During his many rounds of E3 interviews, Founder and inventor of the Oculus Rift Palmer Luckey discussed the present and near future of virtual reality. Here’s a quick recap of our favorite bits:

Luckey, donning an engineering sample of the new Oculus Rift, explained to Gameslice’s Geoff Keighley the differences between the new Rift and the previous DK2 model. Drawing emphasis on the Rift’s 2160×1200 90Hz across dual displays, Luckey continued the interview with the headset in place for nearly 3 minutes while Keighley threw Luckey for a loop and switched sides mid-explanation.

luckey explains the rift
Palmer Luckey gesticulates … to no one.

Luckey then addressed the current and future situation of launch titles for the Rift in regards to developer timelines:

“You want there to be titles for launch, but you also want there to be a pipeline… VR is going to be around for plenty of time….The real battle isn’t necessarily in making content, its convincing consumers and gamers that virtual reality is something they have to try.”

“It is the right time to get people excited… the [Oculus and Sony] booths don’t get bigger through vanity, they get bigger through practicality. You have to show people VR to understand it,” Luckey told Jeff Gerstman of Giant Bomb.

Responding to an open question from Max Scoville of IGN about the Rift’s PC requirements, Luckey said that eventually “virtual reality is going to move to a model where the headsets do all the rendering.”

The Oculus Rift 'CV1' Consumer Edition
The Oculus Rift ‘CV1’ Consumer Edition

Luckey compares the Rift’s development cycle to smartphones, saying that today’s bargain smartphones can outperform flagship models of the 2008-2009 era. “If you go 5 years into the future, you won’t be able to buy a headset at [the quality of the current Oculus Rift] for more than $100,” Luckey told Scoville.

Considering Apple’s iPhone 3G and HTC’s T-Mobile G1 were the big names in smartphones just 7 years ago—both sporting 480×320 screens and single core processors—VR has an exciting 5 years ahead of it.


Road to VR is currently at E3 in Los Angeles, bringing breaking news, interviews, and product previews of all your favorite VR stuff.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Reckless1966

    “Luckey, dawning an engineering sample of the new Oculus Rift, explained to Gameslice’s Geoff Keighley the differences between the new Rift and the previous DK2 model. ”

    It’s donning, not dawning. ;)

  • Darshan Gayake

    There are really many obstacles to cross before we see true stand alone device. Till then i wont mind a powerful device within controller that power my head set…..

    Very unfortunate child death of NVIDIA SHIELD PORTABLE
    http://shield.nvidia.com/store/portable

    What if that controller without display and with that new 256 Maxwell cores and 4K video capability, Tegra X1 is the world’s most advanced mobile processor. at $200 attached to something like RIFT CV1 and released all PS4 VR titles for this thing…… Why its impossible now dear maker….Its ground shattering possibility available now only…

    Just imagine Awesome VR you will get…Totally untethered. Yet very much practically feasible.

  • Darshan Gayake

    Tegra X1 can very much play DOOM3 BFG at FULL HD… Not so distant past game
    http://shield.nvidia.com/games/android/doom3bfg

    So the processor has all meat to drive PS4 class VR….

    NVIDIA in past did …They might have SHIELD PORTABLE Dies still with them… Its all about approaching NVIDIA…

    Sure not suggesting to pack it in with RIFT CV1… Just make it accessory for ANDROID Experience.. Booming Sells seems plausible with Oculus Mobile division already have good titles under hand for Gear VR.

  • nsignific

    Darshan, Doom 3 is 2004 game and the BFG edition is not much more demanding. So that’s not really impressive. Definitely not on par with what the PS4 has to do to get presence in VR at any kind of fidelity.

    • Darshan Gayake

      nsignific Doom 3 is 2004, Doom3 BFG released in 2012 and it has better textures and not visually same game. System Requirements are also good above non gaming pc….

      Doom3 BFG Recommended Spec:
      OS: Windows Vista-64/ Windows 7-64
      Processor: 2.4 GHz dual core
      Memory: 3 GB system RAM
      Hard Disk Space: 11 GB
      Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 / ATI Radeon HD 5850, 768 MB video RAM

      Anyway that was not point…What NOTE4 or NOTE5 may offer …Tegra X1 can offer way better. In case like SHIELD PORTABLE ..its worthy for RIFT CV MOBILE Experience. if that unit without screen can setted somewhere at $170~200 as additional accessory for mobile VR experience.

      Tegra X1 can play 4K ….No reason to underestimate.

      No comparison to PS4 you cant put PS4 in your hand while traveling..It cant be powered by small power pack, it is not mobile… My post was about self sufficient mobile vr gaming platform.

      BTW as on this date PS4 still can’t support 4K for any sort of anything. To surprise you TEGRA X1 with NVIDIA ANDROID TV do support..
      http://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv#utm_source=nv-mfg&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=foster&cid=foster-nv-mfg