Oculus Reveals their New Rift S VR Headset
Oculus Reveals their New Rift S VR Headset
In Spring 2019, the Rift S will be released into the wild, offering inside-out tracking though five well-positioned cameras, a higher resolution screen, enhanced optics that are designed to reduce the “screen-door” effect and a new strap design that is comfort-oriented.
The Rift S is a new PC-oriented headset from Oculus, packing support for existing Rift titles while offering new Oculus Touch controllers that provide a design that is similar to what will be used with the Oculus Quest. The headset will cost $399 in the US, with worldwide pricing being unknown.
Specs-wise, the Oculus Rift S is both an upgrade and a downgrade over its predecessor, packing an 80Hz screen that offers a resolution of 1280×1440 per eye and a total resolution of 2560×1440. This means that the Oculus Rift S provides a resolution and optics upgrade, while also delivering a small refresh rate downgrade from 90Hz to 80Hz. GDC attendees have confirmed these specifications.
To create their new headset, Oculus teamed up with Lenovo, who was previously working on a SteamVR powered headset, to assist them in creating a more comfortable headset design. In some regards, the new Oculus look s lot like Sony’s PlayStation VR headset, which is renowned for being more comfortable than the original Rift and the HTC Vive.
To offer effective inside-out tracking, Oculus has mounted five cameras on their Rift S headset, with two looking forwards, one facing each side at a downward angle and one looking up. This will facilitate accurate controller tracking in most locations, though there will be a blind spot behind the gamer.
This same blind spot is seen on the Original Rift headset, which used two external cameras for tracking. A third camera was required to provide accurate tracking in all directions, but only when properly set up.
Outside of the upgraded screen resolution, the biggest change to the Rift S is the new tracking system which will make the new headset much easier to set up and use than its predecessor.
The Oculus Rift S will release in Spring 2019 for $399 in the US.
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