Palmer Luckey Reviewed the Magic Leap Hardware and Called It a Tragic Heap

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Palmer Luckey has a vested interest in VR as he was the founder of Oculus VR and designed the Oculus Rift head mounted display (HMD). He ordered a Magic Leap and sent it off to iFixit to help others to learn how it is constructed. In his latest blog post, he gives his honest assessment of the state of the Magic Leap One hardware and the truth behind the hype.

He explains how certain aspects of the device were done better by the Microsoft HoloLens 3 years ago. He scoffs at the electro-luminescent wire tricks that the company has used to hype investors into spending more money with them, the "whole new operating system" called LuminOS that is Android at its core, wonders why the eye-tracking support is nonexistent and how significantly smaller companies are at the same level of expertise in designing a tracking system for a HMD with less funding. Great blog post and a must read if you're a fan of VR and AR technologies.

Tracking is bad. There is no other way to put it. The controller is slow to respond, drifts all over the place, and becomes essentially unusable near large steel objects -- fine if you want to use it in a house made of sticks, bad if you want to work in any kind of industrial environment. Magnetic tracking is hard to pull off in the best of cases, but this is probably the worst implementation I have seen released to the public.
 
I love that guy, hahah.

Too bad though, I was hoping Magic Leap was going to actually turn out to be something decent.
 
So glad to read his thoughts. Sounds like crap. Maybe its as Luckey suggests, and they are merely sandbagging for time? Goodluck to them either way.
 
I think we all knew deep down that this was going to be busted.
 
Im still in the belief that magic leap has some amazing tech they have yet to show, because investors are just dumping money into them. What do they know what we don't? Hopefully they wen't just blow away by a AR developer HMD, and nothing else.
 
Assuming tech writ-offs are part of Corp budgets these days... lets em take a significant loss on their taxes based on 'projected earnings' of that investment...
 
SighTurtle said:
So glad to read his thoughts. Sounds like crap. Maybe its as Luckey suggests, and they are merely sandbagging for time? Goodluck to them either way.
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I'd wager they blew the VC money on fancy Silicon Valley offices and high SV payrolls. While other companies focused on the tech, they set spinning their wheels trying to figure out how they were going to build this thing while blinding themselves to what others were doing.

Gatecrasher3000 said:
Im still in the belief that magic leap has some amazing tech they have yet to show, because investors are just dumping money into them. What do they know what we don't? Hopefully they wen't just blow away by a AR developer HMD, and nothing else.
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That's the problem. A lot of investors share that same train-of-thought and skip due diligence. It's the "pile-on" process of social proof with regards to investing.

They see a large investor (or a trusted friend mention it) go in on something and they use that as the only evidence they need. FOMO for catching the next unicorn builds with each round at the water-cooler. Generally, the more you hear about something, the more you know the hype train has left the station and you should take a "wait and see" approach.

Look at the build up to the Bitcoin crash in December. The minute you started getting questions from Joe Public (grandma and grandpa), was the minute a "wait and see" strategy was better. Pros will take profit and leave the retail traders (usually the last in, chasing an extended move) to take the hit.
 
I am not saying he isn't being truthful, but wouldn't this kinda be like the founder of Ford (if he was still alive), telling everyone how crappy Chevy is?
 
Well at least there will be a lucrative market for reselling these husks among the SteamPunk CosPlayers at $50 to $100 each......
 
NWRMidnight said:
I am not saying he isn't being truthful, but wouldn't this kinda be like the founder of Ford (if he was still alive), telling everyone how crappy Chevy is?
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No, not really. Lucky is a pretty straight up guy and wants nothing more than to see VR / AR succeed. If my memory is correct, he didn't have anything bad to say about Vive when it came out while he was still involved with Oculus. I think he might have even called it "super cool". No reason not to trust what he has to say regarding this.
 
Spidey329 said:
I'd wager they blew the VC money on fancy Silicon Valley offices and high SV payrolls. While other companies focused on the tech, they set spinning their wheels trying to figure out how they were going to build this thing while blinding themselves to what others were doing.
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they are based in South Florida...

I would be a little hesetant to give the opinion of a developer of a competing product much attention... still want to check one out eventually
 
while it is a tragic heap, we still need a starting point for all these varying technologies.
of course big gov, military, and big corp will always have the latest and grestest hidden tech before consumers, it just takes time before it falls in our laps at the right price point.
 
NWRMidnight said:
I am not saying he isn't being truthful, but wouldn't this kinda be like the founder of Ford (if he was still alive), telling everyone how crappy Chevy is?
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Its more like when Woz would take the piss out of Apple.. The guy knows his shit, Touch controllers are amazing.
 
Spidey329 said:
That's the problem. A lot of investors share that same train-of-thought and skip due diligence. It's the "pile-on" process of social proof with regards to investing.

They see a large investor (or a trusted friend mention it) go in on something and they use that as the only evidence they need. FOMO for catching the next unicorn builds with each round at the water-cooler. Generally, the more you hear about something, the more you know the hype train has left the station and you should take a "wait and see" approach.

Look at the build up to the Bitcoin crash in December. The minute you started getting questions from Joe Public (grandma and grandpa), was the minute a "wait and see" strategy was better. Pros will take profit and leave the retail traders (usually the last in, chasing an extended move) to take the hit.
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Yup, just go read the Theranos' story.
 
I'm starting a VR/AR company called Phantom VR. I will hype our break thru technology on every news outlet available.

After I collect millions in VC, Kyle will expose the fact that our technology is nothing more than a viewmaster with a head strap. By then I will have bought my own island.
 
pgdeaner said:
I'm starting a VR/AR company called Phantom VR. I will hype our break thru technology on every news outlet available.

After I collect millions in VC, Kyle will expose the fact that our technology is nothing more than a viewmaster with a head strap. By then I will have bought my own island.
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How can I invest? :D
 
to be fair, it is cheaper than hololens, the FOV is higher, and it has a tracked controller... even if all of those points are still bad (expensive, low fov, poorly tracked controller) they're still valid I guess... and yeah, it's a dev kit
 
tybert7 said:
For what it's worth, I know a guy who interviewed for a position with them and chose not to take the job because he did not want to leave California for Florida.
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why the fuck he want to stay in a Comifornia state?
 
caddys83 said:
why the fuck he want to stay in a Comifornia state?
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Florida is far more crazy than California, and California is plenty capitalist. California out produces every other state in the union, partly based on population, but also because the state is a magnet for world class engineering talent. You seem to think conservative states are where the action is at, not those liberal "commy" states.

Look at the data.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resi...aws.com/public/X7EALKZDEY6XNKXI7WTR653MWU.jpg


but MUH TAXES !!!!!!

That is not what drives most people out of the state, it's primarily cost of living with the twin horrors of increased population density and constrained housing supply.
 
tybert7 said:
Florida is far more crazy than California, and California is plenty capitalist. California out produces every other state in the union, partly based on population, but also because the state is a magnet for world class engineering talent. You seem to think conservative states are where the action is at, not those liberal "commy" states.

Look at the data.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resi...aws.com/public/X7EALKZDEY6XNKXI7WTR653MWU.jpg


but MUH TAXES !!!!!!

That is not what drives most people out of the state, it's primarily cost of living with the twin horrors of increased population density and constrained housing supply.
Click to expand...
Honestly i would love to move to California... Like you say, its the housing... Jeeezus.
 
tybert7 said:
Florida is far more crazy than California, and California is plenty capitalist. California out produces every other state in the union, partly based on population, but also because the state is a magnet for world class engineering talent. You seem to think conservative states are where the action is at, not those liberal "commy" states.

Look at the data.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resi...aws.com/public/X7EALKZDEY6XNKXI7WTR653MWU.jpg


but MUH TAXES !!!!!!

That is not what drives most people out of the state, it's primarily cost of living with the twin horrors of increased population density and constrained housing supply.
Click to expand...


lol I was referring to gun laws
 
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