Oculus Rift S arrives this spring for $399 with updated Touch controllers

[Shawn Knight]

In context: Oculus' latest Rift headset is mostly an improvement over its predecessor although a couple of changes are questionable. Also, gamers may not be thrilled at the prospect of paying $50 more for the bundle.

Oculus at the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday unveiled the next generation of its Rift virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift S.

The new Rift headset is trading out the OLED panels from previous models for the LCD panels used in the Oculus Go, resulting in a mild resolution increase – from 1,080 x 1,200 to 1,280 x 1,440. The trade-off here, however, is in refresh rate which drops from 90Hz down to 80Hz, although you do get a slightly larger field of view.

Elsewhere, you get five onboard cameras for inside-out tracking and improved ergonomics thanks to a co-design partnership with Lenovo. Oculus is also moving away from the on-ear headphones, instead opting for a near-ear solution similar to what’s used on the Oculus Go. Fortunately, you can still plug in your own headphones.

As for hardware requirements, Oculus says you’ll need at least an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470 and an Intel Core i3-6100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 / FX4350 although a 1060 / RX 480 and Core i5-4590 / Ryzen 5 1500X is recommended.

The Oculus Rift S launches this spring priced at $399 and ships with updated Oculus Touch controllers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79288-oculus-rift-s-arrives-spring-399-updated-touch.html

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Hmm... interesting. A fair replacement for the current headset but maybe not worth it as an upgrade from the original Rift. A very slight bump in resolution, better lenses, and slight increase in FOV is good but lower refresh rate, and inside-out tracking sound like potential downgrades to me.

Maybe the refresh won't be noticed and maybe the tracking works equal? Are there cameras on the sides and rear of the headset? ... because you need to occasionally track controllers behind you. I suspect you may still need to buy some Rift sensors for accurate controller tracking, which still isn't as good as Vive's tracking in my opinion.

At least they didn't jack the price up a ton. If it had been near or the same as the Vive Pro then this would be a joke.

I know its a ways out but super high resolution and being wireless while maintaining visual quality and wide FOV are what we want. Once we have that and at a good price (sub-$150 or so for a complete VR package) then it will be able to take off. Until then, it will remain a niche with pretty much no AAA developers making or adapting their current games for it.

 

[kapital98]

Hmm... interesting. A fair replacement for the current headset but maybe not worth it as an upgrade from the original Rift. A very slight bump in resolution, better lenses, and slight increase in FOV is good but lower refresh rate, and inside-out tracking sound like potential downgrades to me.

Maybe the refresh won't be noticed and maybe the tracking works equal? Are there cameras on the sides and rear of the headset? ... because you need to occasionally track controllers behind you. I suspect you may still need to buy some Rift sensors for accurate controller tracking, which still isn't as good as Vive's tracking in my opinion.

At least they didn't jack the price up a ton. If it had been near or the same as the Vive Pro then this would be a joke.

I know its a ways out but super high resolution and being wireless while maintaining visual quality and wide FOV are what we want. Once we have that and at a good price (sub-$150 or so for a complete VR package) then it will be able to take off. Until then, it will remain a niche with pretty much no AAA developers making or adapting their current games for it.

This is a major setback. Oculus is essentially trying to make the Rift S an Oculus Go but for more serious games.

Instead of seeing major leaps in the tech, we are seeing it basically stand still. The lack of commitment is unlikely to see any new AAA developers come on board anytime soon.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

This is a major setback. Oculus is essentially trying to make the Rift S an Oculus Go but for more serious games.

Instead of seeing major leaps in the tech, we are seeing it basically stand still. The lack of commitment is unlikely to see any new AAA developers come on board anytime soon.

Well, they certainly aren't giving those interested in VR much of a reason to choose them. The new headset is just a little baby step forward, nothing more. We were expecting a leap.

The Vive pro is a better invitation but it is prohibitively expensive, and not available as a complete package from what I'm aware.

So there is certainly isn't much more reason to get into VR now than there was six months ago.