Oculus Rift dev kit 2 unveiled at GDC

Virtual reality headset specialist Oculus has revealed the second version of its Rift VR unit.

PCGamesN reports that the company is already taking orders for the device, which will cost $350 and begin shipping in July.

It is promised that the revised unit offers major breakthroughs” compared to the current tech.

For instance, a player-facing camera is now used for head tracking, apparently providing higher fidelity movement tracking. Also added to the 440g unit are two low persistence OLED screens offering 960×1080 pixels each.

However, it sounds like we’re still some way from a unit being released to the public.

A lot of it is on software experience side: when you take it home, it should just work,” Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell said. How do you discover content? What’s the first experience you’re going to play? Where is the content?

The core is there for developers to build great content, but developers are still on that journey with us. For the consumer version, it should be easy. Anyone should be able to grab a Rift, plug it in, and have fun.

We’re not there yet. We know it’s not ready for consumers. How do you balance that from being an open platform where everyone can get involved, and disappointing people? All I can say is, for consumers, wait, wait, wait. It’ll be worth it."

Mitchell added to T3: Our ambition for consumers is total immersion, a world where you almost can’t tell the difference, and this isn’t quite that yet. The consumer version will be a significant leap on again, in spec as well as design, and will have a launch line-up, too. We’re working on it.

We need big companies, be it Sony, Microsoft, Google or Apple, not to mention smaller ones, to join the party. The more that get involved in this space will help validate it.”

Sony last night revealed its PS4-ready VR headset, Project Morpheus.