Oculus VR Announce Their New Developer Kit

Do you hear that noise? That’s the sound of the VR Wars starting. Oculus VR revealed their vision for the future in 2012, but it’s only now in 2014 and at GDC that the true battle for the face-display market has come to fruition.

Last night saw Sony revealing their Poject Morpheus headset, emerging from years of working behind closed doors as a true contender for this burgeoning market, but less than a day later, Oculus VR have struck back. Their first Developer Kit headset was very much a work in progress, with just a 720p display and many flaws, some of which included relying on particular resources that were drying up. Developer Kit 2, or DK2, marks a huge improvement over that original prototype design.

Now available for pre-order ahead of an estimated July 2014 shipping date, and priced at the surprisingly competitive $350. It advances even upon the Crystal Cove design that was shown earlier this year. It steps up to a 1080p 75Hz display (960×1080 per eye) with a 100º Field of View, using a low persistence OLED display to give minimal motion blur and judder.

It also comes with an external camera and disguised IR LEDs, to work alongside the gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer for head tracking at 1000Hz.

As explained by a new video from the company, it’s a big jump up in quality from the original dev kit.

It’s fascinating to see them talking about many of the same points that Sony were last night, with a sense of presence within the game world the core goal for both companies.

With two companies pushing hard to deliver on the same goals, coming up with many of the same solutions to the problem, but also finding their own particular nuance and distinguishing features, it’s a very exciting time for virtual reality hopefuls.

Source: Oculus VR via Engadget

5 Comments

  1. What with this, Project Morpheus and the amazing screen-less Avegant Glyph we’re spoilt for choice.

  2. Must.. not.. order… oh bugger it.

  3. so how does Morpheus stack up against Oculus?

    • They are roughly equivalent.

    • In its current form it appears quite similar. Morpheus has a 90 degree view compared to Oculus 100. It’ll be interesting to hear from hands on impressions how they compare in terms of head-tracking. The Ps camera might be an advantage to Sony, seeing how well the Move works with just one low-res Ps-eye on PS3.

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