing any official statement from the Oculus folks. As it turns out, that's because Oculus VR isn't actually part of the group. Oculus offered Engadget this statement: "There was confusion on March 13 about whether Oculus was a member of the Immersive Technology Alliance. We've spoken with the ITA's leadership and clarified that we are not, and have not been, a member of the group. We appreciate the ITA moving so quickly to correct their website and media to reflect this." We've checked with the other members of the group, many of which responded to confirm their participation in the ITA, including EA and Technical Illusions. During the group's first meeting today at GDC 2014, ITA Executive Director Neil Schneider kicked things off with a lengthy response to Oculus dropping support, heavily tinged with passive-aggressive criticism.
This is the week virtual reality goes wide
After attending the first day of the annual Game Developers Conference, the only games I played were in virtual reality. In the following four days, many, many more VR experiences will happen. Some will be good, some will be great, some will be not-so-great. One thing's for sure: when this week's over, the VR landscape will look very different.
Oculus VR, EA, Avegant and others join to form 'Immersive Technology Alliance'
Well, this is certainly a motley crew: a variety of companies in the virtual reality space are teaming up to create the "Immersive Technology Alliance." The group is an evolution of an earlier consortium, The Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Alliance -- apparently the world of 3D gaming no longer needs their support? Anyway, the renamed group includes major game players like EA as well as little teams like Technical Illusions (of CastAR fame), as well as the company most responsible for re-introducing VR, Oculus VR. The ITA list includes all the players you'd expect, but also has a few outliers in Epson and Panasonic; Sony isn't part of the ITA just yet, but that may change sooner than later. The group's first public appearance takes place next week at San Francisco's annual Game Developers Conference and we'll be on-hand to document the shindig. Also, to ask Panasonic what it's doing there. Head below for an example of immersive technology (an Engadget editor punching virtual sharks, obviously) and the full list of members (thus far).
Oculus ends Rift dev kit sales citing parts supply issues
As forewarned, Oculus VR is officially ending sales of its first-run development kit. "We're quickly running out of stock for the Rift development kit, so we've shut down sales in most regions," a note from Oculus says. Specifically, the issue comes from certain pieces of the headset "no longer being manufactured." That said, those headsets are more than a little long in the tooth at this point: both the HD version and the Crystal Cove prototype take giant leaps past the first dev unit, to say nothing of Valve's prototype. Oculus isn't offering anything official in terms of word on new dev kits (beyond what the company's CTO told us last year), but we expect many devs already have some form of new hardware from the fast-growing VR company.
The original Legend of Zelda goes first-person for Oculus Rift demo
What happens when you cross Being John Malkovich with NES classic The Legend of Zelda? You get the terrifying Oculus Rift demo seen in video below the break. The mod is currently just the game's overworld and its first dungeon, but there are plans to scale up the whole game to VR playability by March of this year (yes, for free -- this is Nintendo's property, after all). Should you already have an Oculus headset and a strong constitution, the demo's available right here.
Watch Valve's vision of our virtual reality future (and other Steam Dev Days talks) right here
We did our best to break down and explain talks given by Valve's virtual reality leaders at Steam Dev Days, but there's no replacing the real deal. As such, we'd be silly not to share news that Valve's published to YouTube all 28 talks given at its first-ever developer's conference -- including the two virtual reality talks from Michael Abrash and Joe Ludwig, not to mention Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey's talk. We've embedded all three of those below, but the whole shebang is available right here for your marathoning pleasure.
John Carmack quit id Software because it wouldn't support VR games
We know the basic reason why John Carmack left id Software: he wanted to concentrate on his work at Oculus VR. However, we now know that it was more complicated -- it was the result of a dream denied. The game developer explains to USA Today that he had proposed a deal between ZeniMax (id's parent company) and Oculus VR that would have games like Doom 4 and Wolfenstein: The New Order support the Oculus Rift. He was heartbroken when the pact didn't come to be. "When it became clear that I wasn't going to have the opportunity to do any work on VR while at id Software, I decided to not renew my contract," Carmack says. The departure is ultimately "bittersweet," but it reflects his sincere belief that wearable displays represent the next big thing.
