The Oculus Rift Retail Version Debuts
The Oculus press event is over, but you can watch a rebroadcast of the even here. During the presentation in San Francisco that comes just days ahead of E3, it was announced that The Rift will be made available in Q1 2016. The Oculus team did not go into the final specifications nor divulge pricing details, but they did note that the VR headset has been again refined and now looks and feels like a consumer product should that is certainly going to cost in excess of $200. Oculus has previously said that, when paired with all the PC hardware needed to run the headset, the entire setup will sell for less than $1,500. The latest and final revision of the Oculus Rift will accommodate eye glasses and comes with detachable headphones that mount to adjustable side rails. Being able to wear the heaset with glasses is crucial to the millions looking forward to consumer virtual reality and next-generation VR gaming.
On the bottom of the headset there is a slider that adjusts the interpupillary distance (IPD) of the optics as peoples eyes are different distances apart. This slider will allow you to adjust the lens to ensure the optics are properly lined up with you eye balls! Oculus didn’t talk about the resolution or details on the OLED screens, but did mention that there is no motion blur, no judder and no pixels. The company obviously won’t be using the 640×480 lenses that we first used on the Oculus Rift back in 2012!
Oculus also announced that they have parterned with Microsoft and will be bundling the Oculus Rift with an Xbox One gamepad when they go on sale. Oculus is also working on their own motion controller called the Oculus Touch. which was developed under the code-name ‘half moon’. The Oculus Touch is actually a pair of wireless controllers that you can use simultaneously to interact with the VR application that you are running. Each controller has a joystick and two trigger buttons and two face buttons.
The controllers are also designed to work with gestures that you make with your hand thanks to internal sensors. Oculus said the aim of the Touch controllers was to create an extension of your own hands into the virtual world. There is no word on pricing, but Oculus Touch will be released slightly after the Oculus Rift in the first half of 2016.
Oculus also showed off the new Oculus Home menu during the presentation. This will likely become the ‘start’ menu for the Oculus Rift and will be the place you can find your game titles, friends list and purchase other apps in of course another app store! Some of the first game titles will include Eve Valkyrie, Chronos and Edge of Nowhere.
We expect to see more VR games announced at E3 next week.