oculus rift prototype

Oculus Inc is that CES 2013 this year and the Oculus Rift is getting plenty of attention. The company isn’t making any new announcements, though they are giving demos of the VR headset to press at CES. In this post I’ll be pointing you’ll find fresh interviews and hands-on demos that are coming out of CES 2013 this week.

The Oculus Rift is a forthcoming low-cost head mounted display for immersive virtual reality gaming. In August, Oculus Inc raised over $2 million through Kickstarter to get Oculus Rift developer kits into production. The kits are expected to arrive in March. Learn more about the Rift, and what games it will support, here. 

For the most part what we’re hearing is more of the same: people love the Oculus Rift HMD and they can’t wait for virtual reality gaming — I’ve heard several people in attendance say that the Oculus Rift is the coolest thing they’ve seen at CES 2013. Everyone wants to know when the consumer version will be released and whether or not it’ll have a higher resolution panel; for now the company is understandably staying silent on both points (which in the tech world means ‘we haven’t nailed things down yet’), though they say that a better display is a top priority.

oculus rift review prototype
The pre-production prototype appears to be the same one seen previously

The Oculus Rift VR headset being shown at CES 2013 is the pre-production prototype, with 5.6 inch display, that we’ve seen previously. Oculus also has the larger 7 inch production model on hand, though it seems to be non-functional. The display on the 7 inch model has a faster refresh rate, better colors, and a better pixel fill rate than the 5.6 inch display, according to the company (see ‘New Screen Details’ section here for more info). So far they have not revealed the manufacturer of the 7 inch display.

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Oculus Rift CES 2013 Interview

Tested.com has one of the most comprehensive interviews I’ve seen so far from CES:

Palmer Luckey on The Verge’s Top Shelf

[skip to 19:05 if it doesn’t happen automatically]

 

More Oculus Rift CES 2013 Coverage Worth Reading

 

CNET – Hands On: Oculus Rift VR Headset

Not only was this the coolest thing I saw at CES, but it’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen ever. As someone who has always been interested in the idea of VR headsets, and always heartbreakingly let down by the reality of VR headsets, I admit I took a rare (for me) CES meeting on a lark. I had heard something about their successful Kickstarter, but honestly, I figured it would just be more of the same.

I was wrong. Not sure I’ve ever been more wrong. Even in this hand-built prototype stage, the Rift is amazing.

PC World – Oculus Rift VR headset prototype works so well it’s a little scary

…the fact that Oculus VR has managed to build a prototype version for roughly $300 is remarkable. It’s the first decent VR headset I’ve ever used, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final version; I just hope PC game developers invest the time and resources required to adapt modern PC games for such a unique peripheral.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • muterobert

    I’m loving the wave of enthusiasm this thing is generating once again. However, I’m intrigued to note that none of the articles, interviews or hands-on sessions have highlighted any nausea.

    It’s possible that reducing head-tracking latency further has improved matters, but realistically not by much. I wonder in fact that Oculus may have shifted to shorter, more sedate demos (i.e. the Epic Citadel) rather than throwing VR noobs into the fires of Hell with Doom 3 may have also kept that nausea at bay.

  • Shadow

    Not sure there will be any (think like this, do you get nausea from using binoculars?) you may be true however, i for one often have to take a break from gaming on my 30inch monitor in some games as I get a bit of nausea every now and again in certain games. I have also orderda dev kit so pretty soon once its delivered the word will get out if its nausea inducing. for me the srceen res wil be the make or break having been gaming on 30″ for a long time now at max res I have been spolit and not sure I will be happy going back to somethign lower (even if they end up with the 1080p final retail unit thats rumoured). march or april should tell the story. and if its not quite there I really dont think its that far off especally with leap motion etc around the corner I would think all computing will move tot his within the next ten years. (think transparent oled that you can toggle when ever you need to see through it.