Last week Oculus VR was in Austin Texas at the annual SXSW interactive festival. In addition to hosting an open panel, the company showed off their latest Oculus Rift Crystal Cove prototype to the public for the first time. Stealing Crystal Cove’s thunder was the Game of Thrones ‘Ascend the Wall Experience’ which used the original developer kit.
Oculus VR SXSW Panel Featuring Palmer Luckey, Nate Mitchell, and Ryan Brown
Oculus VR’s SXSW 2014 panel consists of a brief opening with the rest of the session dedicated to Q&A. The panel includes Founder Palmer Luckey, VP of Product Nate Mitchell, and Hardware Architect Ryan Brown of Oculus VR.
One question, which was sure to pop up, was handled by Luckey with aplomb at 20:22:
Q: Do you have any idea when the HD developer kits might be rolling out?
A: Yeah we do… next question
Classic Luckey.
As someone who has seen most of Oculus’ panels, this one is worth the watch!
Oculus Rift Crystal Cove Prototype Shown to the Public
With all of the news that came out of CES about Oculus VR’s latest Rift prototype, dubbed Crystal Cove, it may surprise some to find that it was seen only behind closed doors until just last week. At SXSW Oculus VR opened a loft space for the public to come by to get their hands on the prototype for the first time. The Crystal Cove prototype features an OLED HD display, low-persistence technology, and positional tracking, achieved with an array of LED markers that are tracked by an external camera.
See Also: Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell – Low Persistence ‘Fundamentally Changes the Oculus Rift Experience’
Even though the Crystal Cove prototype blows the original developer kit (DK1) out of the water, there was big buzz about the ‘Ascend the Wall’ experience that was being shown at SXSW (using the DK1) as part of a Game of Thrones exhibition. NPR has a great piece that’s worth a listen or read.
Mashable also caught Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark (played by actress Maisie Williams) reacting quite intensely to the experience:
Wired’s Laura Hudson has a great writeup of the Oculus Rift Game of Thrones experience for those unable to try it.
