Facebook owned Oculus has announced a new affordable and standalone VR headset called Oculus Go that doesn't require a PC or smartphone to work. The company says the standalone product can be used for "watching movies or concerts, playing games, or hanging out with friends in VR."
The Oculus Go VR headset has a lightweight design, and is made of soft and breathable fabric, making it comfortable for wearer. It has “fast-switch” WQHD LCD screen and next generation lenses to deliver a wide field of view with significantly reduced glare. The headset is embedded with spatial audio and even has 3.5mm audio jack for plugging in headphones. Oculus Go VR headset ships with a single handheld controller that has a touchpad and trigger button, similar to Samsung's Gear VR headset. Moreover, Gear VR and Oculus Go apps are binary compatible, that means Gear VR apps will work on Oculus Go. The Oculus Go VR headset will be arriving early 2018, and will be priced starting at $199. Oculus also said that it is working on a more power standalone VR headset code-named Santa Cruz. It will support inside-out tracking and work with handheld motion controller. The standalone device is still in prototype stages, and there's no word about its release date.
Apart from Touch controllers, Oculus also demoed a standalone wireless VR headset prototype codenamed Santa Cruz at its Connect 3 keynote on Friday. Unlike Oculus Rift which requires to be plugged to a powerful PC to work, Santa Cruz does not require a mobile device or PC to work. The design is similar to Rift, but there is no wires, which means you can move around freely without worrying about tripping over wires. Santa Cruz has a couple of sensors and four wide-angle cameras around the edges up front. The core components including processor, battery is placed on the back. The headset also has an inside-out tracking technology that uses the four front cameras for positional tracking, which then translates it into your virtual world. Currently it is not known when the final product will release in the market, but you can check out the video below to see how Santa Cruz works:
The Oculus Touch includes two handheld wireless controlled designed to fit both left and right hands. With these controller you will be able to interact with the objects in virtual world. Each has analog sticks, an analog trigger and two buttons as well as haptic feedback called "hand trigger".
Each
Touch controller will need a single standard AA battery which should
give you 20 to 30 hours of usage, depending on the game your playing and
haptic feedback settings.
The Touch controllers are priced at $199 and will go on sale starting December 6. It also comes in a bundled package with the Rift VR headset, that will set you back by $798, bringing it in par with HTC's $800 Vive headset (controllers included). Pre-orders will open October 10. Those who pre-order will get two free games: VR Sports Challenge and The Unspoken.
Oculus also introduced $49 earbuds designed to work with Rift VR headset, which offers solid bass response. Pre-orders will begin October 10, and shipping starts December 6.
Facebook owned Oculus has finally begun shipping the consumer version of the Rift VR headset, kickstarting the modern virtual reality craze. The headset went up for pre-orders in January for $599, and those who have pre-ordered could see the Rift delivered as soon as March 28. Oculus has already announced that the Rift will be initially shipped to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States.
The retail box includes the Rift headset with built-in headphones and mic, sensor and a Xbon One Controller, and comes with two free games – Lucky’s Tale by Playful and Eve: Valkyrie. Oculus has already announced names of 30 gaming titles that will be available to play on the Rift VR. Check out the list here.
Last month Oculus also started taking pre-orders for Oculus ready PC bundles teaming up with ASUS, Dell and Alienware and is expected to be shipped to select countries sometime in April.
Facebook-owned Oculus's Rift VR headset is currently up for pre-oders on the company website in several countries, and the shipping begins March 28. Ahead of the release Oculus at GDC 2016 has announced list of games that will be available for is Rift VR headset at launch. Oculus has annoounced 30 titles and said that it has over 100 more game titles planned for the Rift VR headset by the end of 2016.
The 30 launch game titles include - AdrIft, Adventure Time, Airmech: Command, Albino Lullabye, Audio Arena, BlazeRush, Chronos, Darknet, Dead Secret, Defense Grid 2 Enhanced VR Edition, Dreadhalls, Elite Dangerous: Deluxe Edition, Esper 2, EVE Gunjack, Eve Valkyrie Founder's Pack, Fly to KUMA, Herobound SC, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Lucky's Tale, Omega Agent, Pinball FX2 VR, Project CARS, Radial G, Rooms, Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe VR, Smashing the Battle, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Vektron Revenge, VR Tennis Online, and Windlands.
"These games take you to the outer reaches of space, mysterious labyrinths of wonder, and fantastic worlds of adventure. And they're just the beginning,"Oculus wrote in a blog post. "We're working with thousands of developers on entirely new VR experiences. There are over a hundred more games coming to Oculus this year."
The Oculus Rift VR headset costs $599 (Rs. 40,000) and those who have pre-ordered the headset will get two free games - Eve: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale. Note that, Oculus has not started taking pre-orders for the Rift headset in India.
Facebook owned VR company, Oculus has announced that pre-orders for Oculus ready PC and Rift bundles will start February 16 8am pt. Oculus has partnered with ASUS, Dell and Alienware for the Oculus Ready PCs and Rift Bundles.
The PCs will be powered by Intel Core i5 and i7 processor and support either NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or GTX 980 graphics card. They come with 8GB or 16GB RAM and 1TB/2TB HDD, 128GB/256GB/512GB SSD storage options. All bundles will include an Oculus certified PC, the Rift headset, sensor remote, an Xbox One Controller, EVE: Valkyrie Founder's Pack, and Lucky's tale.
PCs and specs on offering with pricing
Asus G11CD: Intel Core i5-6400, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB hard drive—$1049, or $949 bundled with the Rift headset
Asus ROG G20CB (model 1): Intel Core i5-6400, GTX 970, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD—$1449, or $1349 bundled with the Rift headset
Asus ROG G20CB (model 2): Intel Core i7-6700, GTX 980, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB hard drive—$1699, or $1599 bundled with the Rift headset
Alienware Area 51: Intel Core i7-5820K, GTX 980, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD, 2TB hard drive—$2549
Alienware X51 R3 (model 1): Intel Core i5-6400, GeForce GTX 970, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB hard drive—$1199, or $999 bundled with the Rift headset
Dell XPS 8900 SE: Intel Core i5-6400, GTX 970, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB hard drive—$1199, or $999 bundled with the Rift headset
The Oculus ready PC and Rift bundle can be per-ordered from BestBuy, Amazon and Microsoft Store. The PCs will be shipped in limited quantities to select countries and region some time in April. Oculus is also offering discounts towards the purchase of a PC in select countries and regions, provided that you have already ordered the $599 Oculus Rift VR headset. This option will also appear on February 16.
