The third annual Oculus conference saw the pioneering virtual reality company present a vision for its own future in the face of competition from Google Daydream, PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared on stage at the October 6th Oculus 3 conference to demonstrate the latest prototype of a virtual reality video calling app for his social network.
The app is a socially-oriented aspect of Oculus' future, the company which once led modern VR. Even now, with March'sOculus Rift at $599, it finds itself in an increasingly competitive environment.
Korean manufacturer HTC partnered with PC gaming giant Steam to produce April's top-end, $799 HTC Vive, which offers superior technology for room-scale tracking.
And Sony is preparing its PlayStation VRfor an October 13 launch. It's not as sophisticated as either Oculus nor Vive and uses six-year-old PlayStation Move controllers, but only needs a PS4 Camera, a PlayStation 4 ($299, or a $399 PS4 Pro) and someone to plug them all in. It's $399 for the headset or $499 with two Moves and the camera.
Even more accessible are two caddies for high-spec mobile phones. At $99 (or $59 for the 2015 edition), the Samsung Gear VR works with Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 and devices in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 lines; Google's new $79 Daydream View is due November for new Google Pixel phones ($649 and up) as well as equivalent tier handsets from other manufacturers.
How will Oculus compete with both the Vive and Daydream?
First, technical advances mean that the original Rift will soon run on less powerful, more affordable computers. Oculus is partnering with Cyberpower PC on a machine whose $499 retail price is half that of the commonly estimated $1,000 VR-ready PC.
It's a big breakthrough considering that a pair of Oculus Touch controllers (announced for December at $99) and a second Oculus camera ($79) for room-scale VR would otherwise push the complete Oculus package past Vive's asking price.
Secondly, wireless, room-scale VR will be standard on a new Rift that is currently in development. Packing miniaturized computer hardware onto the headset's rear means that there'll be no trailing cables in sight.
There's no date and no price as of yet but, shown to select attendees at Oculus 3, the "Santa Cruz" prototype represents a step change in high-end consumer VR, with the potential of coupling the performance of a home system with the mobility of a handset-driven set up.
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 "Facebook, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Oculus 3, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, Daydream View, Cyber")
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