Oculus unveils new controllers and the final vision of the Rift before E3 – The Verge

Catch everything from Oculus’ big gaming event in eight minutes

2015-06-12T09:18:18-04:00

Oculus' pre-E3 gaming showcase was a bigger deal than any of us expected. Oculus didn't just show us the final Rift virtual reality headset for the first time. It revealed that it had partnered with Microsoft to ship every Rift with an Xbox One gamepad. And that if you already own an Xbox One, you can stream its games to the Rift through your PC (they'll appear on a virtual big screen inside it). And that it's also making a new motion controller called the Oculus Touch, which will be selling alongside the Rift.

We'll probably be hearing a lot more about Oculus (and seeing some of the games it just announced) at E3 next week. For now, though …

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The Oculus Rift needed two years to get gaming right

2015-06-11T18:03:19-04:00

The very first thing I did in the Oculus Rift - the first thing most of us at The Verge, did, actually - was walk around a spaceship with a gamepad. It was a simpler time, when all most people expected out of VR was a cool way to play games. Now, more than two years after that first trip into virtual reality, Oculus has announced its final product… and we're back to where we started, with games. But that's a good thing.

During the very first wave of real Oculus hype in 2013, everyone had something they wanted to play (or were scared to play) on the Rift, whether it was an MMO or a horror game or a first-person shooter. Very few people had s …

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Up close with the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch

2015-06-11T14:16:52-04:00

When Oculus Rift invited the media to a special event ahead of E3, it promised a handful of updates to prepare the world for what it expected to show off. Instead, it gave us an unexpected glimpse of not one but two pieces of hardware: the final design for the Oculus Rift consumer version, which will ship in the first quarter of next year, and a prototype of Oculus Touch, a next-generation input method that will enable future experiences inside virtual reality. Here's a look at the hardware up close.

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Oculus Rift portal will let you demo games in VR

2015-06-11T13:58:02-04:00

Alongside its consumer Rift, Oculus has announced a user interface for virtual reality. Oculus Home is quite a lot like the Gear VR interface of the same name that launched last year, but while you have to put on the Gear VR to do anything, this does double duty as a VR and a 2D interface. Without the Rift, it's a place where you can see what friends are doing and look at a catalog. If you do put it on, Oculus is offering game demos in VR. You'll be able to preview a game without downloading or buying it. The whole thing seems a little like a VR version of Steam.

This is all part of Oculus' attempt to create a user-friendly version of its s …

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Oculus Touch is a next-generation input device for the Rift

2015-06-11T13:56:17-04:00

Taking virtual reality to the next level won't happen with the included Xbox One controller, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said at an event today in San Francisco. That's why Oculus is building a next-generation input system that understands all of your gestures. The result is Oculus Touch, a forthcoming input device that understands the presence of your hands and can understand gestures such as a thumbs up.

The Touch includes an analog trigger, buttons, and analog thumb sticks. It detects a variety of finger poses including pointing and waving for additional controls. A full demo of the device will be shown at E3 next week in Los Angeles, L …

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These are the first Oculus Rift games

2015-06-11T13:49:02-04:00

The Oculus Rift is coming, and now we finally know some of the very first virtual reality games we'll be able to play on it. At a press conference today, Oculus unveiled the final consumer version of its VR headset, as well as some of the initial games that will be playable when it finally launches. Some we already knew about, some are new, but all look potentially very exciting. The list includes games like sci-fi flight sim Eve Valkyrie, atmospheric RPG Chronos, and Edge of Nowhere, an arctic survival game from Insomniac Games, the studio behind Ratchet & Clank and Resistance.

Other notable developers, like Rock Band studio Harmonix, are …

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Xbox One games are coming to the Oculus Rift

2015-06-11T13:30:48-04:00

You'll be able to play Xbox One games on the Oculus Rift, the companies said today. At an event in San Francisco, Xbox head Phil Spencer said you will be able to stream your Xbox One games to the Rift and play them using your Xbox One gamepad. (A gamepad will ship with the Rift.) No specific games were mentioned, and it wasn't yet clear how many games would be compatible with the Rift when it ships.

Oculus' first consumer model is expected to ship early next year. The company hasn't set a price yet, but the total cost to use the Rift is expected to be around $1,500 including the cost of the PC. By partnering with Oculus, Microsoft has essen …

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We’re seeing the finished Oculus Rift firsthand for the first time

2015-06-11T13:19:25-04:00

We got a couple of press shots of the finished Oculus Rift earlier this year, and some leaked images earlier this week. But now, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe is showing off a real, physical version. This is the version of the Rift that will ship next year, which will work with an external camera that sits on your desk. "The same tracking system can be used for other real-world objects," Iribe said somewhat enigmatically - actually, it's probably a reference to Touch, Oculus' prototype motion controller. Some early leaks showed a camera (possibly for hand tracking) at the bottom of the headset, but that's now confirmed to be absent. Instead, the …

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