This morning, Oculus held a press conference in San Francisco, broadcast over the Internet. During this two-hour event, the company made several important announcements and outlined its vision for virtual reality both this year and in the future.
If you’ve been following VR for as long as I have, this was an important moment. I walked into the presentation wondering how Oculus would fare against its main competitor, Valve and the HTC Vive. Unfortunately, I left the presentation with more questions than I started.
Here’s what Oculus revealed:
Hardware
The headset itself is similar in design to the Crescent Bay prototype I tried at CES. the beginning of this year. However, Oculus has spent some time refining the industrial design to make it more comfortable and easier to use. The device was noticeably light in the hands of CEO Brendan Iribe, and confirmed that the new straps don’t «tighten» your face, eliminating the distinct red marks of long-term Rift wear. Structurally, the outer casing of the Rift is made of fabric, presumably to reduce heat generation and weight.
Iribe also confirmed that the «face interface» of the foam will be removable. This is important, especially if you are planning to show the Rift to your friends. With DK2, hygiene issues quickly became serious. We also learned that the Rift won’t ship with an adjustable focus slider for visually impaired users (like GearVR does). Instead, the device’s ergonomics have been designed to work better when wearing glasses. Plus, for those with unusually wide-set or narrow-set eyes, a small switch will allow them to adjust the distance between the lenses to suit their heads. The headset will also be wired. though it’s not clear what the tracking range/cord length will be.
Finally, the Rift also comes with a security camera like the DK2 with an adjustable mount. It looks like it’s meant to be placed on a table and then forgotten about. Iribe confirmed that the camera won’t need an external power source and just needs a USB cable to work.
audio
Iribe also confirmed that the Rift will come with fully specialized audio — the sounds will come from the right points in space, adding immersion. The Rift will ship with custom headphones that we’re sure are very good. However, if you want to use your own, these earphones will be removable.
VR input
The question of VR’s contribution is a serious one and was a major point of uncertainty prior to the presentation. Vive VR headset comes with two motion controllers, each equipped with multiple buttons and a Steam controller touchpad. They are tracked using Valve’s Lighthouse system, which uses two laser base stations to cover the entire room and eliminate occlusion issues. Can Oculus compete?
Well… it’s complicated. Oculus today announced that the input method that will ship with the Rift is the Xbox One controller. It’s obviously disappointing, but Oculus made a pretty convincing argument that since their developers were primarily focused on creating content for gamepads, it makes sense to provide a gamepad — a generic legacy interface.
Oculus also announced that it will be launching a second device in the first half of 2016, a VR motion controller called the «Oculus Touch», which will be available as an add-on for the Rift. This controller takes the form of two rings, one for each hand. Your fingers rest on a small nunchaku in the middle.
Each ring comes with a joystick, a grip sensor, a trigger and two buttons. Each one has an integrated tactile tactic. Most interestingly, each of them comes with an internal set of sensors that can detect hand postures (such as pointing or waving), which opens up some interesting possibilities for social virtual reality.
Oculus founder Palmer Lucky told the audience that the Oculus Touch is designed to provide “hands presence” — the feeling that your hands are physically present in a space. It’s also designed to be usable without requiring conscious thought.
Obviously, this is really cool, although there are several serious problems.
First of all: what about occlusion? It appears that Oculus is still using a single camera for positional tracking, and this raises serious questions about what happens when you move the camera to the side and try to interact with something. I certainly hope that Oculus doesn’t expect us to sit still while we use motion controllers.
