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Oculus' standalone headsets point to a changing VR landscape
Last year was the year that VR went mainstream. The Oculus Rift finally shipped to consumers, as did the HTC Vive and the PS VR. But even as the VR industry is finally starting to take off, it's already beginning to splinter. Before, we had phone-based VR like Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream, and then higher-end PC models like the Rift and the Vive. Now, the standalone VR headset is emerging as a category unto itself. And it stands to make the VR landscape a lot more accessible -- and possibly more divisive -- than ever before.
Oculus' Santa Cruz gets closer to the future of wireless VR
Earlier today, Oculus announced Go, its first-ever consumer-ready standalone headset. But it's actually been working on another standalone headset -- Project Santa Cruz -- for a while longer. I had a chance to try on a really early version of it last year, and it was so unfinished that an Oculus helper had to put it on for me. Today at Oculus Connect 4, I tried on the latest version of hardware as well as the new Santa Cruz controllers, and the difference is night and day. It felt like a completely finished product.
Respawn teases realistic VR warfare on Oculus Rift
Respawn Entertainment might be going back to its historic stomping grounds. In virtual reality. A quick tease from the Oculus Connect stage revealed that the team that made Call of Duty is working on what very well may be a VR take on wars of the past. Studio director Peter Hirschmann writes that it isn't Titanfall in VR, nor is it related to Star Wars, the game Respawn is working on for EA. "We really want to depict being a soldier in combat in a more fully fleshed-out and realistic way," CEO Vince Zampella says in the video below. No other details are available (not even a name) but the clip ends with a big "2019." Respawn has had a Rift development kit since at least 2013, so that could very well be a realistic release window.
Facebook adds live 360 video and creative tools to Spaces
Earlier this year, Facebook unveiled Spaces, its answer to social VR. In it, you could turn yourself into an animated avatar, and then interact with your friends and family in virtual hangouts and share 360-degree photos and videos. You could even snap a shot of yourself and your buddies with a virtual selfie stick. Today, the company is announcing a few new updates to make Spaces that much more enticing.
Oculus' VR avatars are coming to Daydream and Steam in 2018
Oculus' virtual reality avatars are clever stand-ins, but they have a few glaring problems: most notably, you can't see them outside of Oculus' own platform. Thankfully, they're being set free. Oculus has revealed that the avatars will have cross-platform support in 2018, including Steam VR and Google's Daydream. Whether or not there are any limitations to use on other platforms isn't clear, but Oculus is promising tangible upgrades to the avatars themselves.
Oculus redesigns the Rift interface for Touch and customization
From the stage at Oculus Connect 4, Oculus' Nate Mitchell just announced Rift Core 2.0. It's designed around Touch, offering a motion-control-focused interface that apes a lot of what hackers have been doing with BigScreen. The big addition is Dash, which as its name implies, is a dashboard accessible from within any VR app or experience. It lets you use your desktop apps within VR, too. "It's a total game changer," Mitchell said. You can permanently pin something to the dashboard, too. "Every application can have its own virtual display," Mitchell said.
Facebook brings VR to your office with the 'Oculus for Business' pack
While the new standalone Oculus Go stole the spotlight at Facebook's Oculus 4 event in San Francisco, the company did also announced its plans to bring virtual reality into the office space with the "Oculus for Business bundle. It includes a Rift VR headset, a pair of Oculus Touch controllers, three spacial sensors, and three "facial interfaces" (the foam bits that rest against your face) as well as dedicated customer support and expanded licenses and warranties.
Oculus Rift and Touch bundle gets a permanent price cut to $399
That summer sale on the Oculus Rift and Touch combo must have paid dividends. Oculus has announced that the price of a Rift and Touch combo has permanently dropped to $399/£399. That still isn't trivial, but it's inexpensive enough that you can get a high-end VR experience on your PC without paying as much as you would for a high-end video card. And now that the Rift bundle costs $200 less than the HTC Vive, it's safe to say that Oculus has the price advantage in VR outside of some Windows Mixed Reality headsets -- it may be tough to consider anything else until competitors offer price cuts of their own.
Oculus Santa Cruz offers standalone VR with full motion control
Oculus isn't limiting its new stand-alone VR experiences to the Go headset. It's introducing a much more refined version of Project Santa Cruz, the stand-alone VR headset it showed off last year. The new prototype is far sleeker, and importantly includes true six-degrees-of-freedom motion control. This is the first headset with full "inside-out" tracking, Oculus says. There are no wires and no external sensors for any movement tracking, whether you're tilting your head or waving your hands. There aren't many details as of this writing, but it'll take a while before you can strap one to your cranium -- it's reaching developers within a year. It's also introducing brand new controllers, simply called the Santa Cruz controllers. They look a little similar to the Touch with a grip button and a touchpad, but they look different, too -- a little more streamlined and a little more compact. They rely on the same four ultralight infrared tracking sensors that the Santa Cruz headset itself uses.
Facebook is working on VR 'Venues' for live concerts
Mark Zuckerberg wants virtual reality to be less isolating, so Facebook is working on "Venues." Think of them like VR social spaces where you can meet up with friends to watch concerts like the ones Live Nation is pumping out. Venues make a lot of sense when you consider Facebook's push for live video, sports and putting things like VR streams and 360-degree photos and video into the News Feed. Zuckerberg said that Venues will also play host to movie and TV premieres as well.
Oculus Go is a $199 VR headset that doesn't require a phone
While Oculus has pioneered the modern consumer VR industry with the Oculus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR, it's been working hard on a truly wireless VR solution as well. Last year, Oculus teased that it was planning on a powerful standalone VR headset called "Project Santa Cruz," and earlier this year, there was news that Oculus was working on yet another tether-free headset codenamed "Pacific." Now, the company is finally ready to unveil its first standalone headset, that's a little more accessible than the Santa Cruz. This is the Oculus Go.
Watch the Oculus Connect keynote right here at 1PM ET!
Guess what today is? If you said "Oculus Connect 4 keynote day" you were right. You also probably knew what day it was before reading this post. But I digress. Assuming you aren't in San Jose for the event, you'll need a place to watch it come 1 PM Eastern. Well, that's what the embed window below is for. And, if you have a Rift or Gear VR, you can watch the keynote address that way too. Speaking of, maybe expect a new Rift headset to be announced, and perhaps an update on the wireless one teased last year. Oh, and an awkward social VR demo is all but guaranteed. Catch y'all in the asynchronous-spacewarped metaverse.
