If you're still not comfortable with the idea of virtual reality headsets as the next wave of gaming technology being pushed, you better make your peace: the devices are coming in fast. Sony revealed its Project Morpheus VR set at GDC yesterday, which is meant to be used with the PlayStation 4. The poster child for the technology, Oculus Rift, also showed off the final development kit for the device.
The newest Oculus Rift development kit represents the last iteration we'll see before they show off what will be sold to consumers. Oculus is now taking $350 developer orders on the Oculus Rift DK2, their most refined version yet.
According to The Verge's hands-on experience, the newest version is vastly improved over the original development kit. The resolution has jumped from 720p to 1080p, and Oculus says the consumer's version will be even higher. The difference between the new and old devices is reportedly "night and day" in regards to motion sickness and blurring, due to the techniques they've employed to reduce these issues.
The DK2 combines with a new peripheral to improve the experience: a camera that tracks the motion of 40 infrared LEDs installed inside the Rift to help position you in the virtual world. The camera makes the motion more realistic, but also limits how far away you can turn from its location before the device gets confused.
Oculus won't say how far away the consumer version is, but explains that it will be a totally new device from the DK2, without a single part carrying over from the development kit. "We're much closer," says founder Palmer Luckey. "The last year we've spent researching and developing what consumer VR needs to be...we didn't know before, and we do now."
"We know what we need to ship, we know what parts we need to do it, we know where we can get those parts, and now it's just a matter of playing the waiting game and putting it together."
Source: The Verge
