When you think of "wildly successful peripherals"
virtual reality headsets are probably not the first things that come to mind.
But a recent slew of head-mounted displays (HMDs) seems to indicate the
timing's right to retry.
Oculus launched its ultra-high-tech VR headset's Kickstarter
a little earlier today, and
already it's found plenty of support and full
funding. So what makes them so special?
While the technical specifications are subject to change,
currently the Oculus Rifts are set to features ultra-low latency head tracking
with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF), 110 degrees diagonal field of view, a
resolution of 640x800 per eye, stereoscopic 3D rendering, and weigh around .22
kilograms.
But what's all that tech talk mean for an everyday user? It
means the Oculus Rift's will feature a far larger display than those others out
there and track your head without the lag you might consider synonymous with
head-mounted virtual reality.
John Carmack has been a vocal supporter of the Oculus Rift -
praising the device, and saying that the angles offered by the Rift were so
impressive he ditched plans for his own HMD as soon as he tried these out.
Other big players praising the Oculus Rift includes Cliff
Bleszinski of Epic, Gaikai, David Helgason at Unity, and Michael Abrash and
Gabe Newell of Valve.
The Oculus Rift isn't your average consumer-facing
Kickstarter - they're only hoping to get enough funding to produce development
kits. This allows the Kickstarter goal to start with a much lower goal - in
this case a $250,000 goal that has already been doubled. It also means there's
not as much incentive to buy big if you're not making games.
If you're not a developer, you can show your support by
pledging one of the low tiers and in turn pick up a pretty sweet poster or
shirt, or you can pledge $275 or more and receive a prototype device with Doom
3 BFG edition, the first Oculus-ready game, or as we like to call it, "the
most expensive version of Doom 3 ever."
What do you think? Could the Oculus Rift's finally be the VR
headset we've been waiting for?
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