Why is the founder of the Oculus Rift insulting backers like me on forums ? Will Arrogance and the VR Troll army kill off Palmer's and their own VR dream ?

This post is going to be a bit Yin and Yang ... it is intended to inform and educate young Grasshopper ..sorry Palmer Luckey...and also attempt to make the whippersnapper chuckle a might ...as he finds me lacking in the hillarity department...  my brand of English sarcasm and lack of wit befuddling his neurons as might one of those humorous observations made by   Penny every week or so to Sheldon on the Big Bang theory...

From my experience as a Kickstarter Oculus Rift backer I do not see the birth of the Oculus Rift or it's impact on VR going further than this first batch release of developer kits ..unless something changes drastically and I do not mean the hardware or software... the company's attitude to the backers has to change.

I have held off commenting on the Oculus as I do not want to jinx my delivery (hopefully in a couple of weeks ), but I am starting to get worried re the nature of comments on the Kickstarter message board ... could arrogance and  blog trolls do for Palmer's VR dream ..?

So there was I about to write how I am picking up signs of the descent of the Oculus Kickstarter forum into all out troll war when I think I found an example of the creator Palmer Luckey himself vs little old me! ..and a very recent comment too, quite different to the "offical " response he gave me on the "official" kickstarter Oculus Rift dev forum  ... in another respected forum...as his alleged alter ego PalmerTech 

I was recently asked to post some videos onto MTSB3D , having managed to combine headtracking , LEAP Motion and Kinect Voice Recognition to show VR control methods can work together without latency issues even on 10 year old hardware and games  here.. I may not be Carmack or Abrash ... but it's not like they managed to right? According to them we need a super quantum user interface..sorry going a bit Gibson again...  Further I showed how this is  something anyone can achieve with existing commercially available hardware.

Searching through Google to see if the comments and videos I posted  showed up I found an insulting comment  from a nice wise MTSB3D forum member, quite insulting but who cares right ? What was interesting was the follow up comment and who made it...

On Fri Jan 04 2013 3:00pm brantlew  from Austin Texas , Golden Eyed Wiseman! Or Woman " posted

 "Bah...the Kickstarter forums are weak. I noticed that thegameveda just posted his comments on the tracker update. Need I say more? Maybe the Hip Hop Gamer and thegameveda can join forces to make the least insightful forum on the web."

I do not care for the insult and I am honoured to be mentioned in the same sentence as anyone called The Hip Hop Gamer  ..But this shows you the contempt that these people hold the WHOLE cadre of  Kickstarter backers of the Oculus Rift in ..and what's more the founder of Oculus allegedly agrees:


On Fri Jan 04 2013 3:14pm  Palmertech 3D Angel Eyes (Moderator)  responded 

At least HipHopGamer is entertaining! 

Now here is the original comment I made on the Kickstarter forum : 

On the same day would you believe! 
"

thegameveda on January 4

Great to have some news , I have been testing a prototype of the Zeiss headtracker herehttp://tinyurl.com/ax327r2 and here http://tinyurl.com/atlv5d6 . I can perceive no latency when using this device . I have several thousand PC and console games to test at present with the head tracker.All the videos are recordings of actual gameplay using the headtracker alone. I find the ability to hold an on screen cursor dead ..as dead as a mouse left alone on a desk..using the head tracker is vital .check my aiming in FPS ,TPS and sim games using headtracking . I never expected to be able to play games with a headtracker before the Zeiss ..which requires 0 drivers or calibration . I hope Palmer and co are not lost in endless upping of tech specs that all us gamers get lost in .. The Rift needs to release to have an effect .I cannot wait to test the Rift but I am worried it will be superseded by competitors , you must find a way to emulate mouse control driver free like the Zeiss and allow other hmd uses that do not require games or apps to be Rift enabled .. Other hmds are plug and play and portable too and here right now .Sometimes the simplest solutions are best . It may be cool in house to compare tech site scores for latency , but I think for commercial success perceived latency by joe public is more relevant , as a gamer I perceive 0 latency using the Zeiss headtracker and I am able to state that as fact because I have the device on my head right now .We are all rooting for you guys to succeed so please get those dev kits out soon so we can spread the word and get back to you with real world use outside tech labs.."

to which Palmer replied 

" 

Creator Oculus on January 4

Hi thegameveda,

The tracker in the Rift is actually 5x faster than the Cinemizer sensor, so it should be up to your performance standards. Note, however, that being able to hold a view as stable as an unmoving mouse is not a desirable characteristic for a VR device. The only way to achieve that is to heavily filter the data and add a deadzone for movement, which increases the latency and reduces the sensitivity of the tracking. If a particular game needs that ability, they can certainly add it, but we are going to provide the highest performance we possible can.

Mouse emulation is not something we plan on doing, mainly because it cannot provide an experience even close to natively integrated head tracking. Mouse emulation is higher latency, drifts, and it cannot provide any roll to the camera. The only way to get a great VR experience is for the game to be designed with VR in mind.

-Palmer

to which I replied 
"

thegameveda on January 5

@ Palmer : many thanks for your reply , this is what I love about HMDS , in my adventures I have been in touch with the CEO of smd , the people at Zeiss and now yourself. This is a field where developers are genuinely interested in customer input. The reason we need to hold a view stable with the head tracker is primarily to aim through scopes in FPS games (eghttp://tinyurl.com/azbqrqt)or maintain a bead on a target, be it Doom 3 or Far Cry 3, in the comments to my videos cursor jitter (technical term) is one of the main concerns. The other use is to navigate Windows , icons tiles and apps , select switches etc in cockpits , or track a stationary object while moving at speed around it ..circle strafing in an FPS or maintaining a lock on a target in a flight sim ..like when I paint targets in my Arma 2 flight videohttp://tinyurl.com/ak4zbpr. Getting games designed with VR in mind is key when you release the dev kits into the wild ..that's when we should start seeing (!) the true potential of the Rift ..(and yes that was another vain attempt to push the release forward)..many thanks for getting back to me"

well we can all see what Palmer really thinks about me in his alleged above comment on Jan 4th in the MTBS3D forum post ... 

What I take away from this is that perhaps Oculus has an unhealthy level of contempt for it's backers, of which I am one of the first ,and that contempt  begins with it's founder Palmer Luckey. 

What I also take is that Oculus see competition and feedback  as a threat, in fact any time I have begged to differ with the comments made by Abrash, Carmack or Palmer it feels like my comments have been shut down or will be, there is no room for discussion, our way or the high way ...go check my comments on the Kickstarter Oculus Rift Forum and the responses to them .. This is what will cause the Rift to fail. It is not always the best hardware that succeeds, it is the hardware with the most uptake by consumers .. yes we can all cite the Betamax vs VHS example (Google it young Palmer) ... oh my ... I feel some of that contempt rubbing off on me.. must be contagious ...

The hmd and VR are evolving as I type, my use of hmds evolves every day, the headtracker, display,control interface ,in the Rift are already surpassed, , sdks are already out there for devices like the Zeiss headtracker that do not require $1500 to develop for , the myriad uses for hmds and VR are not dependent on my buying or developing exclusively for Rift . I can play any game in 3D,on OLED or LCOS hmds I can carry in my pocket, I do not need to read tech jargon on prototype components only available to a few industry insiders  ,I play any console and or tablet game with hand tracking, head tracking combined. As a developer will I chose to invest time in a single platform device on hardware the final specs of which are going to change by the time I have my engine up and running .. as happened to Carmack fi?  If my input is not needed , in fact if you are going to insult me acting like a teenager on a blog then more power to you  .. what you say is out there for everyone to see .. what goes around comes around .. this is hardly the behaviour you expect from the founder of a company ... that has yet to release it's first consumer product..and is interested in fostering a community of devs.. 

I was expecting to write a piece on waiting for the Oculus Rift and recent positive developments ..spurred on by a flurry of recent updates..

I thought the point of being an Oculus Rift dev was to be able to comment and improve the development of the product , that is not going to happen if the founder of Oculus Rift is out there on private forums insulting backers by name. 

As the founder of a company and community you need to be inspirational ,not insulting for your backers..

Fascinating that a simple consumer /developer from across the pond can cause such a reaction. By reaction I mean treating me with contempt ...there is a wonderful feelgood video of Palmer thanking backers up on the Kickstarter site , maybe the sincerity is virtual too...

I talk to and communicate with other hmd and VR leaning developers all the time , people ask for my input ,send me hardware, people come to see me ..yeah go figure playing games for 35 years plus had it's value, that is why I have been using headtracking now for 3 months on PC and console games with multiple hmds... whilst experts comment and hypothesise on hardware that may be released in 1 to 2 years with VR software to follow and a phantom mass user base ready to tune in and drop out of reality . Talking about problems that simply do not exist or impact the end user on hardware that has yet to exist ..

Frankly I do not understand why he (Palmer) says one thing on the Kickstarter Oculus forum to backers like myself and then allegedly  goes and insults me on the MTBS3D forums .. the birthing pool for what we VR fans are waiting on as the Rift .. 

Who knows perhaps it was my original pamphlet entitled ..Virtual Reality and Muppet fans push Oculus Rift Kickstarter funding towards $2 Million but is it Ultimately Doomed?. In which I a great Muppet fan, came to the conclusion  that John Carmack (whom I sometimes refer to as Senior Carmack in my best High Chaparal Manalito accent) as Beaker from the Muppets ..  Beaker ..we know has this week let down a lot of Oculus backers by not having Doom 3 ( a game almost as old as Palmer ) Rift ready .... I never saw Doom 3 as a good launch title for the dev kit and have commented on this often , based on my experience of hmds and how they handle black , the fact that Doom 3 was bad even back when it was released and more recently the backlash against non OLED hmds by consumers expecting high FPS and jet black , abyss like black reproduction from their devices  ..just go check the ST1080 forums....

you tell me who is Beaker and who is Carmack ?

our hero and Quakecon Keynote presenter John Carmack

and Beaker sometime associate of Bunsen 

Now Palmer ...if only you'd asked John Romero ..for an Oculus Rift launch title ... VR Daikatan...

The birthing of the of the Oculus Rift has been chronicled on many a blog , blogs which are usually littered with trolls extolling pillars of flaming angst on any who dare to differ in any way to their perception, they having been part of the "scene" longer than others, you can find  some of the trolling on MTSB3D by and various other reputed AV blogs re myself.

I find it flattering, being trolled by the great Palmer Luckey himself...  

Back to my original purpose for this post the increasing Troll like commenting on the Kicksarter Oculus Rift forum. I backed Palmer and Oculus as soon as I could, at a time when I was just getting into the swing of things with hmds, dumping the HMZT series, facing off the AV blog troll army who were adamant that as I had two smd ST1080s ( I have 4 now .. and a fifth hmd the Cinemizer OLED ..granted nowhere near the 50 or so Palmer has! ) arriving with perfect screens which the AV blog trolls ( google thegameveda and there are sure to be some results) must mean I work for smd ... I wish .. I am a user like you, what I picked up from writing about the hmds I OWN and use every day is that the internet is full of trolls ready to commit tech seppiku just to get their negative vibes across. Often these are the people who claim to be most interested in such technology being successful .. they actually just need to keep it to themselves and their small blog cliques and through the trolling the interweb end up talking it into failure ( often without ever experiencing it) ..

What we the people must remember and young fledgling developers,like smd, Oculus VR or even larger developers like Carl Zeiss and Sony and must take heed of is this is only a a vocal minority. What I don't expect is to find Palmer bad mouthing his backers and enabling this behaviour.. Seems  a little nihilistic ..no?

The hmd and VR are still niche, yet to go consumer in a major way. It would be a disaster if a new troll army ,fed by comments like Palmer's vs me for instance,took down young Palmer's Rift before it has even arrived in developers hands. The hmd is evolving , with developers taking feedback from users , users who themselves like myself , are moving into development for those hmds or looking for the answer that really clouds the hmds and VRs future .. no not latency Mr Carmack... but the simple question of what is it for?

Just now I used my LEAP Motion, through the unity sandbox demo to reach into pseudo Augmented Reality space through the 3D transparent LCOS display of one of my smd ST1080s ,powered by 1 USB cable , displaying 1080p native res 3D from my Intel HD3000 powered laptop... I reached in and through the magic of LEAP I grabbed hold of a virtual object ...seeing my actual hand through the transparent AR ready LCOS display , with headtracking I could look around it thanks to the Zeiss headtracker . Shutting the Unity sandbox down , looking through my transparent hmd to the laptop screen behind, I pulled up a few minutes of The Hobbit running in 1080p 3D ...watching whilst looking at and thinking about composing this blog post as I could see through the picture back to my laptop screen , bored I watched some Wreck It Ralph in 3D , whilst I worked on this sermon...and then switched to playing some AntiChamber with LEAP Motion in 3D and a little System Shock 2 in 1080p 3D ...

Well I have to counter all these negative vibes somehow....

A year or so after the release of the smd ST1080 there is still no hmd that can touch it's native resolution , or allow you to do the things combined that I just wrote about ...or indeed type this text in a high enough resolution to be able to replace your desktop display at a native 1080p res ...

Also this week I  have been playing EVERY PS3 and Xbox 360 game in OLED 3D where possible, with LEAP Motion combined with Zeiss Headtracking and even Kinect voice recognition using the Cinemizer OLED hmd. With the ability to do away with legacy controller/joypad altogether...

Come Monday I will be playing Bioshock Infinite in OLED 3D with hand tracking , voice recog , headtracking and on a display that weighs less than some shades and has sharper colours and blacks than your 80 inch LED tv monstrosity ..try taking that on the train ...using what people will tell you is non gaming hardware..because I can ..

I doubt many people out there have done of any of this or are aware they can do any of this ..

The tragedy is that very few of you are going to be able to experience or replicate this , because of the constant negative diatribes against fledgling companies like smd , Oculus VR and even larger companies like Carl Zeiss by the blog troll armies out there ..

The hmd and VR field is the most exciting field in tech at the moment , it is the reason my 30 inch LCDs sit dormant and the only reason I go near a Plasma is to film demos ... so Palmer help us get on board and maybe we will help solve some of the many problems and answer the questions that need to answered for us to be in the Matrix this time next year... 

So in a week where Oculus announced Doom 3 BFG has been dropped ( a very good thing ) , people are waking up to the idea that the Oculus is a serious developers tool and that means paying $1500 for a Unity Pro license ( which you would expect to do any way if you are a serious developer) , I say great things are in motion on the Oculus front. But arrogance will be your downfall... Very few people realize that all hmds are alpha , the very use and purpose of which there are many .. from FPV, commercial , consumer to even fashion accessories ( Project Glass famously wearing supermodels last year) ...is undecided. We owners , users, investors , backers and developers are the alpha testers... just think how much the Rift has changed since last August..

If you want the Matrix ...go watch a movie ... otherwise developers and consumers alike stop trolling or the VR revolution will end again ...just like the machines taking out Zion ..again...and again... all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again...If that Geek ref emesis doesn't entertain Palmer ...

I  expect to see some great news re Oculus Rift at the GDC this week and come on people it is time to praise Palmer and Co for what they achieved in such a short time whilst reminding them that it will be the community that makes the Rift commercial and that community deserves your utmost respect irrespective of how lame you find their jokes and Muppet/Carmack comparisons ..


So here's a deal for you Palmer , you endeavour to get my Rift out to me on time  and be a little more considerate of what backers who put their money and time into coming up with hilarious blog posts like this and long minutes of research into matching Muppets with games and hardware developers, oh as well as backing the Rift , supporting it , taking part in your Kickstarter Oculus Rift developer forum and I will endeavor to be more entertaining for you ... oh and I might just be coding that one VR app that elevates the Rift beyond a Jimmy Fallon crotch gazing joke... it's not like Carmack came through for you or the backers  now is it? Perhaps this is just another sign of contempt .. It tasks me why great luminaries the likes of Carmack , Abrash even the evergreen and ever late Chris Roberts ( we will be waiting till 2017 for Star Citizen , remember Freelancer's gestation ? It took more than half your life Palmer! ) would be bothered seeking funding on Kickstarter when they can get millions elsewhere ...

This is the whole worry re Kickstarter ... do these great and powerful people really care what we backers think.. or is it just the latest fad way to get publicity ... 

But Oculus beware if you act in this way towards backers and feed those expert blog trolls they will come back and bite you , currently the Kickstarter Oculus Rift forum is a place which is nowhere near the developer mentality needed to take the Rift to consumer level .. that is something I totally agree with . Insulting developers may win you kudos with blog trolls but will also lose you developers..

I had originally intended to post on the forum to ask devs to calm down and let Palmer carry on ...before I came across the above insulting comment from Palmer himself.. now I know  how V'jer felt when let down by it's creator...


And for those younger than the Internet ... some of this is sarcasm ... but perhaps so too is the whole Kickstarter run by Oculus VR and the Rift.... that's the yin and the yang of it !  Mr Luckey you are the founder of an allegedly very grown up company ... not a blog troll ...aren't you ?

I don't expect an apology ...just get me my Rift on time Palmer...and I will answer you with cold hard facts and solutions to many of the problems with VR and hmd use on the MTB3D forums and as an Oculus dev, just like I have the makers of the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED, Silicon Micro Display ST1080 ... and they find me very entertaining I might add... and without insulting me on major tech forums or my having to resort to my Elvis impression...

Thank You Very Much ... huhuhuhuhuh ....huh.. 

oh that left a bad taste ... almost as much as reading that comment on MTBS3D... 

It is going to be fascinating being a member of the MTBS3D forum, there is so much conjecture about VR and hmds and so little comment from actual users that any one listens to .. the company that brings VR to the masses is going to be the company that listens to the masses and does not insult them or treat them with contempt. 

The reason why no one has done VR to date is that companies look for walled garden solutions , every VR leaning device however good it is , be it the LEAP or the Rift will fail if it tries to dictate use and control application delivery . This tech cannot be sold the way our GPUS were back in the days of 3DFX or Voodoo or the way iTunes runs. Oculus was meant to be open source , developer and consumer led according to the original MTBS3D thread .. how far has the dream moved from it's original course and can you Palmer set it back on course .. or are the major investors in the Rift now dictating it's course? 

See you in the game Palmer ... !! How about a Zeiss headtracker vs Oculus Headtracker  Cinemizer or ST1080 vs Rift game of Hawken sometime? Or when I get my Rift an intercontinental game of Hawken my Rift vs yours ...is anybody real outside name tech blogs and devs actually playing anything real on the Rift ...


there ..now.. Did that not entertain you or do I need to do a History of Hip Hop gaming routine with Jimmy Fallon and my esteemed colleague The Hip Hop Gamer to get you going .. 

Good luck to all the Oculus VR team at GDC ,stay hungry,stay foolish but stay respectful...there's only one Steve Jobs! Well there's actually his reincarnation....but that's for another time Grasshopper ... Got to go now I can feel the Sun starting to harden my skin...


More tails of an Oculus Rift backer from thegameveda to follow... 

Could someone tell me who The Hip Hop Gamer is and what is VR for?

update far from ending the saga continues : 

Why is the founder of Oculus Rift Allowing Backers to insult and defame me on the Kickstarter forum after apologizing ?And why single out an African American and an Indian?

and 9 months after backing the Rift :

A funny thing happened on the way to the Oculus Rift Developer Forum: Or everything you wanted to know about VR as an Oculus Rift backer but were afraid to ask...

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