No official app or video game has been announced

May 27, 2015 13:54 GMT  ·  By

The development team behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality device is announcing that it is acquiring a company called Surreal Vision, which is at the moment in the process of developing a set of 3D scene reconstruction algorithm that allow it to take elements of the real world and recreate them inside VR scenes.

The start-up will be integrated into the research arm of the bigger company, which is now working with Facebook to find new uses for virtual reality platforms.

The official announcement adds that Surreal Vision is "developing breakthrough techniques to capture, interpret, manage, analyse, and finally reproject in real-time a model of reality back to the user in a way that feels real, creating a new, mixed reality that brings together the virtual and real worlds."

The fact that the Oculus Rift team is aiming to make sure that it can mix real and virtual elements inside the VR headset might be a sign that there are already applications beyond gaming that are being prepared.

The possibility was suggested when Facebook acquired the tech and claimed that it was an integral part of its long-term plans, but so far no applications other than gaming have been officially announced.

Oculus Rift is delivering a consumer version in early 2016

The virtual reality platform was the first to be officially revealed and received major backing from interested fans via crowdfunding, but now its future is connected to that of the social media giant.

The Oculus Rift will require some solid hardware on the PC in order to deliver its virtual reality experience.

The device does not have an official launch date and the price has not been revealed, although analysts are expecting that gamers will pay just a little over 300 dollars or Euro for one.

The Oculus Rift will have to deal with competition from the Vive, created by Valve and by HTC, which will arrive first in 2015, the Project Morpheus for the PlayStation 4, which Sony is creating, and the HoloLens solution from Microsoft.

The major issue at the moment with all the virtual reality solutions is that they will need a lot of video game and app support on launch to attract buyers, and so far neither of the companies mentioned above has announced a major line-up.