The 4th annual virtual reality developer conference Oculus Connect hosted by Oculus from Facebook took place on Wednesday, October 11 and Thursday, October 12, 2017, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA. The main aim of the event was to collaborate and share ideas to push the VR industry forward by bringing together VR developers from around the world with expertise in a variety of platforms and mediums.
The highlights of the event were standalone headsets, ways to share VR to the News Feed and replacing computer monitors and smartphones with VR. Take a look at all the things announced at the Oculus 4 Connect event.
Oculus Go
Launched by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Oculus Go is a wireless standalone VR headset which no longer needs connect to smartphones or computer. Oculus Go is a lightweight headset which comes with WQHD LCD screen and spatial audio. The so-called “most accessible VR headset ” by Zuckerberg is much cheaper than the tethered headsets which will be available at $199 and the shipping will be done in early 2018. With the recent launch of Google’s Day Dream, the new Oculus Go is certainly going to give a tough competition.
Oculus Rift
There is a huge drop in the price of Oculus Rift and Touch controller bundle. After going through several discounts, the permanent price of the Rift and Touch combo is set to $399 from $798. A Rift bundle comes with Touch controllers, six free apps, and sensors. After the price drop, now Oculus Rift can compete with Playstation VR which costs $299 and the HTC Vive costing $599.
Oculus Dash
With several updates in hardware, there should be software which supports the hardware. Oculus Dash is Rift’s radically redesigned system interface that opens up new possibilities for VR and immersive computing. A single Oculus Dash is sufficient instead of linking up multiple hardware. It gives a 360-degree space experience for windows for most of the apps from Facebook to Spotify to Google Chrome. Dash will be available to users in December Oculus Core 2.0.
Oculus for Business
Oculus for Business bundle comes with Rift, Oculus Touch controllers, three facial interfaces and three sensors. The businesses will get $900 Rift Bundles along with dedicated customer support and extended licenses. Oculus has partnered with major companies such as Audi, Cisco, and DHL. Audi started building a VR car showroom using Oculus for Business.
Facebook 3D Posts
Facebook 3D posts are going to be an update to the existing News Feed posts which can be rotated, zoomed, and also be interacted with our fingers. The 3D posts are mainly designed for the users who don’t have VR headsets so that even they could get the 3D experience. These VR objects can be made in the Facebook spaces and VR Medium Sculpting app.
Facebook Venues
Facebook is going to launch a new VR app called Venues in the upcoming year where people can watch concerts, sports, movies, and TV with friends and rest of the world.
Project Santa Cruz Oculus
Project Santa Cruz is a standalone VR headset the company is designing which was unveiled last year. The company shared the latest updates made to it and the latest prototype. This standalone headset is going to remove the need for high-end PC and removes the cords and uses a new infrared LEDs from the original Touch controllers.
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