Oculus has presented at its development fair a new product called, Oculus Go. The new VR headset, which was mentioned for the first time last year, has made some progress since then and developers are going to receive first copies in 2018.
For almost every player who has tried Virtual Reality, it is clear that the current headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are just the beginning of a longer development. At the top of the wish list of future features are, for example, the elimination of the previously required connection to a PC for high-end VR, cable usage and, of course, reliable tracking of players and controllers.
For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s next big plan is for a billion people to experience virtual reality, and for this, it’s necessary to make this technology a much more affordable product than right now.
Facebook boss introduced the new Oculus Go, which seeks to meet this need. This new product will cost $199 when they arrive next year, Mark Zuckerberg announced during a presentation at the annual San Jose developer conference in Silicon Valley.
The new glasses were introduced as the first product to be located in the “right spot” between smartphones and the power of desktop computers. This new device uses cameras, sensors and software to follow movements that reproduce in virtual worlds produced in the headphones.
The new version no longer requires an external computer and also offers the so-called inside-out tracking, in which cameras in the headset itself recognize the environment and determine the position of players and controllers. Santa Cruz will also use new controllers that will recognize gestures and movements and be superior to previous controllers. The precise technical details will not reveal Oculus yet.
In particular, the usage time with a battery charge, the display used and its display area and, of course, the graphics performance of the internal hardware are crucial for success. The developers at Santa Cruz still have a lot of work ahead, as Oculus itself has admitted. More information will be available at a later date and developers should receive a first version during the year 2018.
