The Oculus Rift is a VR headset designed specifically for gaming in mind and hopes to offer a low cost VR headset, with an incredibly wide field of view, high-resolution display, and ultra-low latency head tracking. Gamers are obviously eager to back this product, as it raised over 2,400,000 dollars during it’s kickstarter campaign that only asked for 250,000 dollars. One major problem with VR headsets for video games is that they get very little official developer support, but the Oculus Rift has backing from some of the biggest players in the PC gaming industry. This includes companies like Valve, who owns the largest digital distribution platform with over 32 million registered users, and from companies like ID SoftWare, Epic Games, and the CEO of Unity.
The Oculus Rift has also won a number of rewards from companies that looked at it during CES. It received awards from The Verge who stated “If you’re of a certain age, you remember the first time you sat down at a computer terminal, opened a browser, and tried the World Wide Web. It was a before and after moment. Although Usenet and other internet communications technologies had been around for years, the web was instantly recognizable as something new and powerful and different that built on all that had come before. And so is it with the Oculus Rift.” Other companies who gave it awards were IGN, PCMag, GameFront, Wired, and Laptop Magazine.
So you’re probably wondering why this piece of VR technology is so revolutionary and why it has so buzz. Well it comes down to its low price point and what it’s offering. At only 350 dollars you can have some of the most immersive experiences yet, Imagine playing a game like Skyrim where you can literally see fire popping right into your face or feel like you’re truly in the world you’re exploring. It also offers a 1280×800 resolution or 640×800 per eye. It allows for 360 degree head tracking allowing you to literally look behind you and still see everything and offers a field of view of 110 diagonally and a 90 degree field of view horizontally. The Oculus Rift will also allow developers to easily make their games VR compatibility using SDKS. It already has a major gamer known as Hawken that will be supporting the Oculus Rift at launch.
Overall I am super excited for the Oculus Rift and can’t wait to pick one up, though it will only be available on PC and Android devices on launch.
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