Oculus Inc is that CES 2013 this year and the Oculus Rift is getting plenty of attention. The company isn’t making any new announcements, though they are giving demos of the VR headset to press at CES. In this post I’ll be pointing you’ll find fresh interviews and hands-on demos that are coming out of CES 2013 this week.
The Oculus Rift is a forthcoming low-cost head mounted display for immersive virtual reality gaming. In August, Oculus Inc raised over $2 million through Kickstarter to get Oculus Rift developer kits into production. The kits are expected to arrive in March. Learn more about the Rift, and what games it will support, here.
For the most part what we’re hearing is more of the same: people love the Oculus Rift HMD and they can’t wait for virtual reality gaming — I’ve heard several people in attendance say that the Oculus Rift is the coolest thing they’ve seen at CES 2013. Everyone wants to know when the consumer version will be released and whether or not it’ll have a higher resolution panel; for now the company is understandably staying silent on both points (which in the tech world means ‘we haven’t nailed things down yet’), though they say that a better display is a top priority.
The Oculus Rift VR headset being shown at CES 2013 is the pre-production prototype, with 5.6 inch display, that we’ve seen previously. Oculus also has the larger 7 inch production model on hand, though it seems to be non-functional. The display on the 7 inch model has a faster refresh rate, better colors, and a better pixel fill rate than the 5.6 inch display, according to the company (see ‘New Screen Details’ section here for more info). So far they have not revealed the manufacturer of the 7 inch display.
Oculus Rift CES 2013 Interview
Tested.com has one of the most comprehensive interviews I’ve seen so far from CES:
Palmer Luckey on The Verge’s Top Shelf
[skip to 19:05 if it doesn’t happen automatically]
More Oculus Rift CES 2013 Coverage Worth Reading
CNET – Hands On: Oculus Rift VR Headset
Not only was this the coolest thing I saw at CES, but it’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen ever. As someone who has always been interested in the idea of VR headsets, and always heartbreakingly let down by the reality of VR headsets, I admit I took a rare (for me) CES meeting on a lark. I had heard something about their successful Kickstarter, but honestly, I figured it would just be more of the same.
I was wrong. Not sure I’ve ever been more wrong. Even in this hand-built prototype stage, the Rift is amazing.
PC World – Oculus Rift VR headset prototype works so well it’s a little scary
…the fact that Oculus VR has managed to build a prototype version for roughly $300 is remarkable. It’s the first decent VR headset I’ve ever used, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final version; I just hope PC game developers invest the time and resources required to adapt modern PC games for such a unique peripheral.