The company is also getting full support in Unity

Sep 22, 2014 06:31 GMT  ·  By

The development team working on the Oculus Rift virtual reality technology announces that it is introducing a new version of the device, still in the prototype stage, called the Crescent Bay, which is designed to deliver an entirely new tech for the display, 360-degree head tracking, integrated high quality audio, expanded positional tracking volume, as well as improved ergonomics and decreased weight.

The official announcement says that the new platform is available for all those who are at the Oculus Connect conference to try out, and they will be able to quickly see the improvements and the way the new headset makes VR even better.

The company states, “The demo is designed to demonstrate the power of presence and give you a glimpse into the level of VR experience you can expect to see come to life in gaming, film, and beyond. This is still incredibly early hardware.  There are plenty of technical challenges left to solve for the consumer Rift, but Crescent Bay is truly the best virtual reality headsets we’ve ever built.”

Improved support for software

The company behind the Oculus Rift might be focused on improving the hardware which is powering the virtual reality headset, but they are also continuing to work with software companies in order to make sure that they have all the tools to develop games and experiences for it.

Epic Games is using the fourth version of its engine to create an entirely new demo called Showdown, designed to showcase the improvements included in Crescent Bay.

Unity is also announcing that the Oculus Rift is now an official platform and build target, which means that both the free and the pro version of the development tools support it.

The team explains that, “We’ve seen a huge amount of incredible content built with Unity and Oculus over the last two years, including ground-breaking projects like Lucky’s Tale, Titans of Space, SUPERHOT, and DarkNet. We hope the partnership enables more developers to leverage Unity’s toolset to build the next generation of virtual reality games and experiences.”

Consumers have to wait

Despite the fact that the technology associated with the Oculus Rift is being constantly improved, it seems that consumers will have to wait before they get a commercial version of the VR headset.

A leak previously suggested that the device might get a limited release in the spring and summer of next year, but the company has not commented on the info.

Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Images (3 Images)

Oculus Rift Crescent Bay
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