Oculus VR to hold media event just days before E3 2015

Shawn Knight

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Oculus VR will be holding a media event just ahead of this year’s E3 expo. The invitation includes the tagline “Step into the Rift” and shows a refined version of the virtual reality visor that may very well reflect what the final consumer model will look like.

The image is the same one that accompanied Oculus VR’s announcement earlier this month that pre-orders would begin later this year for a consumer launch during the first quarter of 2016. We also learned in recent days that a high-end PC will be required to get the best experience out of the Rift.

Aside from these two renderings, not a whole lot is known about the consumer model. The Facebook-owned company said it’ll be based on the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system for both seated and standing experiences. It’ll also feature a highly refined industrial design with updated ergonomics for a more natural fit in addition to built-in headphones.

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The press event will take place on June 11 in San Francisco, just four days before E3 kicks off roughly 383 miles south in Los Angeles. The gathering will likely be a primer for Oculus VR’s E3 showing where I’d be shocked if we didn’t see a demonstration of the latest revision on the public stage.

Pricing remains the largest mystery surrounding the Rift. With any luck, we’ll get some details on the matter in a few weeks.

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Hopefully they will actually be at E3 as well. Look forward to see what improvements they have made.
 
Maybe about 3 years from now this contraption may be worth buying into. Things can only get better and cheaper if it proves to be a hit.
 
LOL - that can be literal for some people Skid - some folks do get headaches after using it... or so I've heard. I am an early adopter in this area of computing but I understand that it won't be for everyone regardless of how good it gets.
 
I'm losing interest in the Oculus Rift. I'm a bit dismayed by the recent news that Facebook has decided to kill the support for Linux/Mac for the Oculus Rift. I don't much care about Mac, but Valve pretty much built SteamOS from the ground up to support VR, and more specifically Oculus Rift. I haven't heard any news about Valve and SteamOS lately, but this seems like kind of a stab in the back, sabotaging the relevance of SteamOS. I know there are other VR brands in the works, but it seemed to me that Valve and Oculus Rift were all buddy-buddy. Either way, I'm NOT jazzed about the direction Oculus Rift is taking after Facebook bought it.
 
Here's a quote from the guys at Oculus
"Our development for OS X and Linux has been paused in order to focus on delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows. We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don’t have a timeline."

Don't think it is an abandoning of OS X and Linux but more a ramp up for the consumer release which will be heavily dominated by Windows users. Also don't think this has anything to do with Facebook and OS X and Linux users had to wait longer to get their SDKs in the beginning too.

I think it's a smart move on their part as 99% of their initial userbase will be Windows. There are no Macs available right now that will be able to provide the performance they recommend other than Hackintoshes and those aren't even 100% legal so why support it?
 
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