E3 is officially underway, and we’re here meeting with developers and media.

Last year, the Oculus Rift was officially nominated for Best Hardware of E3. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate the first anniversary of its public debut.

We generally develop features for the consumer Rift using top-secret prototypes that are kept under lock and key at Oculus HQ. But for the first time, we’ll be sharing one of these prototypes with the public: a 1080p HD Oculus Rift.

HD VR

Raising the resolution for the consumer Rift has always been one of the highest priorities. The dev kit is an incredible device that demonstrates the potential for VR. High definition virtual reality (HD VR) realizes that potential in full.

Mike and Nate working with one of the early HD prototypes.

The prototype’s 1080p display increases the number of visible pixels by more than 2x, greatly reducing the screen-door effect seen in the development kit. The brightness, contrast, and color are also improved. All of these changes come together to ratchet the sense of immersion to an entirely new level.

A screenshot of Epic Citadel (Unreal Engine 3) in the 720p development kit (left) and in the 1080p prototype (right).

The 1080p prototype isn’t a product — this isn’t necessarily the display (or even the resolution) that we’ll use for the consumer version — it’s simply a taste of what’s coming. Developers can continue building Oculus-ready content with the development kit; the Oculus SDK will automatically handle the resolution and distortion changes for the consumer version.

Chris building the set of 1080p HD Rift prototypes for E3.

HD is one of the many features and improvements we have in development for the consumer version of the Rift. We’ll continue to share prototypes like these with the community as they enter that state where we’re happy with them.

Matt putting the finishing touches on one of the 1080p prototypes.

We’ll have 1080p prototypes on hand at upcoming shows so you can try the HD experience for yourself. For many of us, trying HD VR for the first time was even better than the first trip inside the Rift. It’s truly that good, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Unreal Engine 4 + Oculus VR

We wanted an incredible experience to showcase HD VR. Over the last few months, we’ve been quietly collaborating with Epic on the Oculus integration for UE4. With Epic’s help, we converted the UE4 Elemental demo into an explorable, immersive, and interactive VR environment.

Simply put, when you combine HD VR with UE4, you really feel like you’re stepping into next-gen gaming.

We’ve also officially joined the UE4 Integrated Partners Program, which means that the engine includes out-of-the-box support for Oculus VR. With UE4, Epic has raised the bar again with an incredible platform for next-generation game development. We’re excited to be a part it. Starting today the Oculus – UE4 integration is available to all Unreal Engine 4 licensees.

An enormous thank you to the team at Epic Games, especially Nick Whiting, Alan Willard, and Nick Penwarden, for all the help making Oculus + UE4 such an awe-inspiring experience. Nick W. wrote up a great blog post on Gamasutra about the integration process that you can read here.

The Oculus – UE4 integration and Oculus Elemental demo were two of Andrew Reisse’s final projects and they came together brilliantly. Thank you, Andrew. We miss you dearly.

VR Cinema

We have one other small surprise that we’re tossing into the show: 3D VR movies.

Lately, the team has been enjoying the VR Cinema3D app built in Unity by Joo-Hyung Ahn at UXGround. Cinema3D allows you to step inside a virtual movie theater, find the perfect seat, kick back, and enjoy your movie in immersive, stereo 3D. A few of us have already watched feature-length movies in it. The size, scale, and sense of immersion is all there. It’s very, very cool.

Imagine when those seats are packed with fellow Rifters!

If you haven’t checked Cinema3D out, you can download it here. The demo still has a few bugs, but Joo-Hyung has been releasing updates to the community frequently. This is just one example of the incredible experiences the indie community is putting together with the Oculus SDK and Unity 4.

While the development kit’s resolution is a bit low for movie watching, HD VR makes all the difference. Watching 2D and S3D movies in virtual reality is something that we’re getting more and more excited about with the consumer version of the Rift.

Quick Shipping Update

We’ve delivered roughly 99% of the Kickstarter rewards including the Rift development kits, t-shirts, and posters. Where’s that last 1%? We’re still missing a couple hundred Kickstarter addresses! If you haven’t received your reward, log in to the Oculus Order Manager and update your account information. You can always email support@oculusvr.com if you need more help.

We’re in the process of transitioning to post-Kickstarter pre-order fulfillment. Hang with us — we’ve run into a few duty/customs snags that are holding up shipments to NA/EU, but we hope to have them sorted out soon.

As previously stated, duties and taxes are the responsibility of the customer for pre-orders taken through the website (ie. all post-Kickstarter dev kits) but we’re working on minimizing delivery charges.

Thanks for your patience!

Building a Next-Gen Platform

We want to thank you again for making all of this possible. We wouldn’t be where we are without the community’s continued support. Keep your comments, suggestions, and feedback coming. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with you on the Rift and next-generation virtual reality. We wouldn’t want it any other way. Thank you.

Stay up to date on the latest Oculus news by following @oculus3d on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/oculusvr.

Here’s to a great E3!

– Palmer and the Oculus team

Shipping Update

Since our last update (May 1st), we’ve shipped roughly 2,500 dev kits, bringing the total number of dev kits in the wild to just over 6,000. We’re on track to ship the remaining 1,500 Kickstarter kits before the end of May.

Palmer, Nate, Michael and Brendan signing Rift dev kits for backers.

To everyone who’s still waiting for their Rift: Thank you for your patience! We’re almost there.

To everyone who’s already received their Rift: Thank you for your patience! We hope you’re enjoying it.

If you’re developing samples, demos or full ‘Made for VR’ games, please share them with the community on the Oculus Forums.

Replacement Rewards

The replacement rewards for Kickstarter development kits are available now via the Oculus Order Manager. If you’re eligible for a replacement reward, just login to the Oculus Order Manager and click the “Claim Code” button.

If you claim your Oculus Store Credit code today, it can be applied to purchases in the Oculus Store (including the upcoming Latency Tester) starting June 1.

Oculus SDK Update – v0.2.2

We just released Oculus SDK v0.2.2 on the Oculus Developer Center. Highlights of the release include:

- Added magnetometer drift correction support to Unity integration.
- The Unity sample’s HUD is now rendered in 3D with proper distortion.
- Added gamepad support and OculusWorldTiny sample on Mac OSX.

If you’re interested, you can read the full build notes for the release here.

Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Meet Up

The Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) meet up held their first meeting last night, featuring organizers Karl Krantz, Cymatic Bruce, and the Sixense team. We snuck in to join the crowd of over 60 VR enthusiasts at the Computer History Museum in San Jose (which includes one of Ivan Sutherland’s original experimental 3D headsets from 1968) to check out a few of the community’s latest projects.

Photo by MarinoAlperon from www.reddit.com/r/oculus

It was awesome to see developers sharing their demos (and their Rift dev kits), discussing their work, and providing feedback to one another. A huge thank you to Karl and Bruce for organizing the event. We look forward to hearing about other meet ups around the world!

Half Life 2 (VR Beta) Officially in the Rift

Joe Ludwig dropped into the Oculus Forum to share the news — Valve has officially released beta Oculus support for their groundbreaking classic, Half Life 2 (including Episode 1, Episode 2 and OSX support)!

Just like Team Fortress 2, this port is intended as a testbed for Valve’s future VR projects. Joe mentioned that it’s “…a bit more raw than TF2,” but we’ve been having a blast playing it around the office.

If you’ve never played Half Life 2, or maybe it’s just been awhile since your last go, now’s your chance to step inside Ravenholm like never before. It’s pretty incredible to have Dr. Gordon Freeman’s story, arguably one of the best interactive experiences ever made, as a VR developer showcase. We can’t thank the team at Valve enough (again).

We have more good news queued up for next week, so stay tuned!

– Palmer and the Oculus Team

Joe has been working on the booth non-stop since he arrived and it’s starting to look great. If you have a chance, come check out a demo and say Hi.

On Virtual Reality

We’re giving two talks on virtual reality while we’re here: the first on the challenges of designing and implementing great VR games; the second on what the future of VR gaming may look like.

“Running the VR Gauntlet – VR Ready, Are You?” with Michael and Nate
Wednesday, March 27 @ 2:00PM – 3:00PM (Room 302, South Hall)

Virtual reality may be poised to revolutionize the way we play our favorite games, but creating a great VR game is surprisingly challenging. Developers have to carefully consider latency, user input, rendering performance, UI design, and overall user experience. We’ll discuss what developers need to know about supporting the Oculus Rift, how to tackle the major technical hurdles associated with truly immersive virtual reality, and what we’ve learned so far from building a new platform for VR games.

“Virtual Reality: The Holy Grail of Gaming” with Palmer and Brendan
Thursday, March 28 @ 11:30AM – 12:30PM (Room 301, South Hall)

For years, developers have strived to make immersive virtual worlds, and gamers have spent countless billions on the systems that play them best. Software, hardware, and input devices have all leapt forward, but the connection between the player and the virtual world has remained limited. We’ve dreamed of stepping inside of our games, but the best we’ve been able to do is puppet characters through a tiny window! Technological progress in a variety of fields has finally brought immersive virtual reality within reach of gamers. We’ll discuss VR’s false starts, what’s different this time, and why virtual reality is poised to revolutionize the way we play games.

Valve is also giving two talks on virtual reality you won’t want to miss:

“Why Virtual Reality Is Hard (And Where It Might Be Going)” presented by Michael Abrash

Thursday, March 28 @ 5:30PM – 5:55PM (Room 2014, West Hall)

“What We Learned Porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality” presented by Joe Ludwig
Thursday, March 28 @ 6:05PM – 6:30PM (Room 2014, West Hall)

Oculus-ready Demos

In the booth, we’re demoing the latest Rift development kits that start shipping on Friday with our most immersive demos to date. We’ll be cycling through these demos in 2-hour blocks throughout the show, so you may have to stop by more than once to see them all.

Hawken

Adhesive and Meteor have been cranking on the Oculus-ready version of Hawken and it looks fantastic. Even though it’s an early build of the integration, piloting your very own mech over the stereoscopic cityscape of Hawken in virtual reality is awe inspiring.

Team Fortress 2

Valve announced the new “VR Mode” for Team Fortress 2 last week and we brought the latest Oculus-ready build of the war-themed hat simulator with us to GDC. One of the coolest looking games in Valve’s arsenal, the feeling of actually being Heavy, looking down and seeing the mini-gun in your hands, is worth the trip alone.

Razer Hydra Demo + Special Offer

We’ve been collaborating with Sixense on a Oculus + Unity + Razer Hydra sandbox demo and the early results are pretty cool. With the Hydra, you can interact with objects in the Oculus World demo (Tuscan Villa) with basic hand-position tracking, including throwing furniture, lighting books on fire, and trying to juggle baseballs.

Razer is actually launching a VR promotion today where they’re offering the Razer Hydra or the Razer Hydra Bundle (w/ Portal 2) for 50%-off to all Oculus developers and VR enthusiasts. We’re big fans of the Hydra — it’s impressive tech, especially in conjunction with the Rift. If you’re interested in learning more, check out www.razerzone.com/vrpromo. Special thanks to Razer for this great offer.

Unity 4 Integration

We have all our Unity 4 integration demos with us, including DriVR, which was built in just a few hours using content from the Unity Asset Store, and the Oculus World Demo, a little virtual vacation to Tuscany included with the Oculus SDK. Peter, who can be seen driving very poorly above, will be happy to walkyou through the basics of the Oculus – Unity integration at the booth.

Our best lap on DriVR is still 1:09. We’re searching for a new heir to the DriVR throne.

Unreal Engine 3 Integration

And, of course, the infamous ‘snowy’ Epic Citadel demo built using Unreal Engine 3. If you’re interested to see just what’s possible with the upcoming Oculus-ready version of the UDK, look no further.

We’d like to thank all of our partners for their extra efforts leading up to GDC! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@Oculus3D) for live Oculus updates from the show.

We’ll see you at GDC tomorrow!

– Palmer and the Oculus team

If you’re unfamiliar with the critically acclaimed novel, Ready Player One is about the exciting power and possibilities of virtual reality. Around Oculus, Ready Player One has become required reading. We can’t recommend it highly enough.

In February, we were lucky enough to have Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, by the office to check out a demo and meet the team.

If you haven’t had a chance to read Ready Player One yet, grab a copy here, and dive in before your development kit arrives. We promise that you’ll come away inspired.

New Order Update System

The new web system for updating your Oculus order information is finally live, just in time to double-check your address before rewards begin shipping!

You can use the system right now by visiting: https://www.oculusvr.com/sales/.

The system has three primary functions:
- You can update your address anytime before your order has shipped.
- You can see the status of your order (ready, incomplete, or shipped).
- You can find out whether anything is preventing your order from shipping (eg. invalid address or missing international shipping payment).

Please take a minute and double-check that your order status is ‘Ready’ to help us avoid delays in shipping your items. If you need help, don’t hesitate to email us at support@oculusvr.com.

SXSW Panel Livestream

Virtual Reality: The Holy Grail of Gaming
Paul Bettner, Chris Roberts, Cliff Bleszinski, and Palmer Luckey
6:00 – 6:45pm CST this Friday, March 8th

You can read the full panel details here.

We don’t have the official details for accessing the livestream yet, but we’ll be sure to share a direct link with everyone before the panel begins.

A Flurry of News

As we begin the final countdown to shipping development kits and launching the Oculus Developer Center, we still have a few surprises up our sleeve.

So strap in and stay tuned– This is just the beginning.
We’ll see you in the game!

- Palmer and the Oculus Team

What’s especially cool is that our CES demos were built on the same software stack that developers will be using come March (Oculus SDK, new Oculus VR™ tracker, and Unity and Unreal Engine 3 integrations).

There are plenty of fantastic articles from the show, but we wanted to share a few of our favorite awards, quotes, and videos with everyone who helped make this happen.

Awards

The Verge – Best in Show, Best in Gaming, Reader’s Choice

“Virtual reality has long been the ultimate promise of technology — the magic mandala, a doorway to the infinite. But the thing is: it never happened…. The Oculus Rift actually delivers on the promise, and then some. It’s really, really amazing. Truly and honestly a revelation, a trip, a rabbit hole. And I’m going in. Forever. Goodbye universe. Hello universe.”

IGN – Best Prototype

“Offering some of the most compelling virtual reality experiences we’ve ever encountered, Oculus’ Rift stole the show and our hearts.”

Wired – Best of CES

“If you’re of a certain age, you remember the first time you sat down at a computer terminal, opened a browser, and tried the World Wide Web. It was a before and after moment. Although Usenet and other internet communications technologies had been around for years, the web was instantly recognizable as something new and powerful and different that built on all that had come before. And so is it with the Oculus Rift.”

Laptop Magazine – Best Gaming Device

“We’re excited to say that Oculus Rift is delivering on the young company’s lofty promises… Oculus Rift is an evolution of gaming itself, and we love where it’s heading.”

PCMag – Best Gaming Gear

“It’s one of the most immersive visual experiences I’ve ever seen in a gaming or home entertainment device, and I can definitely see it making action games like Skyrim and Far Cry 3 more exciting, and horror titles like Slender more pants-wetting.”

GameFront – Best of CES

“The Rift represents the future of gaming, or better yet: the future of PC interfacing. This isn’t a gimmick like 3D — the Rift is going to fundamentally change the way you think about entertainment. All the VR madness from the 90′s was leading to this moment, only now we have the technology to push it from laughable flash in the pan to a concrete, exciting, mainstream reality. The Oculus Rift is our favorite piece of tech from CES 2013, hands down.”

Impressions

“Not only was this the coolest thing I saw at CES, but it’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen ever. As someone who has always been interested in the idea of VR headsets, and always heartbreakingly let down by the reality of VR headsets, I admit I took a rare (for me) CES meeting on a lark. I had heard something about their successful Kickstarter, but honestly, I figured it would just be more of the same.
I was wrong. Not sure I’ve ever been more wrong. Even in this hand-built prototype stage, the Rift is amazing.” – Geoffrey Morrison, CNET

“The Rift is certainly one of the most amazing things I’ve seen at CES this year – hell, in any year. It’s not really possible to describe what it’s like to use it, but as soon as I put the goggles on and turned my head, I think my mouth dropped. It’s flat-out awesome.” - Dan Nosowitz, Popular Science

“I haven’t been this excited about a piece of hardware with the potential to change gaming since 3D hardware acceleration took off. And I believe this could even be bigger.” - Don Woligroski, Tom’s Hardware

“Arguably the most important thing about the Oculus Rift is that the displays take up your entire field of view. All of it. You put the headset on, and the only thing you can see is the world that it’s showing you. The effect of this is immediate and dramatic, because it fools your brain into thinking that you’re somewhere else. Really. It’s amazing” – Evan Ackerman, DVICE

“Even using aging tech like Unreal Engine 3, this castle landscape felt real, to the point I wanted to reach out and grab a falling snowflake, or try to touch the cold, stone pillars holding up a decaying building… In the past, I simply played through worlds. I moved through them. This one made me feel like I was physically in that space. Living in it. Unable to look away, because it was all around me. It’s immersion on an entirely different level.” – Richard George, IGN

Video Interviews

Engadget – Engadget sits down with Palmer and Nate

Revision3 – Oculus Rift Eyes-On: The Mind-Blowing Future of VR Gaming

Tested – Hands-on with the Oculus Rift

The Verge – “Top Shelf Day 2” Demo of the Oculus Rift with Palmer

Special thanks to all the users over on reddit.com/r/oculus who’ve helped us keep track of the best videos and reviews from the week!

Thanks again for all your support. We have more Rift development kit news on the horizon.
Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Palmer and the Oculus team

Reddit AMAA – Aug 28th, 10am PST

I’ll be doing an AMAA (Ask Me Almost Anything) on Reddit on the 28th starting at 10am PST, just for fun. I’ll be answering questions about Oculus VR™, the Rift, and virtual reality technology. If you’re unfamiliar with Reddit AMAs, you can read a short introduction here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/

If you’ve been dying to ask me something (or maybe you’ve asked, but I haven’t had a chance to respond [Sorry!]), this might just be your opportunity. We’re looking forward to answering your questions live!

Gift an Indie Rift Contest!

We’re excited to announce a small contest that will coincide with the end of the Kickstarter. The community will have the chance to pick two indie developers to receive an early, FREE Rift developer kit! (plus a t-shirt and poster, all signed by the team, $500+ value).

If you’re an indie studio and you’d like to be considered for the contest, please send an email to vote@oculusvr.com before Aug. 27th at 11:59pm PST with the following information:

1. Name of your studio
2. Studio’s website
3. Any prior work
4. What you’d like to do with a Rift developer kit and why your project is special

Note: Indie studios *must* submit themselves to be considered for the vote. Sorry!

We’ll pick our favorite submissions with a bit of help from a few of our friends in the industry and we’ll launch the public voting Aug. 28th!

Content FAQ:

When will the winners receive the developer kit?
Probably around November, but it could be earlier.

What defines an indie studio? We’re not quite sure ourselves, but let’s say you shouldn’t have more than 10 full time employees or have a major publishing deal in place.

Does the winner have to actually deliver anything?
Nope! They just get one of the very first Rift dev kits to experiment with (although we’d certainly love to see their creations).

Please feel free to send any others you might have to vote@oculusvr.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Oculus VR™ Lands in South Korea!

We’re opening Oculus VR™ Korea in Seoul to help game developers in South Korea bring their ideas to life inside the Rift. We just held a small press event to kick things off and announce our new business manager of Korea, Dillon Seo. You can check out the official announcement here: Oculus VR™ to Bring Virtual Reality to South Korea.

Keep spreading the word. We’ll be in touch!

– Palmer

Brendan Iribe, former Chief Product Officer at Gaikai and co-founder/CEO of Scaleform, joins as our CEO. Brendan will be leading the Oculus VR™ charge on all fronts, especially leveraging his relationships with top game developers, publishers, and hardware companies.

Michael Antonov, former co-founder/CTO of Scaleform, has agreed to join as our Chief Software Architect. Michael, who architected the Scaleform SDK – one of the most widely adopted video game middleware solutions ever, will lead the architecture and development of the Oculus SDK, making sure it’s super fast and efficient, as well as easy-to-use and well documented.

Jack McCauley, who has over 25 years of experience designing and manufacturing consumer hardware for companies like Atari, RedOctane, Activision, EA, and Microsoft, has come on board as our Vice President of Engineering. Jack will be be responsible for taking all our research and actually creating the hardware that you guys will ultimately receive.

Brendan, Michael, and Jack are all incredibly talented at what they do, which is exactly why we sought them out. You can read more about our announcement here: http://www.oculusvr.com/press/former-gaikai-and-scaleform-officer-brendan-iribe-joins-oculus-as-ceo/

We are thrilled to welcome them to the Oculus VR™ team!

Quick Update

… on what we’ve been up to aside from recruiting:

• We’re tweaking the hardware design for the developer kit. Our latest prototype is actually lighter than the original, which was already less than 0.5lbs. We’ve also come up with an elegant solution to help us reduce the amount of cabling.
• We’re meeting with game developers around the world (literally!), showing the Oculus Rift, and discussing what the future of video games with VR support may look like.
• We’re ramping up our hardware operations and looking at partnerships with the best possible companies. In fact, Brendan and Jack just returned from China where they toured factories and established a close relationship with a major device manufacturer.
• Of course, we’re hard at work developing the Oculus SDK, including Unreal Engine and Unity integrations, as well as the samples / documentation we’ll be providing to the Oculus VR™ developer community. These are all coming along nicely. We’ll have more to show soon.
• Finally, we’re exploring all the exciting hardware and software possibilities for the consumer version of the Rift (easily the most fun part of our day). We’ve actually included links to a few neat VR projects at the bottom of this update. Check them out if you’re interested in learning something new!

New FAQs

We’ve also added several new FAQs to our Kickstarter page:

Can I use the Rift for other things like watching movies, surfing the web, and programming?

Will the Rift cause eye strain after extended use?

Will the Rift work with Ouya?

Should I wait for the consumer version?

Does the Rift developer kit work with games with existing 3D support?

Other Interesting VR Projects

We thought it would be fun to include some other neat virtual reality hardware projects out there, floating around the Internet. We’re big fans of all the work people are doing in the VR space.

WIZDISH - an in-place locomotion platform that allows you to move about virtual worlds.

Adjacent Reality Tracker - an open source motion tracker designed for virtual reality applications.

FriiSpace VR Input Device - large scape, low cost motion capture system that allows you to use large real life spaces to walk around inside large virtual environments.

Off to Europe!

We’re headed to Gamescom, Unite, and PAX Prime over the course of the next two weeks. If you’d like to schedule an appointment to meet with us and try out the Rift for yourself, send a message to rift@oculusvr.com. You can always keep up to date with our schedule by visiting http://www.oculusvr.com/events.

That’s it for now. As always, we look forward to your feedback. Keep in touch, Kickstarter!

– Palmer

We’ve included a curated set of the most interesting and educational segments from John Carmack’s keynote and the panel discussion on virtual reality. If you’ve been curious about the technology behind the Rift, how the Rift works, or what the future of gaming may look like now that the Rift has arrived, you’ll enjoy the clips below!

Virtual Insanity Panel w/ Carmack, Abrash, Luckey

John Carmack, Michael Abrash, and our own Palmer Luckey sat down with Todd Hollenshead to discuss virtual reality, augmented reality, and the future of video games.

“This is it. This is the seminal point. Where there’s a reasonable chance that out of this will explode all the wearable gaming stuff we’ve been treating as science fiction for so many years.” - Michael Abrash, Valve

“[The Rift developer kit] is an experimenter’s kit where you can really be at the forefront something I think will be a very big deal in the coming years here.” - John Carmack, id Software

• What separates the Rift from other head mounts.
• Future of virtual reality and game development (Part 1)
• Future of virtual reality and game development (Part 2)
• Cost of Rift vs. other head mounted displays.
• Stereoscopic 3D, virtual reality, and immersion (Part 1)
• Stereoscopic 3D, virtual reality, and immersion (Part 2)
• Wearing glasses with head mounted displays.

John Carmack’s QuakeCon 2012 Keynote

John Carmack’s annual QuakeCon keynote is regarded as one of the most important speeches in the game industry. In years past it has set the tone for the future of video games. This year was no exception. His topics included the PC-release Rage, DOOM 4’s on-going development, the impact of Windows 8, and of course, virtual reality and the Oculus Rift.

The keynote clocks in at just over 3 hours, so we’ve provided links to some of the most interesting VR/Rift-related segments below..

• John’s engineering thoughts on the Rift developer kit.
• John’s initial impression of integrating the Rift.
• John’s reservations about the Rift developer kit.
• John’s excitement about developing for virtual reality. (Hmmm.. YouTube doesn’t seem to handle such a large timestamp, so you’ll have to manually jump to ~2:17:30)

Other Exciting Rift News:

Just in case you’re still craving a bit more Rift knowledge…

Penny-Arcade: Behind the scenes with the Oculus Rift: the hardware that could change the way we play games

Joystiq: Looking into the world of Carmack’s DOOM through the Oculus Rift

Stretch Goals and the Developer Kit

We’re receiving a lot of questions about whether we can add stretch goals, especially ones that might improve the technical specifications of the developer kit.

The short answer is that changing any the technical specifications of the Rift developer kit may delay the ship date of the Kickstarter. Since we plan to ship the dev kits before the end of 2012 (less than 5 months away), we just don’t have room for error or unexpected delays that might cause us to slip. Sorry!

We’re hoping that once people see the developer kit for themselves, they agree that while it may not be the ideal hardware, it still delivers a really compelling experience that’s beyond sufficient for game developers and designers.

All that said, we’re doing everything we can to make sure the consumer Rift delivers the most immersive gaming experience you’ve ever seen and improving the Rift’s hardware will be at the crux of that effort. We promise it’ll be worth the wait.

Onward to Gamescom, Unite, and PAX Prime!

If you didn’t get a chance to spend some time with us at QuakeCon or SIGGRAPH, hopefully our paths will cross soon. We’ll be traveling in August, meeting with game developers and gamers at GDC Europe, Gamescom, Unite, and PAX Prime.

If you’re a developer and you’d like to schedule a meeting with our team, please email rift@oculusvr.com and we’ll do our best to set something up.

We’ll see you all soon!

– Palmer