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.
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.
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:
DK2 support is coming along. @NateIngraham got a taste of it today. Thanks for dropping by!
— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) August 28, 2014