David Rowe, the developer behind the unofficial CtrlAltStudio Viewer for Second Life and Open Sim, has released a preliminary build to give Oculus Rift DK2 users their first glimpse into the popular virtual world.
David Rowe developed the first unofficial Second Life viewer to offer Oculus Rift DK1 support nearly a year ago, and many months before Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, added DK1 support to the official viewer. Now Rowe has done it again for the Rift DK2.
Those interested in getting a higher resolution look into the world of Second Life can download the early build of the viewer. In the announcement of the alpha release, Rowe says, “Have I mentioned that this release is very preliminary? It does not work with direct mode yet as the current Rift SDK 0.4.1 Beta does not work in direct mode with OpenGL. Also, in this alpha, head orientation is tracked but not yet head position. Plus there’s no display of any UI. And Advanced Lighting Model must be turned on.”
Rowe says that users should configure their Rift in Extended mode and then use the Windows Key + right or left arrow to move the CtrlAltStudio Viewer onto the Rift’s screen, followed by Ctrl+Alt+3 to switch to Rift mode. The viewer, which allows users to access both Second Life and Open Sim, supports only Windows for now. We’ll be looking forward to support for positional tracking as Rowe continues development.
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.
Thanks to Jo Yardley for the tip!