When John Carmack, Gabe Newell, and the former designer formerly known as CliffyB endorse something, it holds more clout than your typical Kickstarter project.
The Oculus Rift is a set of VR-style glasses which enclose two screens with one for each eye. You are able to track head movement to look around. You are able to see in 3D without a loss of contrast or vibrancy or otherwise introduce visual artifacts — provided it lives up to the hype and testimony.
The Oculus was originally expected to ship at some point in December although backers just received contact by email (I have been unable to find a linkable source as of publishing) that first shipments will be available in March.
Apparently the original 5.6” LCD displays that were used for the prototypes have been discontinued by their manufacturer. The new display performs better than the original but adds an extra 30 grams of weight.
Oculus also decided to design their own VR sensors to track head motion. The new sensor polls 1000 times per second and adds a magnetometer, likely to be utilized as a compass, alongside the accelerometer and gyroscope found on the original prototype. I am not too certain how that will affect much of the core functionality but should allow for some interesting side projects.
If you held out through the duration of the Kickstarter funding period, the Oculus is available for pre-order with those units expected to ship in April.
“Oculus also decided to
“Oculus also decided to design their own VR sensors to track head motion”
I think this was answered somewhere on the internet. Maybe by Chris Roberts who has a dev kit…Anyway, supposedly if you lean forward or back (in real life) the image will adjust to the proper position on the Rift. They are trying to replicate movement as well as possible so it feels natural enough to pass your brains recognition for real life movements, otherwise you have a headset that causes people more prone to motion sickness to barf.
I have such high hopes for this device as it seems to really be loved by some names I hold in high regard, I hope it delivers.
I want one of these so bad! I
I want one of these so bad! I just hope there’s good support for games. And $300 really isn’t bad (pre-order price) for something that’s been in development for over a year!
Does anyone know if this will do just 3D that isn’t “Oculus-ready”? That would be a great selling point. I mean honestly, how many games are going to be out of the gate ready for this? But on the other hand, how many games already support stereoscopic 3D? And as a practical thing, how many of us PC gamers don’t have a 3D monitor… but would kill for one? haha.
The oculus only has one
The oculus only has one screen with both eye views rendered side by side. Also the reason the screen is heavier is because it is now a 7 inch screen.