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A new and improved prototype of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been revealed.
Named the ‘Crystal Cove’, the new model further reduces the latency claimed to occasionally cause motion sickness in users of the initial developer kit.
The upgrade also adds some major new features, including a 1080p OLED display and positional tracking, which allows users to move inside games by moving their head, the movements of which are captured using a series of LED lights embedded in the outside of the Rift and an external camera.
Low persistence, which reduces motion blur and a smearing effect previously found in past versions of the device, has also been incorporated.
A new demo created by Epic Games was also shown off, using the Unreal Engine 4 game engine to place the player in the ‘Elemental’ universe, playing a tower-defence game while a horned lava monster watches.
Despite the improvements and the impending consumer release of the device this year, Oculus said that the components and features are still subject to change, with a low price a priority for the platform.
"Cost has always been at the crux of the entire Oculus platform,” Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell told Polygon.
“If the hardware is not affordable, it might as well not exist."
