We got a couple of press shots of the finished Oculus Rift earlier this year, and some leaked images earlier this week. But now, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe is showing off a real, physical version. This is the version of the Rift that will ship next year, which will work with an external camera that sits on your desk. "The same tracking system can be used for other real-world objects," Iribe said somewhat enigmatically — actually, it's probably a reference to Touch, Oculus' prototype motion controller. Some early leaks showed a camera (possibly for hand tracking) at the bottom of the headset, but that's now confirmed to be absent. Instead, the Rift will ship with an Xbox One gamepad as part of a partnership with Microsoft. Oculus has released a video with some more visual detail, seen below.
Oculus has previously confirmed several elements of the Rift. This version is a lot like the Crescent Bay headset that was unveiled last year and tweaked at CES. This means it has two separate screens, one for each eye, and built-in headphones that can be swapped out for the wearer's own. We're promised a "wide" field of view, although we don't know whether it's wider than earlier prototypes. We also don't know the resolution, but it's supposed to be crisp, although Iribe admits it's "maybe not quite as high-resolution as you one day want."
The Rift is still confirmed for the first quarter of 2016, and there is, still, no price.
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