What is the Oculus Rift all about? The
Oculus Rift is a head mounted display offering virtual reality an invention by
Oculus VR founded by Palmer Luckey. Although the Oculus Rift was created for
gaming purposes the device may also be optimized to surf the web and watch
movies among other uses (these are anticipated evolutions).
Currently the Oculus Rift works with Oculus ready games and virtual experiences created by developers. Developers have purchased the Oculus developers kit which goes for $300 and this has seen speedy growth of virtual reality content for the gadget. This is seen by the introduction of the Oculus Share which is a platform for developers to share their work, critique and polish up their creations. The oculus Share platform is expected to evolve into a marketplace when the Oculus Rift ships out to consumers.
Currently the Oculus Rift works with Oculus ready games and virtual experiences created by developers. Developers have purchased the Oculus developers kit which goes for $300 and this has seen speedy growth of virtual reality content for the gadget. This is seen by the introduction of the Oculus Share which is a platform for developers to share their work, critique and polish up their creations. The oculus Share platform is expected to evolve into a marketplace when the Oculus Rift ships out to consumers.
The general
market Oculus rift will not look like the developer’s kit and other
improvements expected include improved positioning and head tracking, wireless
operation and 1080p display resolution. Engineers and developers at OculusVR
are considering providing Ouya compatibility for the Oculus Rift. The developers’
kit has DVI and HDMI inputs, USB interface for powering and sending tracking
data. Development software or SDK is already available which supports Mac OS,
Windows & Linux and can be found at https://developer.oculusvr.com
The SDK contains libraries, documentation, headers and code samples to aid
developers integrate Oculus Rift with any game. Also included with the SDK is
the Unity integrations and Unreal Engine (out-of-the-box).
Some of the
games that support Oculus Rift include
- Team Fortress 2
- Museum of the Microstar
- Half-life 2
- Hawken
- The Gallery: Six Elements (developed specific for Oculus Rift)
The Oculus
Rift continues to open up the window of opportunities with regards to virtual
reality experiences and it is up to us to continue supporting the developers
and this project, Go OculusVR!
Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly instigated the deal. “Strategically we want to start building the next major computing platform that will come after mobile,” he said on a conference call on Tuesday night. Zuckerberg sees the acquisition as part of Facebook’s mission to build the so-called knowledge economy. “There are not many things that are candidates to be the next major computing platform,” he said. “[This acquisition is a] long-term bet on the future of computing.”
Facebook views the technology as more than a peripheral for video games. “Immersive virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s everyday life,” Zuckerberg said. “History suggests there will be more platforms to come, and whoever builds and defines these,” he said, will shape the future and reap the benefits.Asked on the investor call why the time is right for mass-market virtual reality, Zuckerberg cited the low cost of the necessary components. “One of the things driving this is that people can reuse components mass-produced for phones that can render a world quickly enough to not make a person feel motion sickness,” he said. “You need to render everything in a virtual world within 15 milliseconds, otherwise it’s too jarring and doesn’t feel real. For the first time, we are able to do that.”
Facebook acquires Oculus
26th Mar 2014Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly instigated the deal. “Strategically we want to start building the next major computing platform that will come after mobile,” he said on a conference call on Tuesday night. Zuckerberg sees the acquisition as part of Facebook’s mission to build the so-called knowledge economy. “There are not many things that are candidates to be the next major computing platform,” he said. “[This acquisition is a] long-term bet on the future of computing.”
Facebook views the technology as more than a peripheral for video games. “Immersive virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s everyday life,” Zuckerberg said. “History suggests there will be more platforms to come, and whoever builds and defines these,” he said, will shape the future and reap the benefits.Asked on the investor call why the time is right for mass-market virtual reality, Zuckerberg cited the low cost of the necessary components. “One of the things driving this is that people can reuse components mass-produced for phones that can render a world quickly enough to not make a person feel motion sickness,” he said. “You need to render everything in a virtual world within 15 milliseconds, otherwise it’s too jarring and doesn’t feel real. For the first time, we are able to do that.”
Oculus introduces the Oculus Share
The Oculus Share seeks to host games and VR experiences. The
platform is in its Beta stage and is poised to give developers an arena to
showcase their creations through publishing. Developers will be able to upload
Oculus ready VR games, check on ratings and feedback to enable them fine tune
their creations and download content from other developers. Users in future
should be able to engage with the Oculus Share platform to download games and
virtual reality experiences. Although the Oculus Share portal at the moment is
provided for developers, Oculus has a plan to upgrade it to a marketplace to
centralize the Oculus VR content and bring them closer to their users. Oculus
is currently available at share.oculusvr.com. If you already have log in
details for the Developer Center then use the same for Oculus share or simply
sign up.
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