Facebook finishes updating the software for the Samsung Gear VR. In addition, users will no longer be able to access the films or to download the app Oculus Video.
Samsung Gear VR is a VR headset for your smartphone. Like Google Cardboard and its plastic product, custom slot in your smartphone acts as a display and computer. However, unlike cardboard, it is equipped with a special gyroscope and accelerometer and runs on the same mobile platform and the store, Oculus, and that Oculus Go.
The first Gear VR was released in late 2014 for Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Despite the fact that it is named “Innovator Edition”, this product was essentially the first modern consumer VR headset.
Over the years, released a new version to support the latest Samsung smartphones. The headset did not change significantly, except for the inclusion of the controller 3DoF 2017.
No updates, no movies, no new users 360 video
Samsung smartphones will no longer receive new features of the Gear VR via the Oculus OS updates.
Today app Oculus Video and Oculus 360 Photos is no longer able to boot on the Gear VR. If you already have these apps installed on your phone, you can continue to use them, but purchased movies will no longer be available. Existing users who purchased movies should get credit Oculus Store, “equivalent to the cost you paid for any of your purchased films,” according to Facebook. Now users should be able to continue to use other kinoservice such as Netflix, Prime Video and Fandango, but it should be noted that some developers are supporting Gear VR, stopped working as soon as it became clear that Facebook is no longer going to update the platform.
Enabled browser Oculus will no longer be updated. According to Facebook, it can create “increased security threats as with any legacy web browser”. At the conference Oculus Connect, the browser is one of the most popular applications on mobile devices VR.
Private Internet available on Samsung Gear VR, but has not been updated since April of 2019. In the store there are other third-party browsers , but with low user ratings.
From 15 September, the developers will no longer be able to support the Gear VR in new applications released in the Oculus Store.
Gear VR was already dead
The announcement was not a surprise for those who follow the Gear VR.
6 at Oculus Connect in September 2019 former CTO of Oculus John Carmack is essentially declared dead Gear VR.
This was due to the news that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will not support VR. Galaxy S20 have followed suit this year, putting an end to the support platform Samsung.
Competitive Google platform for smartphones Daydream VR also almost dead, and not a 3a Pixel or Pixel 4 do not support it, and the sale of most of the headset end.
In December last year, Oculus SDK refused to support Gear VR, and in January, the Unity engine used to create the majority of VR applications has become obsolete.
VR on the basis of the smartphone has created a lot of problems. The time required to insert and turn off the phone, and the fact that the user’s phone is not working when it is connected to the headset, reduces the likelihood that people will want to use VR on a regular basis. Session Gear VR can also end in a few minutes, depending on the device and the environment in which it is used, due to the fact that the phone’s CPU has reached temperature limits. Smartphones pack all your components in an incredibly small space. Although Samsung is improving their design passive cooling almost every year, there are physical limitations that cannot be overcome, in packaging VR device designed at first as a smartphone.
Standalone VR headset, however, includes screens and computing equipment and is designed for better cooling. Despite the fact that standalone graphical limitations have about the same graphical limitations as the smartphone VR, Carmack claimed that Oculus Go reached levels of retention similar to the Oculus Rift, while the Gear VR was much worse.
Previously, Facebook has discontinued the production of cables for the original Oculus Rift, leaving many owners with no possibility of repair when it breaks. Facebook said that Quest will be supported “for years”, but it seems that Go can “quit the game”.
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