Oculus VR helmet will be autonomous and "affordable"
Facebook executive director Mark Zuckerberg announced at the Oculus Connect developer conference a new model of the Oculus VR virtual reality helmet yesterday . This model will be autonomous, wireless, that is, mounted on the head, not constraining movements. You can freely walk in all directions or rotate around its axis.
New helmet promise to make "affordable." It will occupy a niche somewhere in the middle between the cheap consumer Gear VR helmet for the Samsung Galaxy and the expensive high-end Oculus Rift, designed for advanced gamers.
Prototype Santa Cruz
A key feature of the Oculus VR is its position tracking system. As seen in the short video with a demonstration of the Oculus VR, the new model is a modified version of the Oculus Rift with a computing module attached to the back of the head. Positional tracking allows you to accurately position the player in the space of virtual reality. In perspective, this is the most important function for creating integrated augmented reality systems in which the virtual world will be combined with the real one.
In principle, position tracking technology is not something revolutionary. For engineers, it was important to reduce the power consumption of the mobile computer so that it does not instantly kill the battery. John Carmack, technical director of Oculus VR, spoke enthusiastically about solving this engineering problem.
The Oculus VR prototype is still in its early stages of development, Mark Zuckerberg said. What the “availability” of a future product means is not entirely clear, but this word was sounded in a speech by Zuckerberg.
Fans suggest that a virtual reality helmet would be well reduced by about half: to about 300 dollars, then this thing will become really massive, people wearing VR helmets will appear in public transport and on the street.
Mark Zuckerberg walks around the office and communicates with avatars of other people from his social network; they control the expressions of their faces with the help of buttons on the controller
During his speech, Mark Zuckerberg showed how he walks around the office in a helmet and calls his wife via video link without removing the helmet.
Mark calls his wife via video call without removing his helmet
Some people find it unpleasant that the promising Oculus VR technology, born as a popular Kickstarter project, is now in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg. But nothing can be done - this is the life and realities of modern business. In 2014, the owners of a social network bought out a startup Oculus VR for $ 2 billion in cash and Facebook shares.
Now virtual reality helmets are connected to Facebook servers. All games are installed online without the possibility of an offline procedure, hardware DRM checking works.
Oculus Touch Controller
In addition to the Oculus VR helmet, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Oculus Touch motion controllers. This is a finished product, sales of which begin on December 6, 2016 (pre-orders are accepted from October 10).
With interactive motion controllers, the Oculus Rift helmet transforms from a passive external surveillance device into a real interactive gaming system for interacting with the virtual world. This is something that was not enough for a full game. Now the player can normally control the hands of the game character: swinging a sword, beating with a fist or a knife, lifting objects from the ground, throwing the ball.
Even basic gestures are available, such as pointing a hand at an object.
Oculus Touch controllers are made in a stylish plastic case in the form of a ring. Apparently, such an execution has no functional purpose, but is done solely for the sake of balance. All buttons and mini-joysticks are located in the center under the player’s fingers. In general, such controllers seem more convenient and useful than Xbox One wireless gamepads.
On each hand gadgets are attached with ropes to the wrists, so as not to drop them in the heat of the game.
Two Oculus Touch controllers cost $ 200. These devices raise the cost of the Oculus Rift from $ 600 to $ 800. For comparison, the HTC Vive with controllers in the form of wands or "sticks" costs the same $ 800.
Each controller has its own positioning device. True, for high precision positioning of the controllers in the room, you will need to buy a third sensor for an additional $ 80. With its help, a 3D map of the room. This is so that during the game you do not crash into the wall and fall off the balcony.
On the market, these helmets will have to compete with the PlayStation VR virtual reality system , which goes on sale next week for $ 400. But this is only the price of the helmet, excluding the cost of the camera and the Move motion controllers.
Batman: Arkham VR - one of the main new games for the PlayStation VR
Virtual reality is becoming more accessible, and the game - more realistic. What else does a geek need to be happy? And not only geek. In his speech, Mark Zuckerbreg told how he demonstrated virtual reality to presidents and prime ministers of different countries (depending on mentality and culture, the president was launched a first-person shooter or led on a tour of natural beauty in virtual reality). According to the hacker, all world leaders were fascinated and captured by technology. One of them even missed his plane, not wanting to remove the helmet of virtual reality. He demanded to show the promised dinosaur.
Other news from Oculus VR
In addition to the Oculus Touch controllers, Oculus Earphones headphones will also be available for sale during this Christmas season, which can be used instead of standard headphones in a helmet. Cost $ 50. Headphones are sold at the same time as the controller: pre-orders are accepted from October 10, delivery after December 6.
Apparently, this gadget will be the perfect Christmas gift for the geek and the Oculus Rift fan, who already has everything, and naturally, he did not buy separate headphones, because they don’t need them.
The company also announced a reduction in the minimum computer technical requirements for connecting the Oculus Rift. Previously, the minimum required PC with a graphics accelerator minimum Nvidia GTX 970 (or equivalent) and a minimum processor Intel Core i5-4590. Now, thanks to Oculus API’s frame rate optimization software, PC requirements are reduced to Nvidia 960 and Intel Core i3-6100 (or AMD FX4350).