The final version of Oculus Rift has been revealed. Announced last night ahead of this year's E3 games show, the VR headset will arrive in Q1 2016 and each headset will come bundled with an Xbox One controller.
Using a custom display and optics system, the headset has two OLED screens for a wide field of view and a new constellation tracking system to provide accurate low-latency movements. Oculus admitted that the screens' resolution may not be as high as customers might want it to be, but "this is the beginning," the company said last night. To track your movements, you'll need to connect an external sensor to your PC and place it in front of you on a desk. This tracks the IR LEDs on the front of the headset so it can translate your movements into a virtual world.
Attached to the headband, you'll find two VR headphones to provide 360 degree sound. However, if you'd rather use your own headphones, you can always remove them from the headband altogether.
Oculus was keen to stress how light the headset is. You can apparently hold it in one hand, and Oculus is hoping that once you put the headset on, you'll forget it's there - almost like a baseball cap, Oculus said. Wrapped in fabric, the headset rests on your brow, and Oculus said that the balance and ergonomics have been finetuned so it doesn't feel like there's a huge weight on your forehead. Meanwhile, a dial on the underside of the headset lets you adjust the lens distance so you can get it just right. It can also accommodate glasses.
Perhaps the biggest announcement of the night, though, is that each headset will come bundled with a wireless Xbox One controller at launch. A great coup for Microsoft, the Oculus Rift will work natively with Windows 10 and let you stream Xbox One games directly to your Oculus Rift headset.
It won't be a complete VR experience, though, as games will only appear in a kind of virtual cinema room, appearing on a large screen in front of you rather than a full 360 degree gaming experience. You'll still be able to look around your virtual room, but the games themselves will only appear directly in front of you on the virtual wall.
However, Oculus also announced the Oculus Touch, a pair of tracking controller bands you hold in each hand that let you reach out into your virtual world. They're only in the prototype stage at the moment (currently code-named 'Half Moon') but Oculus is designing them with future games in mind so you can manipulate objects and make life-like hand gestures that are mapped to your own digits.
Each controller is wireless and is a mirror image of each other to match your hands. They also use the same constellation tracking technology as the main headset, so it can provide low-latency 360 degree movement tracking along with its integrated inertial measurement units.
Each controller has a traditional analogue thumbstick, two buttons and an analogue trigger. However, they also have what Oculus is calling a 'hand trigger', which is built into the hand grip and sits underneath your middle finger. This allows you to pick up objects, such as a gun, for example, and then shoot it with your index finger on the trigger. They also include haptics, so you can feel the objects you're touching.
Most importantly, Touch has a matrix of sensors mounted around the inside of the device to detect natural hand poses and gestures, such as pointing, waving, or giving a thumbs up.
Oculus will be showcasing the headset and the new Oculus Touch controllers at E3 next week, but we'll have to wait until Q1 2016 before the final consumer version is ready for public consumption. That's a little later than rival Vive from Valve and HTC, which is meant to be hitting shop shelves at the end of this year, but with bundled Xbox One controllers and fewer external sensors, Oculus could well have the edge as long as it gets the price right.
