Facebook Oculus’ annual virtual reality developer conference, ‘The Oculus Connect 5 2018’ started yesterday on the 26th of September, in San Jose, California. It is a two-day event that ends today.
This conference brings together VR developers from all around the world having an expertise in a variety of platforms and mediums. This is to push collaboration and share ideas that can bring the VR industry forward.
Day 1 of Oculus Connect 5 was full of exciting news and announcements including the launch of Oculus Quest VR headset, Oculus platform updates, Oculus Go getting youtube VR, a three-part Vader Immortal Star Wars VR experience, and much more!
Let’s have a look at some of these exciting announcements from Oculus Connect 5 2018.
Oculus Quest VR headset revealed
Oculus Quest is the first all-in-one VR gaming system by Oculus. It will be launched in Spring 2019. It comes with six degrees of freedom (6DOF), and touch controllers. The best thing is that it doesn’t come with an additional baggage of a PC, wires, and external sensors.
The Oculus team also presented ‘Oculus Insight’ that uses four ultra wide-angle sensors along with computer vision algorithms. This helps track your exact position in real time without requiring any external sensors.
Oculus Quest includes similar optics as Oculus Go along with a display resolution of 1600×1440 per eye. It also incorporates a lens spacing adjustment for enhanced visual comfort. The built-in audio system has been improved with bass up for higher quality sound effects.
After its launch in Spring 2019, Oculus Quest will also launch a library with 50 VR apps including popular games like Robo Recall, The Climb, and Moss.
Oculus Go getting YouTube VR
Another exciting announcement made at the Oculus Connect 5 event was Oculus bringing YouTube VR to its Oculus Go VR headset. Oculus Go VR headset will now have access to more than 800,000 360-degree videos as a result of a partnership with Google’s YouTube service.
This YouTube VR service will launch on the headset soon, as announced by Oculus Go product manager, Sean Liu at the Oculus Connect 5 conference.
Oculus Venues adding NBA pro basketball games
Now Oculus Venue, a concert and sports events app by Oculus has added the world’s most popular sports to the platform, NBA pro basketball games. As per the announcement at the Oculus Connect 5 conference, NBA games will be available in Oculus Venues later this year.
Also, viewers accessing NBA game in VR will be getting a custom virtual jersey of their favorite team which their avatar will be able to wear for the rest of the game season.
Apart from that, Oculus Venues is planning on adding a lot more live music, movie marathons, and stand up comedy. Also, everyone who will be attending an NBA game in VR will get a special jersey for their avatar.
Oculus Go cast support
Another announcement made at the Oculus Connect 5 conference was cast support being added to Oculus Go. This will enable the Go users with the capability to stream their gameplay experience to other screens.
As of now, the main focus is on enabling the users to cast Go screen to mobile devices. However, casting Go screen will be available for TV screens too in the near future, as mentioned by Sean Liu, Oculus Go product manager.
A three-part Star Wars series – Vader Immortal
Another super exciting announcement made at Oculus Connect 5 was the arrival of the first episode of a three-part VR series, called VR immortal. The series is based on Darth Vader and would be premiering with the upcoming Oculus Quest headsets.
Vader Immortal is being created with David S. Goyer, who is the screenwriter behind films like The Dark Knight trilogy.
Vader Immortal explores the events that take place in Secrets of the Empire and between the Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It will also explore the Darth Vader’s castle as seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Gaming Announcements
Apart from 50 titles for the Oculus Quest at the launch, there are a bunch of other Game Announcements that were made at Oculus Connect 5 2018.
- Insomniac Games’ Stormland, an action-adventure game which lets you play as a robot, will be launched in 2019.
- First look at Ready At Dawn’s Lone Echo II, the sequel to Lone Echo I, one of the most critically acclaimed games.
- Vox Machinae out, the mech simulator game had a surprise launch yesterday for Oculus Rift at the Oculus Connect 5 2018 conference. Fans of giant robots and elaborate cockpits would love this game!
Other Oculus platform Announcements
- Work in ongoing on Avatars. Expressive Avatars with better eye and mouth movements expected later this year.
- The Oculus mobile app has now added support for Rift. This will enable you to have access to events, friends, and the Oculus store directly from your phone.
For more information on Oculus Quest, visit the official Oculus Quest website.