Facebook and Oculus (the Virtual reality gaming company) unveiled the first commercial version of virtual reality goggles called Oculus Rift on Thursday at an event in San Francisco. They also showed a new virtual reality controller called Oculus Touch, which looks like a pair of half-moons that can be gripped easily like other controllers.
Facebook held the event in advance of next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the largest annual event of the gaming industry.
Palmer Luckey, Oculus founder told that the Oculus Rift is initially intended to be tethered to high end gaming devices and computers, enabling gamers to throw Frisbees, pick up guns or carry out other actions in the virtual world of Oculus Rift. According to Luckey, It will also be possible to wave or point inside the video games being played on the Rift.
Palmer Luckey said “We really think Oculus Touch is going to surprise you. We think they are going to deliver an entirely new set of virtual reality experiences.” He also said “The aim of the Oculus Touch is to create an extension of your own hands in the virtual world.”
Facebook did not showcase the actual product instead they showed the standard projections of various games that are expected to be played on Oculus Rift. Oculus Rift is light weighted and images are produced by two round screens that can be adjusted according to the user’s eyes. Facebook employed fuller 3-D audio, reducing the size of the headphones so that objects sound as if they are moving in the right relationship to distance.
Eric Nofsinger, the chief creative officer at High Voltage Software which is developing a game for Oculus Rift said “They fly engineers to our offices and give us tips on new ways to do things.”