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| Oculus Rift DK2 Goes On Sale For $350, Features Low Latency 1080p Displays, More Polished Appearance |
Obviously terrified of being squeezed out of the market by Sony’s Project Morpheus virtual reality headset, Oculus VR has announced the imminent arrival of its second-generation Oculus Rift dev kit: The DK2. The DK2 (Development Kit 2) is a lot like the Crystal Cove prototype that we’ve previously played with — it has high-res, low-latency, low-persistence 1080p displays for each eye, among other improved features — but gone are the rough edges and the weird, Frankensteinian infrared LEDs that adorned the outside. The DK2 looks a lot more like a finished, commercial product that you’d be happy (or at least happier) to strap to your face for prolonged gameplay sessions. The DK2 is available to pre-order for $350, and should ship by July. The consumer version, along with decent support for AAA games, is still looking like a 2015 release at the earliest.
Yesterday, Sony announced that it was working Project Morpheus — a VR headset for the PS4. Today, Oculus VR opened up pre-sale of the second-gen Oculus Rift DK2 headset, with the “current schedule” of shipping in July. This is not a coincidence. By far the biggest problem facing the Oculus Rift is developer support. Having the best, cheapest, or first-to-market hardware means nothing if the latest AAA games from Naughty Dog or Infinity Ward don’t program their games to support the Rift. Sony obviously has a lot more clout than Oculus in the developer arena, and should rightfully be a little bit scared of Sony’s intentions. We can hope that Sony and Oculus work together on a standardized VR SDK for developers, but I fear that’s unlikely.
The Oculus Rift DK2 is much more advanced than the original dev kit, and also a significant step up from the Crystal Cove prototype that was originally shown off at CES 2014. One of the biggest improvements in DK2 is the use of two low-persistence (i.e. less motion blur/judder) 960×1080 OLED displays, one for each eye. Talking to Polygon, Oculus’ Nate Mitchell said Valve assisted with the low-persistence work. ”We were investigating low persistence, in a different sense, on LCDs, and Valve had succeeded in getting low persistence going in OLED… As soon as you saw it, you were like oh god, this changes everything. They were a big help in the regard.” The DK2 tech specs say that each display is capable of a 75Hz refresh rate — assuming you have the PC software/hardware to drive two 1080p displays at 75Hz, I guess.
The DK2 also features updated wiring and expansion sockets — gone is the breakout box, replaced with a single cable from the Rift that has both an HDMI and USB connector at the end of it. There is also a USB socket on the DK2 itself, to allow for the connection of other peripherals (such as, say, a front-facing camera — though ultimately, we hope the consumer version of the Rift has a built-in front-facing camera). Mitchell told Polygon that DK2 was close enough to the consumer version that game developers now have a safe, stable target to aim for.
The Oculus Rift DK2 will sport low-persistence displays, which will reduce the nausea-inducing motion blur produced by fast-paced games
So, for $350 (a very reasonable price) you can soon get your hands on one of the best VR headsets on the market. Sony’s offering, if it ever comes to market, is probably a lot further away (though, if Sony is truly serious about VR, it could surprise us with a quick release). The thing is, it’s not like the delivery of VR hardware was ever really in question; it was always going to be about the software. The Oculus SDK is compatible with Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 4, but beyond that Oculus has said very, very little about AAA games, or how the VR experience will ultimately be integrated into your PC usage patterns. “How easy is it to plug in and dive into content, what content you’re actually playing, that’s one of the most crucial things that we’re working on now, and the software team continues to work on it,” Mitchell told Polygon. No one outside of Oculus is yet to see this software, including early dev kit adopters.
Finally, as a fun aside, this is what John Carmack (who now works at Oculus VR) had to say, following Sony’s Project Morpheus announcement. (Palmer Luckey is Oculus VR’s co-founder and CEO.)
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