How does this compare to Oculus Rift in terms of cost, quality, and potential to be a "game changer" as everyone calls both? Especially since CastAR can be both AR and VR, could one hook up a CastAR to the games and demos we already have for Oculus Rift?
IMHO, the main difference would be in the "marketing points," in the sense that they'll attract different kind of people. While technically it's possible for castAR to do what Oculus does, Carmack and Elsworth names alone should show the type of early adopters for each products.
Without a doubt, castAR will close the kickstarter funding. So both of them are facing the chicken and egg problem, I believe castAR will have a huge problem here. To your "game changer" point, castAR is trying to reach a higher sky than Oculus.
I mean, I can see myself having a small space near my bed for Oculus and attaching it to the Steam Machine within a year or two. CastAR? Maybe 5 years ahead of its time? The current implementation of the magic wand worries me. From the video, the awkward looking Jenga-like game seems slow and not 1-to-1 interaction. Although it could be a "beta" thing, Oculus didn't have HD to begin with.
As gamer, I think HD Oculus would be a better purchase, and wait for castAR v2 or v3, I have serious doubt they'll reach mass market.
Between CastAR and Oculus Rift, it just seems an embarassment of riches, speaking as someone who spent a brief time working in VR in the early 90s.
It seems to me that the Oculus is for immersive environments; CastAR for shared and/or augmented reality.
Adapting Oculus Demos would be awkward because CastAR has the reflective surfaces as limited "portals" into the 3d environment. Although I'd guess the 3d engine work would be easily adaptable.
They have a clip-on to the glasses that convert from AR to VR mode. So you wouldn't need a reflective surface portal as you say. I believe switching between the two headsets would just be a matter of software. I'm wondering if that support exists or is easy to make, or whether there would be difficult challenges to it.
Basically, I'd prefer to buy one system that could be both AR and VR than two separate systems, one for VR and one for AR. So that would make CastAR beat out Oculus Rift unless the Oculus Rift was just so much better or the software was incompatible.
