Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 Ready For Pre-Order Today

An anonymous reader writes "Today at GDC Oculus has revealed the second developer kit of their virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift DK2. The new unit has a 1080p OLED screen with low-persistence capabilities, positional tracking thanks to an IR LED array and compatible camera, and a bunch of other improvements over the DK1. Pre-orders start today for $350 and are expected to ship in July." The new model also eliminates the control box and adds a powered USB port. The experience is much better than the DK1 model according to the article: "The image is substantially sharper in the DK2 when moving your head, mostly thanks to low-persistence. I swear I could feel the difference between the DK1 and DK2 on my eyes. It’s hard to describe, but where the DK1 feels like looking through binoculars into another world, the DK2 feels like sticking your head out the window into another world. That’s not to say that the field of view is higher, but there’s something far more comfortable about using the DK2."

Re:I think this is dangerous

[beernutmark]

Yes but that's not caused by releasing another devkit specifically. Those problems may, or may not, be inherent in the technology. Releasing additional devkits may help solve those problems. It may not though. Regardless, I can't see how the overall excitement for vr will be hurt by another dev kit.

Oculus is doing more than most to prevent this

[SuperKendall]

Vertigo. Headaches. Disorientation. At least one episode of projectile vomiting.

That's very true of headsets in the past. But Oculus has been doing great work in figuring out how to eliminate those problems, with tools like the latency tracker that helps you write software that doesn't introduce potentially nausea-inducing latency - and enough sensors on the headset to provide a clean tracking which again can reduce nausea.

I myself have been pretty susceptible to FPS induced nausea in the past, so if I can make use of the headset they are building I figure it should be pretty solid for general consumption.

I personally really want to see someone succeed with headset technology because I just can't see any other way to get nearly as good a sense of true immersion in a virtual world. I figure at this point Oculus is as likely to succeed as anyone, even Sony.

Wow Slashdot has a bunch of grumps.

[JMZero]

I don't think it's dangerous or stupid. I'm willing to put something funny looking on my head. I don't care if it's a bit awkward or unpolished, or even if it doesn't work well for extended play (I don't have time for extended play usually anyway).

This is cool tech, and I'm excited for it. I hope it catches on. There was a time when Slashdot would mostly be with me on this. Now new tech is pretty much universally turded on.

That said, I'm much less sanguine about Sony's prospects. It feels like the Move before it, kind of a half-hearted effort to grab onto a trend. The Oculus people (and Valve) seem to be taking development much more seriously, and focusing on the right things to optimize the experience. They're gamers eating their own dogfood, and they like it enough that they've repeatedly doubled down.

Once it's released and gets some good software support, I think it's going to be something special.