The Oculus Rift is a wearable head mounted virtual reality screen created Oculus VR that as yet to be released to the public. Through their kickstarter campaign they have earned almost 100 million dollars.
Palmer Luckey, through online forums, developed his idea for a head mounted virtual reality unit that would effective and inexpensive. Around this time a game programmer named John Carmack was doing his own research and came across Luckey's ideas. During the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo Carmack presented Luckey's prototype.
The Rift in Action
Oculus Rift was making everyone in the video game world very excited. Popular game developers were making there games compatible with the device and had plans to make new games for the The Rift. However that is mostly over now. Many developers have pulled their support for the Virtual Reality headset once Facebook acquired the technology for two billion dollars.
It is far too soon to tell what will become of the Oculus Rift now with Facebook's acquisition of the technology. However despite "insider sources" saying that Facebook plans to rebrand and redesign the headset, Facebook is denying those claims. Oculus thinks that Facebook's ownership of the technology is better for gamers, they believe Facebook will be able to produce a product that is better and cheaper than before.
I dunno if you've noticed but the future is here people. Phones, tablets, tvs, computers... the more advanced they become the more integrated they become. Soon we'll be in the matrix. But until that day we must prepare! And we can start soon, once the Oculus Rift comes out later next year.
The Oculus Rift is a head-mounted display for virtual reality gaming developed by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. That's right. Put on a set of goggles and get whisked away to your favorite video game and be immersed in strange new worlds while controlling the movement of the camera with your head.
It's not the first time that virtual reality has been attempted, but it is apparently the most fluid and natural feeling rendition to date. Its been endorsed by John Carmack, the founder of id software, and Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve. The Oculus is set to be fully functional with the re-release of Doom 3. I'm upset that I didn't jump onto the Kickstarter over the summer when it began; for those who backed the project in its infancy they will receive a working unit once it is commercially available. The company only asked for $250,000 and was blown away by nearly 10 times that amount. In fact the reason I'm posting about this now is because there has been a delay of its release due to the overwhelming reception for the product; calling into question the effectiveness of the Kickstarter program and whether it is more helpful or hurtful to these start up companies. But that's another story for a more boring time. Right now too many exciting things are happening! Like virtual reality!
This isn't the only foray into the virtual world soon to be available to the public. Obviously we see things now like the Wii, the Kinect, and Playstation Move (Wii U is up there I guess with its tablet to tv integration... but we'll see about that one). Apparently Microsoft and Sony have been filling out patents for some serious tech. Maybe it won't land at first with the next generation, but you can be sure that add ons will probably come about for the next systems. Microsoft has plans for glove-based controllers, which will enhance and refine motion controls; as well as concepts for a projection screen device that would work on all 4 walls of a square room, to completely immerse oneself into a game. Wow. Some crazy stuff going on.
So keep your eyes glued to your tvs, (and laptops and tablets and phones) and your heads in plastic buckets with pretty pictures painted on the inside in preparation for this glorious event. And in 10-15 years, when we're all plugging into a virtual world, we can talk about the good old days when trees existed.
