A big talking point of Gamescom this year is a product called Oculus Rift. Developed initially by Palmer Luckey of Oculus VR, the company recently appointed Johm Carmack as their Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and raised $16 million in startup capital, including $2.4 million via crowd funding through Kickstarter.
Oculus Rift is a next-generation virtual reality headset, based on a 7 inch head mounted display and designed purely for gaming. Although not yet available in stores, there are currently around 20,000 Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets in the hands of developers. Initial estimated price is supposed to be $300 for each headset. Preliminary reviews have been glowing; with both developers and testers giving positive feedback about the viability of the device.
The Oculus Rift is a truly remarkable piece of hardware; it provides an immersive experience as never before. Using Project cars as software you can look all around in the car just by rotating your head, like you would in real life. The sensation is unusual when the car is skidding around a corner but you aren’t, and that is a testimony to how good this device is at deceiving your brain into thinking that it is real. Trying Hawkin on Oculus Rift is even better; as you fly though the rugged landscape and move around the terrain you really get the impression that you are fully immersed in it.
One thing I noticed about the Oculus Rift was that it isn’t great at depth perception; so if you sit down or stand up, there is absolutely no impact on your positional movement. However, this is an issue that the lead developers behind Oculus Rift understand and realize, and they indicated that they are working on solutions to this while the beta testing phase of the device continues. Future upgrades to the Oculus Rift also include new screen technology, enhancing the gaming and virtual reality experience.
The people responsible for the introduction of the Oculus Rift to the mass market are confident that the mooted low price will hold true, propelling this device to the average household. Virtual reality is definitely making a comeback and it is called Oculus Rift.
