One of the reasons why Oculus VR decided to become a part of Facebook was the latter’s ability to invest vast amounts of money into research and development of hardware. That expectation seems to be paying off: the company’s chief executive promised to reveal yet another Oculus Rift VR headset prototype shortly.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt conference, chief executive officer of Oculus VR – Brendan Iribe – said that the acquisition of the company by Facebook and access to its resources would quicken development process of the virtual reality headset hardware as well as games designed for such platforms.
“[The decision to become a part of Facebook] centered around being able to leverage their cash and investment into hardware R&D, which is expensive,” said Mr. Iribe, reports Cnet News. “[Oculus would pursue original vision], but doing it even bigger, faster.”
Early this year Oculus VR introduced the code-named Crystal Cove prototype virtual reality headset that features 960*1080 resolution per eye at 75Hz refresh rate. The company’s Oculus Rift development kit 2 is based on the Crystal Cove. However, the DK2 will not be the only prototype from Oculus VR this year. According to Mr. Iribe, a new prototype of the company's virtual reality Rift headset is “coming soon”.
The head of Oculus VR did not elaborate regarding details about the upcoming headset’s specifications, but it is logical to expect it to support higher resolution, lower response time, lower lag and so on.
The new prototype will be Oculus VR’s second model to be introduced this year, a clear indication that the company is speeding up its development efforts.
It is likely that the new prototype aimed at game developers will closer resemble commercial version of Oculus Rift, which is supposed to hit the market sometimes in 2015, than currently available DK1 and DK2 versions.
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KitGuru Says: Since even development versions of Oculus Rift are in high demand among video game enthusiasts, it is logical to expect Oculus Rift development kit 3 (DK3) to become popular among gamers too. In case you plan to buy a DK2 now, then it makes sense to wait a couple of months…