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From Kickstarter to Facebook: the full Oculus Rift story

Oculus Rift started as a breakout Kickstarter success, little more than an incredible demo involving sparks flying in a spaceship. But it evolved into something much more: Oculus VR became the face of the future of virtual reality. The company's eponymous headset has undergone a handful of revisions as it has simultaneously courted users and developers, promising an entirely new way to play games, watch movies, and ultimately interact with people both near and far. Yes, it involves strapping a huge object to your face that shields out the world around you, but it promised to be the true future of social interaction. We've seen the future of virtual reality with our own eyes.Though Oculus has yet to release a true consumer product, it's already found a willing buyer in Facebook, which acquired the company in March of 2014 for $2 billion. This, Mark Zuckerberg said, might be the future — and not just the future of video games.Facebook to acquire Oculus VR for $2 billion: 90 Seconds on The Verge

Below, you'll find the entire story of Oculus Rift, from its first public appearance through all of its development so far.

  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 22, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    I tricked my brain into thinking real life was VR

    If you talk to anybody who's into virtual reality for more than ten minutes, you will probably end up speculating about when we might achieve total immersion: the point at which a simulated experience becomes functionally indistinguishable from real life. Most people will submit that we're not near that point yet, barring a nightmare scenario that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey posited at the company's conference this weekend — imagine "you're in a room that has no movement, no sound except for yourself breathing, and no scent... and you're in a straitjacket. Potentially you could experience that situation quite closely." But a couple of hours after that speech, I discovered that it's possible to get the opposite feeling: I accidentally tricked myself into thinking reality was fake.

    What I'm about to write isn't proof that VR can suddenly replace the physical world. The prototype Oculus just announced, Crescent Bay, is indisputably a big step forward from the current development kit, giving you a free range of motion for the first time. Even so, it's not the Metaverse or the Matrix. You will not enter a shooter demo and leap for cover. Your mind does not make bullets real. I used Crescent Bay twice, and I didn't find myself convinced that the virtual T-Rex in one demo was going to squash me. After my first time, I took the headset off, wrote about it, and compared notes with other attendees. When I came out after my second time, though, I felt lightheaded. The world seemed a little bit too bright and out of focus. A little bit distant.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 20, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    Oculus' new prototype is where VR should be right now

    You can finally walk around in virtual reality.

    Oculus still doesn't want you to walk around. But it will let you. And that's a big deal.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 20, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    Oculus announces new VR headset prototype: Crescent Bay

    Oculus has announced a new prototype called Crescent Bay, another step towards the consumer version of its virtual reality headset. "It's as big of a leap as we made from DK1 to DK2," says Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, referring to the first two versions of the Rift development kit. The new headset features 360-degree tracking, letting the Rift's external camera track the back of the headset as well as the front, making it easier for people to move without feeling constrained by staying in the camera's range. It's supposed to have improved weight and ergonomics — "it is much lighter. Thank god," says Iribe. And for the first time, it includes integrated headphones. Crescent Bay was announced at the Oculus Connect developer conference in Hollywood, CA. 3D audio is something Oculus has stayed out of so far, but it's a major focus of this Rift prototype, which is meant to make virtual reality more comfortable and immersive before it's officially released to consumers. Crescent Bay will "allow for sustained presence," says Iribe.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 6, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    Casual VR: inside Oculus and Samsung's mobile virtual world

    Oculus will not tell me when the long-awaited consumer version of its Rift headset, beloved by PC gamers and dedicated virtual reality enthusiasts, might be released.

    “I know it’s coming,” says company CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe when I finally ask the question. “No comment. We’re really excited about Gear VR right now.” He’s talking about Oculus’ new attempt to attract casual virtual reality users that the Rift might put off: a partnership with Samsung that turns a Galaxy Note 4 into the screen for a headset fitted with a trackpad, a few volume buttons, and the first-generation Rift’s tracking sensor.

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  • Chris Welch

    Jul 31, 2014

    Chris Welch

    New Oculus Rift dev kit uses the front of a Galaxy Note 3 as its screen

    It doesn't get much more "off-the-shelf" than this: the new Oculus Rift developer kit uses the front half of Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 for a display. Samsung's logo is in its usual spot, and the frame even has slots where the phablet's home button, earpiece speaker, and various sensors would normally go. iFixit made the discovery while tearing down the Rift Dev Kit 2, which is now making its way to developers who ordered the VR headset earlier this year.

    And while it's a strange thing to see, the decision to use a Samsung component that's already rolling off the assembly line makes total sense. It's less costly than producing a custom panel — which we don't expect to see until the consumer Rift arrives — and the Note 3's 1080p Super AMOLED panel is a great fit for the rift. It's bright, crisp, and colors pop.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Jul 30, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    Ads are the new face of virtual reality

    "So, what’d you think?" said the man who had gotten me into the cockpit of a Pacific Rim Jaeger.

    I grinned. "Great! But I was a little disappointed that I didn’t fall or get eaten."

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  • Rich McCormick

    Jul 2, 2014

    Rich McCormick

    The final Oculus Rift developer kit ships this month

    Virtual reality company Oculus has started shipping the next version of its VR headset, the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2, to buyers. The company plans to send out roughly 10,000 of the devices from its factories in July, with half of those units with customers by the end of the month. The DK2, which Oculus says more than 45,000 people have pre-ordered at a price of $350, is set to be the final development model before the Facebook-owned Oculus releases a full consumer version of its Rift headset.

    The Oculus Rift DK2 has a few significant upgrades on its predecessor. Most noticeable is the step up in its display — where the first Rift developer kit displayed a painfully low 1280x800 screen resolution, the DK2 gives users a 1080p OLED panel. It also comes with a tracking camera that can transfer your real-world head movements into games to make the experience feel more natural, and offers supposed reductions in blurring and motion sickness that should mean users can play games for longer without taking breaks every few minutes to re-align themselves with reality or retch into a bucket.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Jun 25, 2014

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Oculus calls ZeniMax lawsuit an attempt to cash in on Facebook acquisition

    Oculus VR has struck back at id Software owner ZeniMax over a lawsuit alleging that Oculus used stolen code to build its famous Rift headset. In a court filing today, Oculus paints ZeniMax's suit as opportunistic and claims unequivocally that its products do not use ZeniMax code. "ZeniMax’s complaint falsely claims ownership in Oculus VR technology in a transparent attempt to take advantage of the Oculus VR sale to Facebook," the filing reads, later saying, "There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product."

    Oculus was bought by Facebook for $2 billion earlier this year, and ZeniMax's suit followed not long after. id Software's founder, John Carmack, left for Oculus VR shortly before that, and his presence at the company certainly lends to the lawsuit's narrative. ZeniMax says that it's been working on virtual reality technology for years too, and it's clear that the two companies have been in close contact for a while.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Jun 4, 2014

    Andrew Webster

    Oculus hires former Valve business guru Jason Holtman

    Oculus VR's hiring spree continues, as today the company announced that it has hired former Valve business guru Jason Holtman. Holtman most recently worked at Microsoft — though his tenure was short lived — but is best known for his work at Valve, where he served as director of business development, helping turn Steam into the massive platform that it is today. It sounds like his role at Oculus will be similar, with the company stating that Holtman will spearhead "the business development and partnership side of the Oculus platform."

    That will include working with Oculus' recently formed publishing arm to help bring more developers to the budding VR platform. "I'm looking forward to helping shape the transformative experiences that inspire the next generation of developers," says Holtman. His hiring is just one of many that Oculus has made in the wake of being acquired by Facebook, and he's among several former Valve employees to join the VR firm. In March, Oculus hired Michael Abrash, Valve's chief scientist, to work on the technology side of the business.

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  • Adi Robertson

    May 29, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    An Oculus Rift, Wii Balance Board, and Kinect can become a virtual hoverboard

    It's hard to tell from the video how well that works, and consistent Kinect tracking is a decidedly uncertain bet. The environment is immersive, but not exactly realistic or engaging (or, unlike the older project, based on Back to the Future.) There's a distinctly '90s feel about the music and minimal graphics, as if Cyber Jobe were about to appear and consume the rider in a sudden burst of neon. That would, in fact, make an excellent addition. To any game, really.

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  • Josh Lowensohn

    May 21, 2014

    Josh Lowensohn

    Oculus VR and its founder sued by ZeniMax and id Software

    Oculus VR and its founder Palmer Luckey are being sued by id Software and its owner ZeniMax Media over claims that they illegally misappropriated trade secrets. The lawsuit, which was filed in a Texas court today, alleges that Luckey and his company used ZeniMax technology in order to build development tools for the Oculus Rift. It says that those actions represent contract breach, copyright infringement, and unfair competition, all things that ZeniMax says add up to an "enormous value."

    Facebook announced plans to purchase Oculus VR, the company that makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, for $2 billion in March. Weeks later, letters from ZeniMax were sent to Oculus and Facebook, claiming video game programmer John Carmack — who moved from id to Oculus — used technology developed by ZeniMax. Included in that was a non-disclosure agreement signed by Luckey two years ago that covered VR technology, a detail that's included in the complaint.

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  • Andrew Webster

    May 20, 2014

    Andrew Webster

    Oculus Rift is coming to Chuck E. Cheese

    Chuck E. Cheese is moving into virtual reality. The restaurant chain has just announced a new test program, which will see it use the Oculus Rift headset to simulate a ticket blaster — a large tube where prize tickets whizz around your head — at birthday parties. In the new version, you'll be able to grab virtual tickets that can be redeemed at an IRL merchandise counter. As of now the use of the Rift will be very limited, restricted to a six-week pilot program across three markets, including Dallas, Orlando, and San Diego.

    Nearly 30 restaurants in total will be part of the test, and it sounds like the company is eager to use the technology even more in the future. "Oculus Rift technology is the next frontier in the gaming industry," says company president Roger Cardinale. It's not quite as ambitious as Oculus' plan to build a billion person VR MMO, but it could make for much more sanitary ball pits.

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  • Sean Hollister

    May 5, 2014

    Sean Hollister

    Oculus wants to build a billion-person MMO with Facebook

    When Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion, both companies stayed fairly tight-lipped about their goals. The money would help Oculus build virtual reality headsets cheaper and better, while Facebook would have a chance to lead the next big computing platform. However, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe just told an audience at TechCrunch Disrupt about one lofty possibility for the pair: building a massively multiplayer experience for one billion simultaneous users. "This is going to be an MMO where we want to put a billion people in VR," he told attendees.

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  • Russell Brandom

    May 5, 2014

    Russell Brandom

    The Norwegian Army is using the Oculus Rift to drive tanks

    It's hard to see when you're driving a tank, particularly when the hatch is closed for combat, but the Norwegian Armed Forces have hacked together a cool new solution using the Oculus Rift. By mounting cameras on the outside of the tank, soldiers were able to create a 360-degree VR feed for the driver. With the Rift, the driver has an unobstructed view of the surroundings, effectively seeing through the body of the tank in what one soldier compared to the vehicle view from a Battlefield game.

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  • Adi Robertson

    May 5, 2014

    Adi Robertson

    Oculus says ZeniMax canceled 'Doom 3' VR edition after being refused equity

    After being threatened with legal action by id Software parent company ZeniMax, virtual reality frontrunner Oculus says it hasn't taken so much as a line of code from the company. Last week, ZeniMax said that the Oculus Rift VR headset couldn't have existed without help from John Carmack, who it accuses of giving Oculus intellectual property developed at and owned by ZeniMax. Carmack, who co-founded id but left to work at Oculus last year, was an early supporter of Oculus, and Oculus has previously acknowledged his support. But it says that ZeniMax played no part in the process and actually impeded VR development.

    "There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus products," says Oculus in a statement, and Carmack "did not take any intellectual property from ZeniMax." Instead, the company accuses ZeniMax of making misleading and vague claims. ZeniMax has cited a non-disclosure agreement that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey signed in 2012, in which it bars Luckey from using or claiming ownership of unspecified VR software. According to Oculus, ZeniMax "has misstated the purposes and language" of the document and has "never identified any ‘stolen' code or technology" in the company's publicly available source code.

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  • Sean Hollister

    May 1, 2014

    Sean Hollister

    One document could decide whether Oculus owes ZeniMax millions

    The publisher of games like Doom, Quake, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Dishonored issued a legal challenge to virtual reality company Oculus VR earlier today. Since its former employee John Carmack helped improve the Oculus Rift VR headset, warned ZeniMax Media, Oculus would have to pay. Initially, Oculus laughed off the threat, characterizing it as a cash grab timed to intercept the $2 billion Facebook deal. But it turns out that ZeniMax has more than threats: it has Oculus founder Palmer Luckey's signature on a piece of paper.

    The document in question is an agreement that gave Oculus the ability to use a "VR testbed" provided by ZeniMax. We have since removed it from this article at the request of our source. The paper by itself, signed before Oculus even became a company, may not mean very much. For the most part, it looks like a standard non-disclosure agreement, the kind that people routinely sign whenever companies give one another permission to look at — but not obtain any rights to — another company's intellectual property. It could be as simple as "Palmer Luckey, you have permission to show the Oculus Rift running Doom, but you agree that Doom still belongs to us."

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  • Sean Hollister

    May 1, 2014

    Sean Hollister

    Oculus and Facebook face legal challenge from John Carmack's former employer

    Long before Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2 billion — before Oculus even launched its successful Kickstarter campaign — famed video game programmer John Carmack sparked a wave of interest in the virtual reality headset by showing off an early duct-taped prototype at game conventions. Now, it may come back to bite Oculus and Facebook in the ass. Now that John Carmack works for Oculus, his former employer ZeniMax Media claims that it owns part of the intellectual property in the headset, and may sue Facebook and Oculus over those ideas in the near future.

    The Wall Street Journal obtained two letters from ZeniMax lawyers sent to Oculus and Facebook, which claim that Carmack's contributions were invaluable to the initial success of the Rift: "It was only through the concerted efforts of Mr. Carmack, using technology developed over many years at, and owned by, ZeniMax, that [Oculus founder Palmer] Luckey was able to transform his garage-based pipe dream into a working reality," the letter reportedly reads.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Apr 21, 2014

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Explore the bridge of 'Star Trek: Voyager' through Oculus Rift

    Road to VR believes that this is the first Oculus Rift demo from an independent developer that was made using the recently released Unreal Engine 4. Because the game engine includes support for the Rift, it could allow developers to create complex and graphically impressive virtual-reality worlds with an ease that wasn't afforded to them in the past. Speaking with Road to VR, the demo's developer, Thomas Kadlec, says just as much. "I almost have the sensation of being a 'movie director' when working with Unreal Engine 4," he says. "I can come up with an idea and in a matter of minutes you can come up with an implementation that looks really amazing."

    We'll certainly continue to see developers use virtual reality to warp people into familiar fictional environments as they learn to code and create for the Rift and other VR platforms. As for why Kadlec started with the Voyager: "I’m a huge Oculus Rift fan, Star Trek fan, and Unreal Engine 4 fan," he tells Road to VR. "So I just figured I’d mix those all together!"

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  • Kwame Opam

    Apr 19, 2014

    Kwame Opam

    Dying grandmother uses Oculus Rift to walk outside again

    Roberta Firstenberg had long loved walking outside and caring for her garden. However, a hard battle with cancer had weakened her so that going outside was no longer possible. In a bid to give her one more view of the outside world, Roberta's granddaughter Priscilla, an artist, programmed an Oculus rift to give her grandmother the chance to walk again.

    As The Rift Arcade reports, Priscilla reached out to Oculus last fall in the hopes of getting a dev kit Roberta could use. With the help of the Oculus Tuscany demo, Roberta can be seen "gliding" around a Tuscan villa and talking excitedly about being able to climb stairs. "You can be in pain," she says, "but, somehow, when you see a blue butterfly reach out to kiss you... it makes you realize we are all a part of this world..."

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  • Sean Hollister

    Apr 11, 2014

    Sean Hollister

    The godfather of nature documentaries is making one for the Oculus Rift

    Sir David Attenborough may be 87 years old, but he's still embracing the latest technology. After spending 60 years sharing nature's marvels with documentary series like Planet Earth and Life, his latest work may appear in virtual reality. According to a report at Realscreen, the upcoming Conquest of the Skies is currently filming with a special eight-camera rig to deliver 360-degree video for users of the upcoming Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. While we don't actually know the subject matter of the film, you can expect some airborne footage, as the eight-camera rig was recently used in a flight over Borneo.

    Oculus recently achieved mainstream recognition when it was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion, and an Attenborough documentary likely won't hurt its success. The success of the film, however, won't rely on Oculus and Facebook. Conquest of the Skies will actually be Attenborough's seventh stereoscopic 3D film, produced through a partnership with the UK's Sky 3D television channel. The program is slated to air in late 2014.

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  • Watch this: controlling a drone using an Oculus Rift

    Here's one way to feel like you're flying. Berlin developer Diego Araos hooked up a Parrot AR drone to an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset in order to control the flyer's movements with head tracking. "Diego is going to drive the drone with his head," his companion says in a video uploaded to YouTube this week.

    Araos and his friends pilot the drone through a park by nodding and rolling their heads from side to side while seeing what the drone sees through the Oculus video feed. Still, the first-person view doesn't prevent the drone from crashing.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Mar 30, 2014

    Aaron Souppouris

    John Carmack breaks silence on Facebook's Oculus acquisition

    After almost a week of silence, legendary game developer and Oculus CTO John Carmack has finally voiced his opinions on Facebook's planned acquisition of the virtual reality headset maker. Replying to a blog post by chiptune musician Peter Berkman, Carmack says he "wasn't expecting Facebook" to purchase the company he joined last August. "I wasn't personally involved in any of the negotiations," he adds, "I spent an afternoon talking technology with Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out he bought Oculus."

    Regarding criticisms voiced by Berkman and many onlookers — chiefly that Oculus abandoned its early supporters and was operating only to be acquired — Carmack disagrees. "There is a case to be made for being like Valve, and trying to build a new ecosystem like Steam from the ground up. This is probably what most of the passionate fans wanted to see." But that comparison doesn't make sense, Carmack argues. Valve had the digital games industry to itself for years, and, as Sony proved recently, virtually reality is set to become a major industry for tech "titans" to fight over. "The real questions were how deeply to partner, and with who," says Carmack — going it alone just didn't make sense.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Mar 28, 2014

    Sean Hollister

    Sony vs. Facebook: the battle for your reality has just begun

    Virtual reality is truly coming. There’s no longer any question. In the span of a single week, two titans emerged to proclaim that VR would be the future of their industries. Facebook and Sony, companies which respectively defined social networking and personal electronics, each validated what plucky startup Oculus VR had been saying all along: that virtual reality will be a bold new medium for gaming, for communication, and much, much more. Facebook’s play was to buy Oculus outright, spending $2 billion to bring an array of impressive talent under its wing, while Sony spent untold millions to introduce Project Morpheus, its own spin on the Oculus headset.

    But just because virtual reality is a multibillion-dollar idea doesn’t mean that it’s ready for consumption today. We’re coming to the realization that when the first commercial VR headsets hit the market, they probably won’t deliver the vast, Matrix-like experiences you might expect.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Mar 28, 2014

    Nathan Ingraham

    Oculus VR hires Michael Abrash away from Valve as its new chief scientist

    Oculus VR has a major hire — Michael Abrash will be leaving Valve to join Facebook's latest acquisition as its chief scientist. Abrash had been pioneering wearable technology at Valve for several years; as he writes on the Oculus blog, he had spent time developing augmented reality technology but came to realize that VR had far more potential than AR. This happened during the rise of Oculus over the last year and a half, with intelligence going back and forth between Valve and Oculus thanks to the longstanding relationship between Abrash and Oculus CTO John Carmack.

    Now, Abrash and Carmack will be reunited at Oculus, a company that has quickly emerged as the de-facto company pushing VR into the mainstream. Abrash had already solidified himself as one of the modern experts in VR thanks to a presentation at Valve's Steam Dev Days this past January, and now he'll be yet another big piece of the puzzle for Oculus (though there aren't any details on what his specific role will entail).

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  • Adrianne Jeffries

    Mar 28, 2014

    Adrianne Jeffries

    If you back a Kickstarter project that sells for $2 billion, do you deserve to get rich?

    The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter, no strings attached. Those donors weren’t looking for a payout; they wanted to support something they believed in, and maybe get a pair of virtual reality goggles to play with. But when Facebook bought Oculus a year and a half later for $2 billion in cash and stock, backers wondered: what if I’d asked for equity instead of a poster? "I would have rather bought a few shares of Oculus rather than my now-worthless $300 obsolete VR headset," backer Carlos Schulte wrote.

    If Schulte’s donation had been an investment, he could have earned around $43,500, estimates Greg Belote, the co-founder of equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder — a stunning 145x return.

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