Oculus VR today posted an official shipping update on the highly anticipated Oculus Rift DK2. The company confirms that the first batch of DK2s have left the manufacturing facility and are on the way to distribution centers. Now at over 45,000 Oculus Rift DK2 pre-orders, the company expects that some 10,000 units will be sent from the manufacturing facility this month.
Oculus Rift DK2 Shipping Update
It’s DK2 month—after having announced the Oculus Rift DK2 back at GDC in March, Oculus VR, the leading manufacturer of consumer VR headsets, has received some 45,000 pre-orders for their second development kit.
According to an official update today provided on the Oculus VR forums by Andres ‘Cybereality’ Hernandez, Oculus’ Community Manager, the first batch of Oculus Rift DK2s has left the company’s Chinese manufacturing facility and is on the way to distribution facilities.
We’re now over 45,000 DK2 pre-orders, which is incredibly exciting. That said, we’re slightly behind in manufacturing and there’s currently a high chance that some developers with estimated shipping in July may not have their DK2s shipped until August. We have a team in China working on continued ramp of production at our factory, and we’ll work our way through the queue as fast as we can.
Once your Development Kit 2 is ready for shipment, you’ll receive an email with a tracking number which can be used to see an estimated delivery date. Please do not contact Oculus support asking for a shipping estimate, as we do not know the status of your package until a tracking number has been generated.
We’ll continue to post status updates, so everyone can stay current on what’s going on behind the scenes. Thanks again for your continued support, and we hope everyone is excited to be begin working with DK2!
The company urges those with pre-orders to confirm their shipping address and other information on the Oculus VR sales page. “We’ll ship to the address on file, and if the information is incorrect, it may cause delivery delays. In the event that your payment information is no longer valid, you’ll receive an email prior to shipment with instructions on how to complete your payment,” reads the update.
Oculus Rift DK1 vs. DK2
The Oculus Rift DK2 is the company’s second development kit which offers a number of major improvements over the original kit, called the DK1, which was the result of a successful Kickstarter back in August, 2012. Although the DK2 is intended for developers, the company openly offers the VR headset up for sale to anyone interested for $350; new orders are expected to begin shipping in September.
The Oculus Rift DK2’s most notable enhancements are a higher resolution display and positional tracking capability. The new screen is 1920×1080, resulting in a resolution of 960×1080 per eye, compared to the 1280×800 (640×800 per eye) resolution of the DK1. The DK2 features an IR camera which faces the user to detect translational (up/down/left/right/forward/back) movements in addition to rotational movements. The Oculus Rift DK1 could only track rotational movements.
See Also: An Introduction to Positional Tracking and Degrees of Freedom (DOF)
In addition to resolution and positional tracking, a number of other under-the-hood enhancements make the DK2 a huge improvement over its predecessor.
The new screen is capable of a display technique called low-persistence which greatly reduces motion blur. The result, especially as seen through the higher resolution, is a much clearer scene, especially when rotating.
The DK1’s control box has been eliminated, along with the need for a separate power supply. The Oculus Rift DK2 is now powered directly through USB, making much easier the ability to use the VR headset as part of a mobile backpack setup. The headset itself now also includes an open USB port for the attachment of peripherals. The DK2 now includes an integrated latency tester which the company hopes developers will use to optimize their virtual reality games and applications.
Here was my reaction after having a chance to try the Oculus Rift DK2 for the first time back in March:
The Oculus Rift DK2 offers an incredible leap in performance over the DK1. I was impressed with the Crystal Cove prototype at CES, but getting my head into the DK1 and then DK2 side-by-side with the same demo (Tuscany VR) codified for me all of the R&D Oculus has done over the last year. Yes, the screen is higher resolution, but that’s a minor point compared to what low-persistence and positional tracking bring to the table. The image is substantially sharper in the DK2 when moving your head, mostly thanks to low-persistence. I swear I could feel the difference between the DK1 and DK2 on my eyes. It’s hard to describe, but where the DK1 feels like looking through binoculars into another world, the DK2 feels like sticking your head out the window into another world. That’s not to say that the field of view is higher, but there’s something far more comfortable about using the DK2.
A full list of specs and release info can be found below:
Oculus Rift DK2 Release Date / Initial Shipping Date: July 1, 2014
- Display
- Resolution: 960×1080 per eye
- Refresh Rate: 75 Hz, 72 Hz, 60 Hz
- Persistence: 2 ms, 3 ms, full
- Viewing Optics: 100º Field of View (nominal)
- Interfaces
- Cable: 10’ (detachable)
- Input: HDMI 1.4b
- USB device: USB 2.0
- USB host: USB 2.0 (requires DC Power Adapter)
- Camera USB: USB 2.0
- Inertial Tracking
- Sensors: Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer
- Update Rate: 1000 Hz
- Positional Tracking
- Sensor: Near Infrared CMOS Sensor
- Update Rate: 60 Hz
- Weight: 440 g (without cable)
- Included Accessories
- DC Power Adapter
- International Power Plugs
- Nearsighted lens cups
- Lens cleaning cloth
