second life oculus rift dk2 positional tracking
Photo courtesy: Tobias Roth

David Rowe continues to develop the unofficial CtrlAltStudio Viewer, the first viewer to bring Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 support to Second Life. The latest alpha release of the viewer supports positional tracking on the Oculus Rift DK2, which Rowe says “adds significantly to the sense of immersion.” Today Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg also confirmed that DK2 support is in the works for the official Second Life viewer.

Initial Oculus Rift DK2 support came to Second Life through the unofficial CtrlAltStudio Viewer in a preliminary update last week but it lacked positional tracking support, allowing the Oculus Rift DK2 to track a user’s head moving through 3D space. Now, developer David Rowe has updated his unofficial viewer to bring positional tracking with the DK2 to Second Life:

Please note that this alpha is still preliminary: it does not work with direct mode, there is no UI display, and Advanced Lighting Model needs to be turned on.

Usage is the same as the previous alpha. With the DK2 configured in extended mode: use the Windows key + right-arrow to move your viewer window onto the Rift’s display, then Ctrl+Alt+3 makes the window full screen and switches into Rift view. For more details on usage, see the Release Notes.

The viewer only supports Windows for now, but we hope to see a Mac version released soon, along with continued improvements to the Oculus Rift experience in Second Life.

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Second Life is a free-to-play MMO virtual world which consists almost entirely of user-generated content. Since 2003, Second Life has seen $3.2 billion worth of transactions for digital goods within the virtual world, according to Linden Lab. Since adding support for the Oculus Rift DK1 to their official viewer, the company hosts a special Oculus Rift section of their ‘Destination Guide’ to help users find places within Second Life that are “particularly compelling” to use with the VR headset.

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Today Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab, confirmed that official Oculus Rift DK2 support is in the works, though there’s no word yet on when we’ll see the first implementation:

Hat tip to Jo Yardley.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • pedrw nascimentw

    I still have not received DK2 and I was very worried after reading the last post of the blog lokieliot… “Oculus DK2 and why it’s just a bit Meh”
    http://www.lokieliot.com/blog/?p=1994