Oculus Rift Special Event Live Blog

We’ll be at Dogpatch Studios in SF to check out the latest from Oculus, which is most likely going to share some details regarding its upcoming consumer Rift headset launch (set for early 2016). Hopefully we’ll get a lot more specific on release timeline and price, as well as final hardware design. Stay tuned as we reveal all below!

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201511:00 am

Check out some of our coverage here; Oculus Previews “Oculus Touch” Handheld Motion-Tracking Haptic Controllers

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And that appears to be it.

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Luckey says if you showed this presentation to someone from 10 years ago, they’d think it was sci-fi. Then he’s off the stage.

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Demos will be forthcoming at E3.

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Oculus is using an experience called Toybox to test Oculus Touch input, and Luckey says it works with others to give the impression of multiple people interacting in a shared environment.

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They also detect touch-based input from all fingers.

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They have haptics so that you can “feel the objects you’re touching.”

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They’re mirror images of each other, they’re wireless, they have 360-degrees of tracking technology and inertial tracking. Each one has a thumbstick, two buttons, an analog trigger, and a hand trigger.

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Here’s what Oculus wanted to achieve with this controller design. It was important that it not abandon traditional input, and that it be lightweight.

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Example is that you need to be able to pick up a gun in the virtual world, use it and then discard it seamlessly

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Goals were to get hand presence, precise manipulation in VR space.

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This is a dev prototype called “Half Moon.”

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Oculus Touch is the input system!

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Luckey says one of the first things people do when they try it is reach out into the virtual world.

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Xbox One controller gives people a common factor to design for, though, Luckey says.

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“There will be different input for different types of games,” but Oculus is going to show us something of its own today.

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Input! Presented by Palmer Luckey

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“One more thing that we really want to show you.”

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At E3 you can try everything they’ve shown today.

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Still that Q1 2016 date, really wish they would go more specific.

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Iribe is back to recap.

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Friends list will let you see what others are up to and jump right in. There’s also a 2D version of Oculus Home for use on your standard computer displays.

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Will feature VR previews of games you can jump right into before you buy.

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“Jumping off point for everything in the Rift universe.” When you put on the Rift, it’ll drop you right into Oculus Home, including a games list, friends list and more.

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Oculus Home: This is the new system software for Oculus Rift.

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Says it was a priority to make it “just work” right out of the box.

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Now VP of Product Nate Mitchell is here to talk about Rift software user experience.

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Oculus is announcing more than $10 million to support indie game development for Rift.

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Improvements are coming to Oculus Share to make it even easier, especially for indie devs.

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:43 am

Targeting platforms is easy, but that’s not enough. That’s why they created Oculus Share for devs to try others’ creations.

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Now she says with Rift, anyone can create those kinds of experiences. Thanks to close connection with Unity 5 and Unreal Engine 4.

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:42 am

Talking about how Ultima Online addiction meant her parents had to get a second phone line for constant dial-up connection.

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They still just keep showing that Q1 2016 date. Now Anna Sweet, head of developer strategy is up.

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Now we’re watching a composite trailer of the games we just saw, as well as many more. One from within the goalie mask appeals to my Canadian sensibilities.

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And here’s a look at the developers Oculus is working with.

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Here’s that list.

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More games coming at E3, Rubin says as he returns.

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Insomniac founder says he was initially skeptical of VR, until he tried it himself.

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Scary snow planet adventure, it looks like. I’m a little terrified already.

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Now it’s Insomniac games, revealing their new title Edge of Nowhere, which is an adventure thriller.

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Sounds super cool actually. And different from the usual VR hack/slash/shoot fare.

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Atmospheric RPG, Adams says. You tackle a labyrinth, which only opens once a year. The twist is that you come back every year, and your player character ages, leading to different abilities as you get older.

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Kinda reminds me of Ico or Shadow of the Colossus.

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Now a new game, called Chronos.

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Adams says they were super excited about VR and Oculus, worked with them on Herobound 1 and 2.

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Trailer done, now it’s David Adams from Gunfire Games.

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This trailer is even more amazing on a huge screen, can’t wait to actually experience it in the Rift itself.

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In case you want to see what we’re seeing, here’s that trailer: http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/19/watch-this-eve-valkyrie-trailer-to-get-a-taste-of-what-space-combat-is-like-in-vr/

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:30 am

People will be able to try it at E3 next week, and it’s launching next year. Now there’s a gameplay trailer.

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Valkryie is designed from the ground up for VR. You jump in, and you’re immersed in a 360-degree cockpit.

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After demoing early versions of Valkyrie to fans, they found the response amazingly positive. Please make this, fans said.

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A small team at EVE got DK1 kits, and immediately started building a space combat simulator, having grown up on stuff like TIE Fighter.

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Now we’re talking about EVE Valkyrie, which is the first-person space shooter designed for VR and Oculus Rift.

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Here’s the motto of CCP, which VR helps immensely with.

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Hilmar Veigar Pétursson up, he’s the CEO of CCP, which created EVE Online, the massive space sim.

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Regardless of advances, we’ve always had a “windows [we] couldn’t step through”. VR changes that, Rubin says.

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He’s talking about content at launch. Starts with how Star Wars inspired him to want to create worlds.

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Jason Rubin, head of Oculus studios now up.

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More input news coming later, Iribe says.

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He suggests that in the future you’ll be able to co-play in a virtual environment with friends.

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Brendan is back up.

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Creates a virtual living room within the VR experience in which to game.

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Streaming Xbox One games to PCs will also be available for Oculus Rift.

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Windows 10 has native Oculus Rift support.

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This is now a brief Windows 10 ad intermission. Phil is talking about how great the new OS is.

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Phil Spencer, head of Xbox is here to talk about their partnership.

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They decided that including a gamepad with this generation of device was crucial. So they’re shipping it with an Xbox One controller and a wireless PC adapter.

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This has been a huge question mark around Oculus Rift.

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Next up, we’re talking about input.

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Headset is wrapped in fabric to make it more comfortable to hold with your hands.

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Adjustable slider lets you set the specific distance between your eyes. This is like pupillary distance if you use glasses for vision.

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:16 am

Iribe now detailing the comfort of the headset. Says it’s very thin and easy to wear. Feels lightweight so you don’t feel like you have a huge thing hanging off your face.

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Headphones are removable so you can bring your own.

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“All that audio must be 360,” Iribe says, in order to achieve the desired affect.

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:15 am

Rift features an integrated audio system for immersive sound.

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Some seated and some standing experiences, you can use it both ways.

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Constellation tracking system determines your position in space. There’s also a new sensor for desktop use to work with the constellation for tracking.

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Hardware has a wild field of view, and a new constellation tracking system.

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Now Iribe is talking about how they got VR to the point where your brain has to convince itself this isn’t real.

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This is the first time we’ve seen a physical version of the shipping hardware.

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And we’re doing the rift hardware and OS reveal.

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“This is gonna change everything. We’ve all been dreaming about this for decades.”

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Oculus can make the T-Rex real, that’s the whole point.

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Using a T-Rex as a demonstrative example. T-Rex being here would scare the pants off all of us basically.

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No matter what the advances in video games, we’ve still always been trapped with a 2D screen, Iribe says. No matter what you can achieve with a screen, you can’t achieve the feeling of being there.

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Now answering the question of “Why VR?” Basically because we’ve always been moving towards it, from the beginning of gaming.

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Giving props to supporters of the project now.

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He’s giving us a history of Oculus. Three years ago they launched the Kickstarter.

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:06 am

Brendan Iribe is up.

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Here’s Josh Constine in full-on blogger mode. https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/oculus-rift-pre-e30005.jpg?w=680

Darrell Etherington June 11, 201510:04 am

This is the new logo, as seen dimly through a gauzy light filter of some kind. Ethereal.

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Here’s the crowd. Lots of familiar tech press faces.

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I would love to Oculus.

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We’re in!

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Stats!

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Here’s the more readable version of that paragraph describing what we’re here to see.

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Behold the monolithic Rift headset image that dominates this waiting area.

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Here’s that fancy new Oculus logo, in all its shiny glory on a super hip concrete wall.

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We’re in and waiting for the event to start. There’s a lovely press area here for us to wait in, complete with stats on Oculus hardware to date and a teaser of what’s on tap for today.

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June 13, 2015

Oculus Rift Special Event Live Blog

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