castAR (augmented reality) on kickstarter

[syver]

Kickstarter project from two of the people who left valve's hardware department a few months back;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOI5UW9khoQ

castAR: bridging the physical world with the virtual worlds; 3D holographic like projections in AR, fully immersive environments in VR

kickstarter link here

 

It has already reached $300k in 1 day and seems like it might get funding similar to oculus rift, if not even more. What do you think? Will it have the "oculus effect" on the augmented reality market?

[Izuno]

 

Promising kickstarter for sure.

[Steppenwolf]

Hell yeah! Oculous like porn right in my bedroom!

[PogoP]

Cool, so I get to be a wand-pointing wizard? Count me in!

[Vilham]

Going to be shit. Guaranteed, this is another ouya.

[Thrik]

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

[-HP-]

I'm a bit skeptical, I don't see myself buying this tbh. Unless it comes integrated with a really cool board game for instance. Although, it seem sit can be more flexible than that.

We'll see how it plays out.

 

Also, you guys seen this?

Avegant

http://reviews.cnet.com/wearable-tech/avegant-virtual-retinal-display/4505-34900_7-35828603.html

[dux]

Harry Potter fans are gonna love this.

[Steppenwolf]

What worries me a bit about all these new devices is that they all have their own solutions and standards. I hope this doesn't end so that each one is so niche that they get less and less interesting commercialy and then two years down the line the VR hype is over again. I want it to really take off and that would work best imo if they can figure out some industry standards earlier or later so that more manufacturers get involved and games, 3d videos etc. work on different models.

[Buddy]

The size of the projector is amazing on this thing (1cm cube seriously?), propably better concept than puting lcd screen there, if it has high enough resolution.

[Vilham]

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

This tech needs another 5-10 years before it becomes what people are expecting from it.

[syver]

 

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

I'll admit I'm also a bit skeptical. Still, i think it's going to be exciting to see what other applications this hardware could have, like the architectural visualization for oculus rift.

Edited October 16, 2013 by csyver

[Thrik]

 

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

This tech needs another 5-10 years before it becomes what people are expecting from it.

 

 

According to the Kickstarter page it runs on PCs, which makes sense as this technology was originally designed to work in tandem with the Steam Box. I'm pretty sure that the intention is that this could feasibly work with any kind of device or game, including shooters. Sure the board game examples are cool and unique, but the technology seems perfectly applicable to any kind of game to me. It also has out-of-the-box Unity integration, so if they can build on that and support other engines there's a lot of potential for this to 'just work' with lots of games.

 

I still find it odd to compare it to the Ouya, as again this is a peripheral not a platform. The closest comparison would be the Oculus Rift, which in some ways this is competing with. To me, the Oculus Rift seems like it'd deliver a more immersive experience, but unlike castAR you're in your own world with Oculus Rift — you can't share your experience with anyone else. I really like gaming with my girlfriend so that kind of sucks, and something that could seriously impede Oculus Rift's mainstream success (and isn't a problem for 3D TVs and castAR).

[PogoP]

 

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

This tech needs another 5-10 years before it becomes what people are expecting from it.

 

 

Looks familiar this thing does, doesnt it Will?

[Vilham]

 

 

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

This tech needs another 5-10 years before it becomes what people are expecting from it.

 

 

Looks familiar this thing does, doesnt it Will?

 

Indeed. I know nothing about this kind of tech. I swear, I completely didn't work on anything remotely similar.

 

 

 

 

Looks promising. This is effectively the direction the Steam Box was going in for a while (for those who didn't read the articles about how this ended up outside of Valve), and while Valve didn't think it was their future I can still see this being great in some situations depending on how good things actually look through the glasses in a dark or even medium-lit room (the killer question really).

 

I don't really see the comparison to Ouya, as unless I'm missing something this is technology that any platform can incorporate just like the Oculus Rift rather than a platform in its own right like the Ouya is?

Ouya was a total flop. Hence the comparision. This thing will render a resolution of probably 320 max, im guessing its designed to work with phones, ie you plug it into your phone and the game runs from that, so your looking at fuck all polys, basically those blocky objects you saw in the video, is going to be the best this thing can do. So it is basically incredibly limited in its applications, it can play board games basically, so pretty much a gimmick.

 

This tech needs another 5-10 years before it becomes what people are expecting from it.

 

 

According to the Kickstarter page it runs on PCs, which makes sense as this technology was originally designed to work in tandem with the Steam Box. I'm pretty sure that the intention is that this could feasibly work with any kind of device or game, including shooters. Sure the board game examples are cool and unique, but the technology seems perfectly applicable to any kind of game to me. It also has out-of-the-box Unity integration, so if they can build on that and support other engines there's a lot of potential for this to 'just work' with lots of games.

 

I still find it odd to compare it to the Ouya, as again this is a peripheral not a platform. The closest comparison would be the Oculus Rift, which in some ways this is competing with. To me, the Oculus Rift seems like it'd deliver a more immersive experience, but unlike castAR you're in your own world with Oculus Rift — you can't share your experience with anyone else. I really like gaming with my girlfriend so that kind of sucks, and something that could seriously impede Oculus Rift's mainstream success (and isn't a problem for 3D TVs and castAR).

 

If it runs off PCs then it kind of defeats the purpose of this kind of tech. My comparison to Ouya is that Ouya was a flop and this will be too.

Edited October 16, 2013 by Vilham