Oculus Rift DK2
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Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of
virtual reality headset A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR ...
s developed and manufactured by
Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon ...
, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016. In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, after being founded as an independent company two months prior. The project proved successful, raising almost from around 10,000 contributors. Then in March 2014, Oculus was purchased by
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
for $2 billion.Gleasure, R., & Feller, J. (2016). A Rift in the Ground: Theorizing the Evolution of Anchor Values in Crowdfunding Communities through the Oculus Rift Case Study. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 17(10), 708-736. The Rift went through various pre-production models since the Kickstarter campaign, around five of which were demonstrated to the public before reaching its commercial release. Two of these models were shipped to backers, labelled as development kits; the DK1 in mid 2013 and DK2 in mid-2014, intended to provide developers with a platform to develop content in time for the Rift's release. However, both were also purchased by many enthusiasts who wished to get an early preview of the technology. The Rift saw its commercial release in March 2016 with the Rift CV1, which was discontinued in March 2019 with the release of its successor, the
Oculus Rift S The Oculus Rift S is a virtual reality headset co-developed by Lenovo Technologies and Facebook Technologies—a division of Meta Platforms. Announced in March 2019 and released that May, it is a successor to the original Oculus Rift CV1 mode ...
.


History


Initial prototypes

Through Meant to be Seen (MTBS)'s virtual reality and 3
discussion forums
Palmer Luckey Palmer Freeman Luckey (born September 19, 1992) is an American entrepreneur best known as the founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality ...
, the founder of Oculus and longtime MTBS discussion forum moderator, developed the idea of creating a new
head-mounted display A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet (see Helmet-mounted display for aviation applications), that has a small display optic in front of one ( monocular HMD) or each eye ( binocular HMD). An ...
that was both more effective than what was then on the market, and inexpensive for gamers. The first rough prototype was put together in 2011 by Palmer Luckey (then 18 years old) in his parents’ garage in
Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
. Coincidentally, John Carmack had been doing his own research and happened upon Luckey's developments as a fellow member of MTBS. After sampling an early prototype, Carmack favored Luckey's approach and just before the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo,
Id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
announced that their future updated version of ''
Doom 3 ''Doom 3'' is a 2004 survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and ported ...
'', '' BFG Edition'', would be compatible with head-mounted display units. In June 2012, during the E3 convention, Carmack introduced a duct taped head-mounted display based on Luckey's Oculus Rift prototype, which ran Carmack's own software. The unit featured a high speed
IMU IMU may refer to: Science and technology * Inertial measurement unit, a device that measures acceleration and rotation, used for example to maneuver modern vehicles including motorcycles, missiles, air- and spacecraft Businesses and organizations ...
and a LCD, visible via dual lenses, that were positioned over the eyes to provide a 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees vertical stereoscopic 3D perspective.


Development Kit 1

Two months after being formed as a company, Palmer's
Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon ...
launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign on August 1, 2012 for their virtual reality headset, named the Rift. The main purpose of the Kickstarter was to get an Oculus Rift prototype—now referred to as DK1 (Development Kit 1)—into the hands of developers to begin integration of the device into their games. The DK1 was given as a reward to backers who pledged $300 or more on Kickstarter, and was later sold publicly for $300 on their website. These kits sold at a rate of 4–5 per minute for the first day, before slowing down throughout the week. The Rift DK1 was released on March 29, 2013, and uses a screen with a significantly lower pixel switching time than the original prototype, reducing latency and motion blur when turning one's head quickly. The pixel fill is also better, reducing the
screen door effect The screen-door effect (SDE) is a visual artifact of displays, where the fine lines separating pixels (or subpixels) become visible in the displayed image. This can be seen in digital projector images and regular displays under magnification or ...
and making individual pixels less noticeable. The LCD is brighter and the color depth is 24 bits per pixel. The 7-inch screen also makes the stereoscopic 3D no longer 100% overlapping, the left eye seeing extra area to the left and the right eye seeing extra area to the right, in which there is no 3D depth perception. The field of view (FOV) is more than 90 degrees horizontal (110 degrees diagonal), which is more than double the FOV of previous VR devices from other companies, and is the primary strength of the device. The resolution is 1280×800 (16:10 aspect ratio), which leads to an effective of 640×800 per eye (4:5 aspect ratio). However, since the device does not feature a 100% overlap between the eyes, the combined horizontal resolution is effectively greater than 640. The image for each eye is shown in the panel as a barrel distorted image that is then corrected by pincushion effect created by lenses in the headset, generating a spherical-mapped image for each eye. Initial prototypes used a
Hillcrest Labs Hillcrest Labs was a sensor processing technology company that developed freespace motion-control technology and developed the first motion-controlled remote for television.''The Washington Post'' May 1, 2011. Steven OverlyAs the TV market shift ...
3DoF Six degrees of freedom (6DOF) refers to the six mechanical degrees of freedom of movement of a rigid body in three-dimensional space. Specifically, the body is free to change position as forward/backward (surge), up/down (heave), left/right ...
head tracker that is normally 125 Hz, with a special firmware requested by John Carmack that makes it run at 250 Hz, tracker latency being vital due to the dependency of virtual reality's realism on response time. The latest version includes Oculus's new 1000 Hz Adjacent Reality Tracker, which aims to provide much lower latency tracking than almost any other tracker. It uses a combination of three-axis
gyros Gyros—in some regions, chiefly North America, anglicized as a gyro (; el, γύρος, yíros/gyros, turn, )—is meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread, along with ingredients suc ...
,
accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acc ...
s, and magnetometers, which make it capable of absolute (relative to Earth) head orientation tracking without drift. The Development Kit 1 also included interchangeable lenses that aim to allow for simple
dioptric correction Dioptric correction is the expression for the adjustment of the optical instrument to the varying visual acuity of a person's eyes. It is the adjustment of one lens to provide compatible focus when the viewer's eyes have differing visual capab ...
. The entire source for the Rift DK1 was released to the public in September 2014, including the firmware, schematics, and mechanicals for the device. The firmware is released under a
simplified BSD license BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD li ...
, while the schematics and mechanicals are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


HD and Crystal Cove prototypes

In June 2013, a prototype of the Rift that used a 1080p LCD panel was shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo. This step forwards to twice the number of pixels as DK1 significantly reduced the
screen door effect The screen-door effect (SDE) is a visual artifact of displays, where the fine lines separating pixels (or subpixels) become visible in the displayed image. This can be seen in digital projector images and regular displays under magnification or ...
and made objects in the virtual world more clear, especially at a distance. The poor resolution had been the main criticism of the DK1. This HD prototype is the only prototype of the Rift shown to the public which did not turn into a publicly available developer kit. In January 2014, an updated prototype codenamed "Crystal Cove" was unveiled at Consumer Electronics Show, which used a special low-
persistence of vision Persistence of vision traditionally refers to the optical illusion that occurs when visual perception of an object does not cease for some time after the rays of light proceeding from it have ceased to enter the eye. The illusion has also been d ...
OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...
display as well as a new motion tracking system that utilized an external camera to track infrared dots located on the headset. The new motion tracking system would allow the system to detect actions such as leaning or crouching, which was claimed to help alleviate sickness experienced by users when the software did not respond to these actions.


Development Kit 2

Oculus began shipping Development Kit 2 (DK2) in July 2014. This is a small refinement of the "Crystal Cove" prototype, featuring several key improvements over the first development kit, such as having a higher-resolution (960×1080 per eye) low-persistence OLED display, higher refresh rate of 75Hz, positional tracking, a detachable cable, and the omission of the need for the external control box. A teardown of DK2 revealed that it incorporates a modified
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is an Android phablet smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 3 was unveiled on September 4, 2013, with its worldwide release beginning later in the month. S ...
smartphone display, including the front panel from the device itself. In February 2015, Oculus announced that over 100,000 DK2 units had been shipped up until that point.


Crescent Bay prototype

In September 2014, Oculus once again presented an updated version of the Rift, codenamed Crescent Bay. This version has a greater resolution than the DK2, a lower weight, built-in audio, and 360-degree tracking thanks to the presence of tracking LEDs in the back of the headset. Oculus has also licensed software library RealSpace3D, which is expected to provide the Rift with
HRTF A head-related transfer function (HRTF), also known as anatomical transfer function (ATF), is a response that characterizes how an ear receives a sound from a point in space. As sound strikes the listener, the size and shape of the head, ears, ea ...
and reverb algorithms. During a panel at
SXSW 2015 South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...
, titled "Explore the Future of VR", it was publicly announced for the first time that the prototype uses two screens instead of one as previously thought.


First consumer version

Oculus VR announced on May 6, 2015, that the consumer version of the Rift would ship in the first quarter of 2016, and on March 25, 2016 the first batch of headsets began shipping to consumers. The consumer version is an improved version of the Crescent Bay Prototype, featuring per-eye displays with a 1080×1200 resolution, running at 90 Hz, 360-degree positional tracking, integrated audio, a vastly increased positional tracking volume, and a heavy focus on consumer ergonomics and aesthetics. In March 2019, during the announcement of the Rift S, it was said that the Rift S would replace the original Rift. However, Oculus VR stated that they planned to support the CV1 with software updates for "the foreseeable future".


Rift S

On May 21, 2019, Oculus began shipping a new VR headset known as Rift S. The Rift S has a 1,280 ×1,440 LCD @ 80 Hz and slightly larger field of view than that of the CV1, but lacks mechanical IPD adjustment (IPD adjustment is software-only). The Rift S tracks the position of itself and its controllers in 3D space using a system known as Oculus Insight, which uses the 5 cameras on the HMD to track points in the environment and infrared LEDs on the controllers, information from accelerometers in both the HMD and controllers, and computer vision to predict what path the HMD and controllers are most likely to take. The Rift S uses a DisplayPort 1.2 port and one USB 3.0 port, as opposed to the HDMI and USB 3.0 port used on the Rift CV1. The Rift S targeted the same price point (USD$399) and hardware requirements as the Rift CV1, and has replaced the Rift CV1 since. During September 2020, it was announced that the Rift S would be discontinued in 2021 in order for Oculus to focus on the
Oculus Quest 2 Meta Quest 2 (initially sold as Oculus Quest 2) is a virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.). It was unveiled on September 16, 2020 and released on October 13. As with its predecessor, the Oculus Qu ...
. In 2021, the Rift S was officially discontinued and was no longer available on the Oculus website, effectively ending the Rift line.


Software


Runtime

The Oculus Rift runtime officially supports Microsoft Windows,
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, and
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
. The installation package includes components such as the headset driver (which includes Oculus Display driver and controller drivers), Positional Tracking Sensor driver, Oculus Service, and Oculus Home Application. The runtime service implements a number of processing techniques intended to minimize latency and in addition improve the smoothness of VR applications under weaker hardware. These include direct mode,
asynchronous timewarp Asynchronous reprojection is a class of computer graphics technologies aimed ensuring a virtual reality headset's responsiveness to user motion even when the Graphics processing unit, GPU isn't able to keep up with the headset's target frame rate. ...
, and
asynchronous spacewarp Asynchronous reprojection is a class of computer graphics technologies aimed ensuring a virtual reality headset's responsiveness to user motion even when the GPU isn't able to keep up with the headset's target frame rate. Reprojection involves th ...
.


Oculus Home

When the user puts on the Rift and no other content is being outputted to the headset, they are presented with ''Oculus Home''. This is the default environment of the Rift, which presents them with a loft environment and a floating menu, allowing the user to launch VR applications they own, see if their friends are using the Rift, and purchase virtual reality content on the ''Oculus Home'' store from the headset. An update to the base software, called Core 2.0, introduced a more interactive default environment, allowing the user to navigate and customize it with imported 3D models.


Oculus Store

Oculus maintains a market place for applications for the headsets. The listings are curated to only allow applications that run smoothly on the recommended hardware. Most listings are also rated on their comfort level based on their likelihood of causing motion sickness or number of jump scares. However, developers do not have to use ''Oculus Home'' to distribute content for the Rift, this being entirely optional. The Store can be accessed from the VR-based Oculus Home, from its desktop app, or on the Oculus web site under the section "Experiences."


Features

Listings on the registry include: * Age and content ratings * Comfort rating: "comfortable", "moderate", "intense" (assigned by Oculus) * User ratings and reviews: user can give a rating on a 5-star scale and write a review


SDK

Content for the Rift is developed using the Oculus PC SDK, a free proprietary SDK available for Microsoft Windows (OSX and Linux support is planned for the future). This is a feature complete SDK which handles for the developer the various aspects of making virtual reality content, such as the optical distortion and advanced rendering techniques. The Oculus SDK is directly integrated with the popular game engines
Unity 5 Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a varie ...
,
Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Initially developed for Personal computer, PC first-person shooters, i ...
, and
Cryengine CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in ''Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...
. This allows for developers already familiar with these engines to create VR content with little to no VR-specific code. The Rift is an open platform, and thus developers do not need any approval or verification to develop, distribute, or sell content for it, and do not have to pay any licensing fees. The SDK, however, cannot be modified or reused for other purposes or hardware without permission. Content developed for the Development Kit 2 using SDK version 0.8 or above are compatible with the Rift; however, content developed for the Development Kit 1 or with older versions of the SDK will have to be recompiled using the latest SDK version to be compatible. On December 21, 2015, Oculus announced the release of their finalized Rift 1.0 SDK, combined with the start of shipping their final version of the Oculus Rift VR headset to developers. At Oculus's 3rd annual conference (Oculus Connect 3), it announced the new technology, called "Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW)". This technology allows the Rift to compensate for the dropped frames. According to Oculus, ASW reduces the minimum specs of a PC to run the Rift without any judder.


System requirements

In May 2015, Oculus VR announced "recommended" hardware specifications for computers utilizing Oculus Rift, specifying a CPU equivalent to an Intel Core i5-4590, at least 8GB of RAM, at least an AMD Radeon R9 290 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, an
HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...
1.3 output, three
USB 3.0 USB 3.0, released in November 2008, is the third major version of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for interfacing computers and electronic devices. Among other improvements, USB 3.0 adds the new transfer rate referred to as '' ...
ports, and one
USB 2.0 Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
port. Oculus VR stated that these requirements would remain in force for the life of the first consumer model. The company also stated that while upcoming discrete GPUs for laptops may be able to reach the required performance for Oculus Rift, systems that switch between integrated and discrete graphics may not handle output in a manner that supports the device. Oculus Rift only supports
64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A compu ...
versions of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
SP1 or later; Oculus VR stated that the device would initially support Windows only in order to focus on "delivering a high uality consumer-level VR experience"; support for
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
and
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
will be developed in the future. A hardware testing application is available, and Oculus VR has also certified and promoted specific models of pre-built computers that meet these recommendations, from vendors such as Asus,
Alienware Alienware is an American computer hardware subsidiary of Dell. Their product range is dedicated to gaming computers which can be identified by their alien-themed designs. Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila, and is ...
and
Dell Inc. Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data s ...
, as being "Oculus Ready". On October 6, 2016, Oculus VR announced lessened hardware recommendations, now suggesting an Intel Core i3-6100 or AMD FX 4350 CPU, at least a GeForce GTX 960 or equivalent graphics card, two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port, and
Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...
or newer. The company stated that these lower requirements were enabled by the adoption of
motion interpolation Motion interpolation or motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) is a form of video processing in which intermediate animation frames are generated between existing ones by means of interpolation, in an attempt to make animation more fluid, t ...
; on systems that cannot handle full 90 frames per second rendering, the drivers will allow software to render at 45 FPS instead, and generate frames based on differences between them to send to the headset to maintain its frame rate. Oculus promoted that these changes lowered the average hardware cost of a PC meeting these specifications to US$500 and would also enable certain laptops to run Oculus Rift. In June 2018, Oculus VR updated its recommended OS spec to Windows 10. While Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users would still be able to access the standard Rift experience, newer features and apps might require an upgrade to Windows 10.


Applications


Gaming

Oculus has stated that the Rift is primarily a gaming device and that their main content focus is gaming. Existing games with a first-person or fixed-camera perspective can be ported to VR with some development effort. However, Oculus has stated that the best virtual reality experiences are those that are designed, from the beginning, for the Rift. A number of AAA games have added Rift support (and can be played with the Development Kit 2), including ''
Project CARS ''Project CARS'' is a racing video game series developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The franchise was introduced in 2015 and received a sequel in 2017, followed by ''Project CARS 3'' in 2020. Games ...
'', '' Elite: Dangerous'', ''
Euro Truck Simulator 2 ''Euro Truck Simulator 2'' is an open world truck simulator game developed and published by SCS Software for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS and was initially released as open development on 18 October 2012. The game is a direct sequel t ...
'', and ''
Dirt Rally ''Dirt Rally'' (stylised as ''DiRT Rally'') is a racing simulation video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows. A Steam Early Access version of the game was released on 27 April 2015, and the full version was released ...
'', as well as a number of
indie games An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...
such as '' AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity'' and '' Ether One''. Fans and hobbyists have also modded support for the Rift into several popular titles which allow for extensive low-level
modding ''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb " to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specif ...
, including ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'' and ''
Flight Simulator X ''Microsoft Flight Simulator X'' (abbreviated as ''FSX'') is a 2006 flight simulation video game originally developed by Aces Game Studio and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to '' Microsoft Flight ...
''. At the release event for the Rift in June 2015, Oculus announced 9 launch titles for the Rift, including '' EVE: Valkyrie'' by CCP and ''Edge of Nowhere'' by
Insomniac Games Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and a studio of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is m ...
. It also announced that it was working with other developers including ''Final Fantasy'' developer Square Enix, ''Rock Band'' developer
Harmonix Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...
, and ''The Order: 1886'' developer
Ready at Dawn Ready at Dawn Studios LLC (RAD) is an American video game developer located in Irvine, California and is composed of former members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment. Formed in 2003, the company has primarily worked on games for the PlayS ...
. In July 2015, Oculus revealed that it was fully funding more than 20 second party high production value games made exclusively for the Rift, one of these being Insomniac's ''Edge of Nowhere''. In July 2017, Marvel announced in the Disney's D23 event that it will be bringing 12 superheroes of theirs to VR with an Oculus exclusive game called Powers United VR.


Non-gaming


Media

Oculus is including ''Oculus Cinema'' as a free application, which allows the Rift to be used to view conventional movies and videos from inside a virtual cinema environment, giving the user the perception of viewing the content on a cinema-sized screen. ''Oculus Cinema'' will also have a networked mode, in which multiple users can watch the same video in the same virtual space, seeing each other as avatars and being able to interact and talk to one another while watching the video. The Rift also offers the opportunity to view new types of media that are impossible to view on regular monitors; 360° 3D videos and 'virtual reality movies' (an entirely new medium). Spherical videos (commonly called 360° videos) can be viewed simply by the user moving their head around, and the Rift opens up the possibility for stereoscopic spherical videos (commonly called 360° 3D videos). In September 2014, NextVR announced that they would be using a $200,000 camera rig to produce 360° 3D content for the Rift, including short films, as well as live streaming live events such as sports or concerts in 360° 3D. In July 2015, Oculus announced a deal with Canadian film company Felix & Paul Studios to produce 360° 3D videos for the Rift. The Rift also supports a new medium of entertainment experiences, which Oculus calls "virtual reality movies". Oculus has established Oculus Story Studio to develop this type of content for the Rift, a team which has multiple former employees from major VFX companies such as
PIXAR Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...
and
ILM Ilm or ILM may refer to: Acronyms * Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product * '' I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1 * Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets * Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion ...
. Oculus Story Studio showed off its first VR movie, ''Lost'', at the
2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. '' What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film '' Grandma'', directed by ...
, gaining positive reviews from attendees. The studio intends to have 5 VR shorts released with the Rift at launch, including ''Lost'', ''Bullfighter'', ''
Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
'', ''Dear Angelica'', and ''Kabloom''.


Social

Oculus believes that social applications will be the most popular virtual reality experiences in the long term. A number of social applications for the Rift are in development, and it is expected that there will be significant competition in the sector. In May 2015,
AltspaceVR AltspaceVR is a social VR platform that was founded in 2013 by Eric Romo and launched its initial product in May 2015. In 2017 it was acquired by Microsoft and is now part of the Mixed Reality division (alongside notable products like HoloLens and ...
launched a public beta for DK2 owners to try out their social VR platform. AltspaceVR allows people to inhabit a shared virtual space with spatial voice communications, cast content from the Internet on virtual screens, and interact with objects (allowing activities such as playing chess or other board games). It also supports extra hardware like eye tracking and body tracking. In 2013,
Philip Rosedale Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world ''Second Life''. Biography Early life Rosedale was born in San Diego, California, in 1968. He took an inter ...
, the founder of
Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
, left
Linden Lab Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''. The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia a ...
to work on a new virtual world designed for the Rift, called '' High Fidelity'', which will link thousands of user-hosted virtual environments together into a consistent virtual world. In May 2015, Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, announced that they too were working on a new virtual world, codenamed ''Project Sansar'', built for virtual reality headsets such as the Rift and
Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts ...
. Like Second Life, Sansar will be hosted on Linden's servers and lease virtual land to players, on which they can build and sell virtual items and services (which Linden will take a cut of). Linden Lab hoped to release Sansar by the end of 2016.


Industrial and professional

As well as the consumer uses, the Rift has attracted significant interest from industry and professional spheres for productivity enhancement, visualization, and advertising. A number of architecture firms have been experimenting with using the Rift for visualization and design. With the right software, the Rift allows architects to see exactly what their building will look like and get an understanding of the scale that is impossible on a traditional monitor. In early 2015,
Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...
started using Rift Developer Kit 2's at dealerships to help customers configure the car they are interested in, as well as to see what driving a race in the car would be like. The
Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...
has been experimenting with the Rift Development Kit 2 to allow for a greater situational awareness of armoured vehicle drivers and commanders. The use of Oculus Rift on an innovative virtual operator station assists the control of a teleoperated military mobile robot Tactical Robotic System (TAROS). Human operators can have intuitive control and mediate 3D view from stereovision cameras. Oculus Medium is a Painting Experience for Oculus Rift. Education The Oculus Rift is increasingly used in universities and schools as an educational tool. The ability to provide an immersive, engaging environment can assist a diverse range of students for learning. In particular, there appears to be benefits to medical, health science and exercise students when utilising the Oculus Rift as a supplement for content provided in anatomy and physiology. There is also increasing use of the Oculus Rift within curricula in other fields such as marketing, architecture, clinical education., computer science and paramedics


Television

In October 2016, the television series ''
Halcyon Halcyon is a name originally derived from Alcyone of Greek mythology. Halcyon or Halcyone may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''Halcyon'' (TV series), a Virtual Reality murder mystery on SyFy * '' The Halcyon'', British period ...
'' was released as a "virtual reality series", where some episodes are broadcast on conventional television. and some as VR content for Oculus Rift. It is a crime drama following the world's first "VR Crimes Unit" in 2048.


Sports

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
began producing content for the Oculus Rift and other virtual reality systems in fall 2016. Its initial content consisted mainly of ''
Fox College Football ''Fox College Football'' (or ''Fox CFB'' for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2. Initial college football broadcasts on ...
'' coverage.


Casinos

Some
online casinos Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar") casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. It is a prolific form of ...
have started using Oculus Rift to provide a unique online casino experience, allowing the user to play slots and experience the lobby of a casino through their VR headset.


ZeniMax/Facebook lawsuits

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland, and founded in 1999. The company owns publisher Bethesda Softworks with its development unit Bethesda Game Studios (developer of ''The Elder Scrolls,'' ...
, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, which in turn owns
Id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
, presented a lawsuit against Facebook, claiming the Oculus Rift was the product of intellectual property owned by ZeniMax, developed by John Carmack during his time working for Id Software. The jury ruled partially in favor of ZeniMax, finding the defendants did not steal
trade secrets Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily a ...
but had violated a non-disclosure agreement. Facebook and some of the Oculus
corporate officer Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit or ...
s were ordered to pay a total of US$500 million. On March 10, 2017, it was revealed that Carmack was suing ZeniMax for US$22.7 million it owed him from their purchase of Id Software.


Reception

The Oculus Rift received generally positive reviews from gaming and tech websites. ''Wired'' gave 9 out of 10 stars to Oculus Rift and wrote, "The long-promised virtual reality headset is finally here, in a remarkably well-made and accessible device." A review by Dan Stapleton of IGN says, "The Oculus Rift is the first headset available, and it does a fantastic job of not just displaying high-quality VR, but making it easy to use." Many reviewers also wrote about the shortcomings of Rift, such as a hefty price tag ($599 in US) and the need of a powerful PC to run it. The ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' wrote, "The first totally immersive home virtual reality rig is a pricey, awkward, isolating—and occasionally brilliant—glimpse of the future of computing." ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
'' said, "Virtual Reality: 8/10. Virtual reality is always almost here." Will Greenwald of PCMag recommended the Rift once the price had dropped, writing, "The Oculus Rift comfortably produces an immersive, crisp virtual reality experience that will continue to improve with the development of new software, which has been steadily coming out on both the Oculus store and SteamVR. Now that the Rift costs two-thirds of its original $600 price and includes the Oculus Touch controllers and second external sensor that enables whole-room VR, it earns our Editors' Choice for PC-based VR headsets."


References


External links

* * {{Facebook navbox American inventions Kickstarter-funded products Oculus VR Products introduced in 2016 Virtual reality headsets Wearable devices