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Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 Ready For Pre-Order Today
An anonymous reader writes "Today at GDC Oculus has revealed the second developer kit of their virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift DK2. The new unit has a 1080p OLED screen with low-persistence capabilities, positional tracking thanks to an IR LED array and compatible camera, and a bunch of other improvements over the DK1. Pre-orders start today for $350 and are expected to ship in July."
The new model also eliminates the control box and adds a powered USB port. The experience is much better than the DK1 model according to the article: "The image is substantially sharper in the DK2 when moving your head, mostly thanks to low-persistence. I swear I could feel the difference between the DK1 and DK2 on my eyes. It’s hard to describe, but where the DK1 feels like looking through binoculars into another world, the DK2 feels like sticking your head out the window into another world. That’s not to say that the field of view is higher, but there’s something far more comfortable about using the DK2."
Just a heads up,
If you plan to order, disable ClickToFlash (or other flash blockers). I was able to get through the order form but on the order confirmation screen, the agreement text was blank, and there was no button to confirm the order... then enabling flash for the site led to some cryptic error that said my order wasn't complete (although it seems it was complete enough to charge my card).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes but that's not caused by releasing another devkit specifically. Those problems may, or may not, be inherent in the technology. Releasing additional devkits may help solve those problems. It may not though. Regardless, I can't see how the overall excitement for vr will be hurt by another dev kit.
Vertigo. Headaches. Disorientation. At least one episode of projectile vomiting.
That's very true of headsets in the past. But Oculus has been doing great work in figuring out how to eliminate those problems, with tools like the latency tracker that helps you write software that doesn't introduce potentially nausea-inducing latency - and enough sensors on the headset to provide a clean tracking which again can reduce nausea.
I myself have been pretty susceptible to FPS induced nausea in the past, so if I can make use of the headset they are building I figure it should be pretty solid for general consumption.
I personally really want to see someone succeed with headset technology because I just can't see any other way to get nearly as good a sense of true immersion in a virtual world. I figure at this point Oculus is as likely to succeed as anyone, even Sony.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would the wind go out of the sails?
Because the "wind in the sails" probably isn't as strong as you think. My first job out of college was working with VR technologies. I worked some with headsets myself about 10 years ago. While headsets like this are cool, the use cases for them are pretty darn limited, even allowing for the improvements in the state of the art since I worked with them. It's a relatively expensive specialty item, people historically do not like wearing headsets for entertainment (see 3D TV), there is relatively little software that uses the device, etc. There are a fair number of geeks who are interested in this sort of thing for playing games but that's about where the consumer interest ends. The limitations are probably less in the technological feasibility than in the lack of a killer use case.
I think the technology is neat but I'm dubious on the commercial feasibility until proven otherwise. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong but I just don't think there is a large business opportunity here.
Don't underestimate the market power of geeks playing games - they're the primary motivator for 3D video cards, and arguably one of the larger driving forces behind high-power CPUs as well.
As for the expense - the Rift folks are holding pretty steady about targetting the $200-$400 price range - about the price of a midrange 3D video card or SSD, and I think most gamers would agree that a VR helmet would bring far more to the table. Not to mention that a good VR helmet should outlast at least a couple 3D card upgrade cycles, making the amortized cost quite reasonable.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Very true. There will undoubtably be some last-minute work for many of the "launch day" games to support positional tracking. At the very least positional tracking adds some major considerations with regard to not being able to stick your head through solid objects in the gameworld - no more option of just assuming your player character is a fixed-radius cylinder for collision purposes. Well, I suppose you could only allow head motion up to the limits of that cylinder - that should still at least add a little immersion and reduce the nausea due to incidental head motion not being reflected in-world. But the ability to peak around corners, over walls, etc. is just begging to be used, even if only as a fine-grained alternative to lean keys.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
I don't think it's dangerous or stupid. I'm willing to put something funny looking on my head. I don't care if it's a bit awkward or unpolished, or even if it doesn't work well for extended play (I don't have time for extended play usually anyway).
This is cool tech, and I'm excited for it. I hope it catches on. There was a time when Slashdot would mostly be with me on this. Now new tech is pretty much universally turded on.
That said, I'm much less sanguine about Sony's prospects. It feels like the Move before it, kind of a half-hearted effort to grab onto a trend. The Oculus people (and Valve) seem to be taking development much more seriously, and focusing on the right things to optimize the experience. They're gamers eating their own dogfood, and they like it enough that they've repeatedly doubled down.
Once it's released and gets some good software support, I think it's going to be something special.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...