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Oculus Rift latency tester now available for pre-order, knows better than your eyes
Sure, you could try and measure the motion-to-photons latency present in various Oculus Rift virtual reality games using your naked eye, but the latency tester Oculus just put up for pre-order is much easier and far more accurate. As demonstrated by Oculus Rift inventor Palmer Luckey in the video after the break, simply pop off one of the Rift dev kit's two lens caps and pop on the latency tester. After plugging it in via mini-USB, the tester reads the latency per eye and outputs a number on the rear -- voila ici. Like with so many things Oculus, folks who put in their name early have first crack at the latency tester. The rest of us can put in our names now for pre-order and they'll start shipping out in early October -- Oculus tells us, "they're sitting in our warehouse now, waiting for new homes." If you're looking to get in on the action you probably shouldn't wait, as only a "limited quantity" is available for now, though more could be produced "based on demand."
Oculus Rift's Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell talk VR as a platform, the new Share program
Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One may be the big next-gen stars at this year's Gamescom, but Oculus Rift is here as well, continuing to draw our adoration with news of a developer portal called Share. The portal facilitates easy distribution and cataloging of apps for current Oculus Rift dev kits, essentially centralizing the software world of the Rift in one convenient place. Company co-founder and Rift creator Palmer Luckey told us during GDC Europe this week that Share is just the tip of the iceberg -- a precursor to the future consumer portal of VR applications that'll exist alongside the eventual consumer model of the VR headset. He and product VP Nate Mitchell sat down with us for a candid interview, touching on everything from the future of Share, to VR as a platform (and the challenges therein), to why mobile is the next space to watch for virtual reality (seriously!). Head past the break for the full video...and for a peek into the future of gaming's most innovative product in, well, maybe ever?
Oculus Rift's John Carmack working on mobile SDK support first, coming soon
Ever since Oculus Rift hired Doom co-creator and legendary game designer John Carmack as Chief Technology Officer a few weeks back, he's been hard at work on the Rift's SDK. "John likes to do what he likes to do," VP of product Nate Michell told attendees of an Oculus panel at GDC Europe this evening. "He's got a ridiculous amount of good ideas that he's working into the SDK. Especially around mobile, frankly," he added, coyly teasing an update to the Oculus SDK that's apparently coming sooner than later. Mitchell's speaking to the SDK's promised Android support, which company CEO Brendan Iribe revealed as a forthcoming goal in an interview earlier this year. When asked by a panel attendee when iOS support is coming, headset creator Palmer Luckey smilingly admitted, "It's Apple's fault!" Mitchell quickly jumped in, explaining that the Android platform is simply more open to peripherals like the Rift. We'll have more from Oculus as the week goes on, so keep an eye out for even more.
Oculus Rift HD prototype VR headset appears at E3, we go hands (and eyes) on (update: video)
We've been impressed with Oculus Rift from the start, and have been following the VR headset closely ever since. The developer edition has been in the hands of devs for a couple months now, and while Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell have certainly received rave reviews of the headset from many, they've also heard lots of feedback about ways to improve it. The number one request from users and devs? A higher-resolution screen than the 1,280 x 800 panel in the dev device. Well, after months of research and tinkering to find the right hardware combination, team Oculus is finally ready to show off a Rift with a 1,080 x 1920 display, and we got to demo the thing.Before heading into the land of 1080p, we got to explore a demo built with Unreal Engine 4 in the existing dev headset. After looking around a snowy mountain stronghold inhabited by a fire lord in low res, we switched to the exact same demo running at 60 fps on the HD prototype device -- and the difference was immediately apparent. Surface textures could be seen in much higher fidelity, colors were brighter and less muddied and the general detail of the entire environment was greatly improved.
Oculus' Palmer Luckey on the Motorola StarTAC and living in the meatspace
Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire. Oculus VR founder and designer Palmer Luckey has a go at our weekly set of questions while chatting perception modification and the importance of a meatspace presence. Join us beyond the jump in order to peruse the full collection of responses.
Oculus founder: booze and Rift don't mix
You know that rule about not drinking and operating heavy machinery at the same time? You can widen that common-sense topic to include not getting tooled up before strapping the Oculus Rift to your face. In conversation with Joystiq, company founder Palmer Luckey has mentioned that the nausea-inducing effects of virtual reality can, unsurprisingly, become magnified if you combine it with the demon drink. Hey, it's something to bear in mind before you lose your lunch.
Oculus' Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell on the past, present and future of the Rift
As geeks, we have a tendency to let our imaginations run away with us. Science fiction-fueled dreams conjure up images of flying cars, robots and artificial reality. We judge our gadgets by the arbitrary standards of famous speculative works: hoverboards by 2015 and a holodeck in every home. It's a silly and unrealistic way to measure our progress, but it inspires us to build the future we're tired of waiting for. This is the kind of passion we found at Oculus VR headquarters, where founder Palmer Luckey and a platoon of software engineers, hardware gurus and marketing wizards hope to make virtual reality a plausible reality. We sat down with the company's aforementioned founder and VP of Product Nate Mitchell to find out where that passion came from and where Oculus VR is heading.
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Oculus's Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell (update: speaker change)
Is 2013 the year of the wearable here at CES? It's certainly shaping up to be one of the bigger trends of the show, thanks in no small part to the folks at Oculus. We've already spent some time with the company's Rift prototype this week, and now we'll be joined by Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe, the company's co-founder and CEO. Update: In lieu of Brendan Iribe, we'll be speaking to Palmer Luckey and VP Nate Mitchell. January 11, 2013 1:00 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!
