Project Santa Cruz, Oculus’ in-development standalone VR headset first teased back at Oculus Connect 2016, doesn’t even really have a proper name yet, but at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) the company will be dedicating an hour-long talk to the fundamentals of developing for the new platform. Giving developers more insight into the headset’s limitations could mean launch might be right around the corner.
When we first got our hands on the first publicly shown iteration of Santa Cruz back at Connect 2016, it was essentially a prototype microcomputer integrated into an Oculus Rift headset. It has since been developed into a bespoke headset, replete with several integrated optical sensors to not only give the headset itself 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF), but critically allowing for 6DoF controllers as well, meaning you get an experience much closer to a ‘tethered’ PC VR experience than mobile VR’s forerunners like Gear VR or the upcoming Oculus Go headset. In our latest hands-on with Santa Cruz, we got a brief sense of the sort of room-scale experiences the headset could run, but with Oculus sharing more insight into the headset’s limitations, it’s likely Santa Cruz is nearing finalization and heading toward launch sometime soon.
Entitled ‘Developing for Santa Cruz’, the talk will feature Gabor Szauer, Oculus Developer Relations Engineer; Rade Stojsavljevic, Oculus Head of Content Strategy; and Ryan Rutherford, Oculus Software Engineer. Here’s the description below:
Standalone represents an exciting new category for game development and an approachable first VR platform for developers new to immersive design. Members of the Oculus Engineering and Content teams will discuss the key differences between Santa Cruz and other headsets—and offer practical insights on design and development considerations for the future of VR.
The talk will be an ‘in booth’ session, taking place March 21st at 12:30 – 1:30 pm PT. If you’re attending GDC this year and interested in official Oculus talks, head over to the Oculus featured talks list.
We’ll have feet on the ground at GDC, so check back for more coverage when talks start on Monday, March 19th.