Oculus has announced that their forthcoming ‘Step into the Rift’ press event will be livestreamed for all to see. The action starts at 10am PT on Thursday (tomorrow!).
After recently revealing that the consumer Oculus Rift VR headset would launch in Q1 2016, the company sent out press invites for a special event they’re calling ‘Step into the Rift’. At the event it’s expected that we’ll hear brand new details about the consumer headset, and possibly more about what’s up Oculus’ sleeve.
For those unable to make tomorrow’s SF-based ‘Step into the Rift’ event, fear not, for you’ll be able to join in on the fun thanks to an official livestream which will begin at 10am PT. Find the time of the event in your own timezone right here. Oculus says the livestream will be available on their website as well as their Twitch.tv channel.
We’ll make it nice and easy for you by publishing a new article tomorrow prior to the event with the embedded livestream. If you want to be seriously meta, pop on your Oculus Rift DK2 to watch the livestream about the Oculus Rift consumer headset, within VR, by joining others for virtual viewings of the livestream in Convrge or Altspace.
A few things that we expect or hope to hear from the event:
Specific Release Date
After years of speculation, Oculus has recently locked down “Q1, 2016” as the release date of the consumer Rift, but hasn’t been more specific than that. This puts the company’s release date in the middle of ‘the big three’, with Valve targeting a Q4 2015 SteamVR/HTC Vive release and Sony Q2 2016 for their Morpheus PS4 headset.
Price
Oculus has waxed and waned on various price targets for the consumer Rift over the years. The Rift DK1 development kit ran $300, while the DK2 development kit set folks back $350. Our ballpark estimate is $300-$500, with Oculus going on record previously to say that they may sell the headset “at cost.”
Input
Oculus is “behind” as far as some many developers are concerned regarding ‘the input question’—an officially endorsed method for how users will interact with virtual reality experiences. Valve and Sony have already committed to their own input solutions (Lighthouse + SteamVR controllers and PlayStation Move, respectively), allowing developers to target those input devices before they get into consumers hands’. Meanwhile, Oculus developers have become uneasy not knowing what the ultimate input solution for the Rift will be.
Although Oculus has not officially revealed their input solution, yesterday’s ‘Nakka Leak’ gave the first real glimpse of an input device from the company, showing a small handheld remote with trackpad, which was referred to as the SID (Simple Input Device).
Technical Specs/features
Resolution, one of the critical specs for the Oculus Rift consumer headset was recently confirmed by the company as 2160×1200 (with 90Hz refresh rate), the same as the previously revealed Rift ‘Crescent Bay’ prototype and the HTC Vive. However, Oculus has yet to reveal the unit’s field of view, another spec of critical concern, as well as some lesser but still important bits like weight, whether or not the headset will support physical IPD adjustment, etc.
See Also: HTC Vive Setup Guide Reveals IPD, Eye-relief Adjustments, and More
Distribution Platform (in VR)
Oculus launched their ‘Share’ service some time ago, giving developers a web-based portal to share Rift experiences. The platform is still very much in its infancy with no way for developers to charge for their games/software, and no way for users to access the Share store inside the headset itself.
On Samsung’s Gear VR, which Oculus helped created, the experience is much closer to what we expect to see for the Rift. Oculus Home, as it’s called, allows users to browse available VR apps for the headset, initiate downloads, as well as browse through the user’s app library and seamlessly launch apps, all within the headset. Developers are also able to sell their experiences through Oculus Home.
Tune in with us tomorrow to catch the stream!