Oculus unveils Crescent Bay prototype

Oculus has announced a new version of the Oculus Rift made for developers looking to finish commercial versions of their titles on the virtual reality platform.

Dubbed Crescent Bay, the new VR headset was unveiled as part of the company’s Oculus Connect conference this past weekend in Hollywood, California.

The Crescent Bay offers higher resolution, lower latency, improved ergonomics, and lighter weight compared to previous kits. The hardware also features 360 degree tracking and optional integrated audio – or audio that makes sense to the ear in a 3D space.

We’re working on audio as aggressively as we’re working on the vision side," Oculus’ Brendan Iribe said – adding that Oculus has licensed technology developed at the University of Maryland to help make the audio improvements possible.

Most interesting of all, Oculus claims Crescent Bay is the first Rift model to achieve presence – the feeling that you’re actually inside the game, with no connection to reality.

This story was originally published on our sister-site, MCV.