When Is Oculus Rift Going on Sale Again
Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 on sale now, an fifty-fifty better consumer version is "the next step"
A new model of the Oculus Rift Development Kit—only called Development Kit ii or DK2— is bachelor for pre-order today for $350 with an estimated shipping date of July. Compared to the original virtual reality headset image, Development Kit 2 has a college resolution screen (960x1080 per centre), generates no movement blur, and includes positional head tracking using a CMOS sensor.
Positional head tracking means that, rather than just tracking caput rotation, it also tracks the head's move in space relative to a starting point. Leaning forward or moving laterally in the original prototype, for instance, would cause the globe to feel similar it's stuck to your face, while the new headset translates those motions into motility in the virtual earth.
The new kit is like to the Crystal Cove prototype Cory tried at CES. I also tried ane here at GDC 2014, and information technology's a vast improvement. The motion blur is virtually totally gone, which is a great relief subsequently seeing how worlds smear when turning your head in the original prototype. A screen door of pixels is notwithstanding visible, but the resolution is close to—or perchance at—where information technology needs to be for a consumer model. Text is at present sharp enough to read clearly without strain, for case, which is a necessary pace forward.
Also necessary is the positional head tracking. I don't similar that it requires a photographic camera—I appreciated that the Rift was originally cocky-contained so I could use it anywhere I could run a cablevision to—but the concession is worth it. I leaned over and peered into a game lath in Ballsy'due south Elemental Defense demo, and it felt admittedly natural. I as well saw information technology used, along with the internal sensors, to translate head movement into character motility in a two-player demo—when my opponent was looking at me, he was looking at me. It was terrifying in a proficient way.
The only trouble was that if I leaned over besides far, it lost sight of my head and had to approximate where I was. It did a pretty good chore of it, just the wold sometimes snapped back into place when the camera could run across me once again—that might be solvable with software. For more on the DK2 demos, read Sam'due south hands-on impressions .
Then where's the consumer version?
As for the consumer version, it'south "the next step," says Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, speaking to me at Oculus' GDC demo space in San Francisco yesterday.
"Development Kit ii has the cadre edifice blocks ... [The consumer version] is going to better all of these things to where it all gets very comfy. The second developer kit is not designed for hours of employ, only it has those core pieces. So, we put this out, developers can get started with this, and they can accept the content that they make with DK2 and they'll be able to leap information technology over to the consumer version with little to no lawmaking changes."
Though not-developers can purchase 1 of the new dev kits, Iribe stresses that the consumer version will be much better. He wouldn't go into specifics, simply according to Iribe, every office of the experience is improved: the screen, the tracking, the design. Oculus does have internal prototypes of that version, and Iribe tells me that of the few hundred people who have tried i—including some of his more than skeptical friends—not one has left with doubts almost it.
"I'm confident that consumer VR version one from Oculus is going to evangelize on the promise," says Iribe. "Information technology is going to be what people accept imagined VR to be for so long. Dev Kit 2 gets us closer to that, but when you see the actual consumer prototype, which nosotros now practice accept internally, yous but get it. People say, 'Oh my God. I realize how big this is going to be. Information technology's really going to work.'"
Oculus won't commit to a release date for the consumer version, except to say that it will be before the cease of next twelvemonth. I got the sense that with a paradigm congenital and talks with manufacturers underway, it could very well be this twelvemonth. Iribe likewise mentioned that Oculus will have a very large presence at E3—a booth not quite every bit big as Microsoft or Sony's, only big enough to put Oculus in the same league—and that, I recall, would exist a sensible time to make a release date announcement.
Tyler grew upward in Silicon Valley alongside Apple and Microsoft, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early personal computers his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilisation, Command & Conquer, Bushido Bract (aye, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they phone call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional person review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He idea information technology was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. Subsequently piece of work, he practices battle and adds to his 1,200 hours in Rocket League.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-dev-kit-2-announced/
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