The Oculus Go, Facebook’s first generation standalone VR headset, hit the market back in 2018 but it’s taken until now for owners to get an official unlocked OS build. The release was hinted at by former Oculus CTO John Carmack in a recent Tweet as something he had been pushing for years. This opens the hardware completely, allowing root access without the need for an unofficial jailbreak.
When phone-based VR went the way of the dodo, millions of empty headsets went obsolete with it for a variety of reasons, but at least this way perfectly-good (if dated) hardware might still get some use in clever projects. Credit where credit is due; opening up root access to old but still perfectly functional hardware is the right thing to do, and it’s nice to see it happening.
Any applications? Didn’t know support ended, but I’ve still got mine :) always thought it would be a cool POV drone controller.
The device still works, but as of December 2020 no new apps or content was being accepted for the platform/store.
I see that picture and expect the user to fall on their face every time. Maybe there’s a counter-weight in the back?
Maybe it’s mostly hollow?
It _is_ mostly hollow actually.
It is actually light and comfortable. Doesn’t feel front-heavy or just heavy at all.
I love this platform, despite low-level 3D graphics and pixelated display.
Ironically, I’ve bought pretty much all the mainstream VR devices to date, and the Go is one of the most comfortable.
Interesting, any other suggestions for good selections on comfort for you then?
Personally I have a vive and find its a bit small for my head, but not that bad comfort wise, always wondered what some of the others are like to use – the tech specs are easy to read and understand, but the actual day to day comfort in use is something you kind of need to use it to find out…
Got my Go out the other day to explore places other than my WFH office. The Mars rover landscape is awesome. Look down and you see the track marks in the soil.
It’d be fun to stream a 3D print in progress in 3D. Thingiverse has a miniature Ender 3, so it could be a 3D video of a 3D printer printing a mini 3D printer.
Whoa…Just blew my mind.
Will this work with the Chinese Xiaomi VR version?
I really missed his philosophy of opening up older projects after he left id software. I don’t think they’ve open sourced a single thing since.
Nope, the board doesn’t like that sorta thing: “if we open source it, how can we milk more money from it later??”
I don’t know, this feels like all W to me. They had to “recoup” R&D $. Facebook can’t afford t… well ok. But still, opening it up on the back end is a still a huge boon with a ton of hardware and opensource software ready to go. Huge gain for VR nerds.
We have an extensive library to become a working library for machine and blacksmith “s. I am not a librarian, or a machinist, let alone a blacksmith. I need some help, ideas, and a plan. Please Help Me and my trustees.
I like my Go. Uncomplicated easy to use for media consumption. I have both Quests, which are better if course, but I like the idea that the software is open now… Who knows what some clever brains can do.
I think they should have kept the Go Going because a lot of older people can use the Go…my family has 3 Go’s. I took some to nursing homes and the people loved them.So why not keep it for some that can not use the other oculus quest and rift?