Oculus Rift - The Future of VR is Finally Here

Arguably the most anticipated new gadget of the decade so far is the Oculus Rift, a crowd-funded Virtual Reality (VR) headset. Starting out in a game development studio as an “idea”, it was chasing $250,000 backing from KickStarter. A few months later, the campaign concluded with an astounding $2.5m in funding! Needless to say, the world was sold!

Ok, VR headset you say – what’s that? Well it’s a combination of two things really. Firstly, 3D visuals as your eyes perceive reality in the real world, and secondly, head tracking. This tracking basically controls the vision so as you move your head up, down, to the side or even behind you, the virtual world adjusts accordingly. The reality of the world as you know it becomes utter fiction when you pop on these goggles. Not only does the VR world adjust your mind and vision to become your new world, but the vertigo some people have encountered when trying out the various demonstrations show how real this really feels.

A fellow developer here at Wiliam followed the Rift religiously since it was launched on KickStarter and decided to back the idea. Almost a year later, the Oculus Rift arrived and it had the entire office in a buzz. It only took me 1min to experience this surreal feeling that made me jump online and “take my money”! It is still in early development stages with a resolution of 1280x800 (640x800 per eye), but the people at Oculus are already testing out a 1080p display.

I know it’s a little hard to understand what this would feel like without trying, but the tracking alone opens up the gates to some exciting innovations for our future.  Some demonstrations I’m highly awaiting once mine arrives include FPS shooter games, driving simulators, flying simulators and even a complete VR cinema experience (because 3D glasses are for kids). Or imagine drawing up those long awaited plans with an architect for your dream home, before he hands you some goggles so you can basically “walk around the house” – insane!

When can I get my hands on one? The consumer version is expected to be released late 2014, and rumours say it will be wireless, sporting a 1920x1080 resolution (or higher) and improved head tracking.