Oculus lifts lid on new Rift development kit

Oculus has lifted the lid on its new development kit for its virtual reality Rift headset.

The new dev kit for the headset features new technical advancements made in the last year including low-persistence, high definition display and low-latency positional head-tracking.

The company said all content developed using DK2 would work with the consumer hardware.

Similar to its Crystal Cove prototype, the new dev kit uses a low-persistence OLED display in an effort to eliminate motion blur and judder which can cause motion sickness.

To achieve head-tracking the kit now uses an external camera that tracks six degrees of movement, enabling users to peer around corners, for example.

Other inclusions include updated orientation tracking, a built-in latency tester, an on-headset USB accessory port, new optics, removal of the control box, a redesigned SDK and further optimisations for Unity and Unreal Engine 4 integrations.

DK2 is now open for pre-orders at $350 from the website.

The news comes after Oculus began stopping orders of the original dev kit after key components were no longer being manufactured.

"While the overall experience still needs to improve before it’s consumer-ready, we’re getting closer everyday — DK2 is not the Holodeck yet, but it’s a major step in the right direction," read a statement.

The new development kit is currently being shown off at GDC. The company is also displaying demos of Eve: Valkyrie, UE4 Elemental Defense and UE4 Couch Knight.

In future, Oculus said it plans to add further improvements to the consumer Rift to increase comfort and improve resolution, tracking, software, optics, the industrial design and the overall experience of using the headset.

Visit the official website for more details.

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