According to a report by UploadVR, citing emails sent from Facebook to Oculus developers, the rumored Rift S headsets will be revealed next week at GDC.

Rift S was first brought to light in a TechCrunch report last year about the leadership shakeup at Oculus and purported shifting product plans. The report said that Facebook/Oculus had decided to cancel a larger ‘Rift 2’ overhaul in favor of a more modest product refresh called the ‘Rift S’.

An UploadVR report this evening cites an email sent from Facebook to VR developers which “suggests ‘Rift S’ will be formally revealed at GDC 2019,” the annual Game Developers Conference hosted next week in San Francisco. Oculus is already confirmed as attending the event but hasn’t said anything about the potential of a new headset being revealed. Oculus declined to comment on the UploadVR report.

Origin of the Rift S Rumors

In the TechCrunch report last year, citing “a source familiar with the matter,” it was stated that the Rift S would likely bump the resolution of the headset and move to an inside-out tracking system which would ditch the external sensors—which the headset needs to track its position—in favor of on-board cameras which could do the same job while simplifying setup and usage of the headset. Oculus has already demonstrated its inside-out tracking technology, which it calls ‘Insight’, on its upcoming standalone VR headset, Quest.

SEE ALSO
Oculus Quest Hands-on and Tech Details

Last month, UploadVR uncovered code in the Oculus software referencing the Rift S explicitly. Rumors of the updated headset have further been stoked by spurious availability of stock for original Rift headset in recent weeks, as well as a quiet price drop on the headset from $400 to $350 back in January.

Original Rift Going Strong Despite Age

Image courtesy Oculus

The Rift is Oculus’ first, and so far only, PC VR headset. It was released back in 2016, and sports a 1,080 × 1,200 resolution and a ~100 degree diagonal field of view. At launch, the headset was priced at $600 and included an Xbox One controller as the primary input device, with content primarily designed for seated gameplay.

The Oculus Rift original shipped with an Xbox One controller in the box for seated gameplay. | Photo by Road to VR

It wouldn’t be until the end of 2016 that Oculus would launch the now standard ‘Touch’ motion controllers for $200, which have become the headset’s primary input device (with the Xbox One controller eventually removed entirely from the package) and pivoted the vast majority of content toward standing ‘front-facing’ gameplay with motion input.

The Rift supports ‘room-scale’ tracking, but requires an optional third sensor and requires routing a USB cable from the far corner of the playspace back to the host PC.

While the default setup for the two included sensors offers front-facing gameplay, the system supports standing 360 gameplay with opposing sensors, or full ‘room-scale’ gameplay with an optional third sensor placed in a corner of the playspace. As the sensors need to plug into the host PC, adding a third sensor for a larger playspace can be a pain because it means running a cable across the room. Inside-out tracking— which does away with external sensors in favor of cameras mounted on the headset itself—would make room-scale tracking the default, while simplifying the setup and usage.

Microsoft and its hardware partners were the first to debut consumer PC VR headsets featuring inside-out tracking back at the end of 2017, with many agreeing about the improved ease of use; compared to headsets with external tracking equipment, the Windows VR headsets simply plug into the PC from a single tether and are ready for room-scale tracking out of the box. However, controller tracking is made more difficult with inside-out tracking because players can more easily block the on-headset cameras from seeing the controllers. This can pose challenges for certain games which ask the player to move their hands close to their body (or in some cases behind their back or over their shoulder).

Despite its age and lack of successor three years later, the Rift is among the leading consumer VR headsets overall, and the most popular headset in use on Steam. Oculus has steadily cut prices on the Rift from the initial $800 price point (for the headset and Touch controllers) all the way down to the $350 as of January, 2019. While the Rift’s industrial design has held up well, three years on there are a handful of headsets offering higher resolutions and wider fields of view.

Rift S Expectations

Pictured: Oculus Quest. Rift S is expected to look similar to Quest, with cameras on headset for inside-out tracking, and ‘reversed’ Touch controllers which better position the hidden IR LEDs to be seen by the headset’s on-board cameras. | Image courtesy Oculus

The Rift S isn’t expected to be a sequel to original Rift as much as a refresh. Aside from the inside-out ‘Insight’ tracking, it’s expected that the headset’s resolution will be bumped and that newer optics will be used, possibly the same (or similar) as those used in Oculus Go or Quest, which the company has called their “best ever.”

In the resolution department, it seems likely that the Rift S will wind up with the same display as Quest (1,600 × 1,440), which would be a nice step up, and put the headset on par with the Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey in terms of resolution. Alternatively, Oculus could try to get ahead of the competition by adopting even high-res displays, like the 2,160 × 2,160 panels seen in the upcoming HP ‘Copper’ headset, though this would mean a move from OLED to LCD; so far Oculus and others have mostly chosen OLED displays for higher-end headsets, though there remain pros and cons to consider with regards to LCD.

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Valve Psychologist to Explore Brain-Computer Interface Research at GDC

What isn’t expected to change (at least not by much) is the headset’s ~100 degree field of view. While Oculus itself has shown off the ‘Half Dome’ prototype headset with a 140 degree field of view, expanding the field of view would require more significant changes to the headset’s optics and displays, likely being out of scope for a ‘Rift S’ refresh. Pimax is already offering an ultra-wide FOV VR headset, but other consumer headsets remain largely in the ~100 FOV class. No improvement in field of view could leave many early adopters wanting, as resolution and FOV are among the most vocally requested improvements.

Eye-tracking is another feature which is up in the air for Rift S. On one hand, eye-tracking is a game-changing technology that’s expected to play a big role in the future of VR—and having eye-tracking in a real product could provide Oculus with real-world data to further hone the tech—but on the other hand the company might withhold eye-tracking until it can provide a complete package with varifocal displays, as seen in Half Dome.

And then there’s wireless, another oft-requested feature but one which has yet to permeate the VR landscape of high-end tethered headsets. While there are at least two wireless add-on accessories currently on the market (from TPCAST and HTC), they are fairly expensive and add significant bulk and additional setup complexity. Especially considering that the Rift S is likely to increase resolution (which raises the bandwidth requirements for a wireless solution), and seems aimed at reducing setup complexity with inside-out tracking, wireless seems unlikely for a refresh.

– – — – –

GDC 2019 is being held next week from March 18th to 22nd in San Francisco, CA. Road to VR will be on the ground to bring you the most important news from the event. Stay tuned.

Update (March 16th, 2019 – 11:22AM PT): Added an additional paragraph discussing the potential for wireless in the ‘Rift S Expectations’ section, and added Oculus’ response to the report (‘no comment’).

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Rosko

    Really depends on price whether it’s likely i get one. When is Rift 2 likely? Just wish these companies would tell us their plans. No God rays or black smear would tempt me.

    • Smokey_the_Bear

      I would guess Rift 2 is 1-2 years away. It depends on how well the Rift S sells.

      • Chuck Griggs

        I agree completely, If you think about it, the average console’s life span is around 6-8 years. The rift is relatively new. I think the term “refresh” was well used in the article. Seems more akin to the newer Xbox with better hardware, but not really up to par with being considered next Gen. While I have never used a headset with inside out tracking, I just wonder how well it could work on games like beat saber and Echo VR where it is really important to have tracking in places (like behind you) that the cameras may not be able to see. I see the carrot, but having a room setup for room scale VR already, slightly better graphics isn’t much of an incentive for me to upgrade. I think it is more for the new folks buying a headset and the few that really want these new features. It does look like the inside out tracking is the direction they are adopting.

        • MeowMix

          Yup.
          This is literally analogous to: Xbox One –> Xbox One S. Hence, Rift-S

    • Andrew Jakobs

      There is a reason why they won’t tell us their plans.. They don’t actually really know themselves, also it wouldn’t be smart to tell what you are up to. If they would already say that in a year after the S there would be a much better headset, they wouldn’t sell a S after the first half year, because people would wait for the next one.

  • Adrian Meredith

    Why couldn’t they have just put a virtual link port on the quest…

    • rabs

      It’s better without the useless parts (SOC, fan, RAM, flash, battery,…). Will be cheaper and lighter.

      Now if they can add some useful stuff like a better screen, eye tracking and/or WiGig, it would be even better.

      • Smokey_the_Bear

        That stuff will be on the Rift 2, but were not there yet.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Don’t expect the specs of the S be better then the Quest, it’ll be the Quest without the onboard SOC..nothing more, nothing less.

    • KOSTANTINOS KOD

      They had to sell the stock.

    • Ben Bega

      They wouldve needed an additional chip to support video input

  • Arashi

    Man, if they’re releasing this with 1,600 × 1,440, then they’re definitely losing the game. The next gen 2k * 2k OLED panels are almost available (BOE’s fab is test running their production lines as we speak) so that means that it’s quite certain that the new Rift would become outdated again in a matter of months. I almost can’t believe they’d be THAT stupid.

    • Cybis Z

      The higher the resolution, the beefier GPU you’ll need to run it. The RTX-2070s are in excess of $600 these days, and a single 2080ti costs as much as a friggin’ Vive Pro setup ($1400).

      The vast majority of PC gamers simply can’t afford these prices. So why would Oculus – who is trying to increase the adoption of VR – create a headset that requires hardware almost nobody can afford?

      • Arashi

        I’m afraid you’re right indeed. I tend to forget not everybody can afford a 2080TI and that GPU advancements are going extremely slow lately. I guess the money right now is indeed in the segment below that. Either way, I’m not interested in another 1440*1600 HMD, in a few months those 2k * 2k panels will be available so I’m sure HMD’s will follow quickly.

        • Cybis Z

          Remember that this predicament was all caused by Bitcoin. Graphics card prices simply have not recovered since the crypto-mining craze last year. That’s what’s hampered GPU development, and therefore VR development.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            It’s not all cause by bitcoin. It’s just get’s more and more expensive to produce those GPU’s.

        • Bob

          Google is announcing something VR related at GDC to go along with their streaming tech. So you might be in luck.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Oh, how fast did HMD’s follow when the last increase in resolution arrived… not many.. those 2k*2k OLED panels might be available, but that doesn’t mean they will be available any time soon in a consumer headset (in a profession headset of a couple of thousand dollars you might expect them)..

      • Blaexe

        Exactly. Even changing the minimum specs from GTX960 to GTX1070 would mean 40% of Steam users vs. 11% of Steam users meet the specs.

      • zflorence1

        Foveated rendering will offset GPU requirements by a sizable fraction, once eye tracking is standard and developers adopt, we won’t be talking as much about pixel increases and high FOV being unaffordable. That’s why it’s so instrumental to the future.

        • Ian Shook

          You are correct. The ‘Resolution vs GPU power’ discussion becomes pointless once you have foveated rendering working.

          • Rosko

            But we do not have Foveated rendering yet. that will be Rift 2

          • bmichaelb

            Foveated rendering will be available through the Nvidia RTX cards, and HTC’s about to release the Vive Pro Eye which has eye trackers and foveated rendering. Nothing’s for sale ‘right now’, but foveated rendering will be available to the public ‘this year’.

          • Rosko

            As far as i’m aware Vive Pro Eye has eye tracking didn’t see anything about it being used for FR. Also i think there are already headsets out with eye tracking just nothing with both ET & FV. Also this is not a consumer headset so will be expensive as are the rtx cards. One of the main reasons for FR is for us not to have to buy an RTX. I’ll be interested to see if the vive has it though & how well it works.

          • bmichaelb

            From the Vive Pro Eye webpage: “Eye tracking allows for foveated rendering, which properly allocates GPU power to focused objects and areas for sharper images.” As for the RTX…the 1660 uses the same Turing GPU, but doesn’t have the ray tracing…but still has the Turing shaders, which should have the same Variable Rate Shading feature used for FR. There’s also at least 2 high end VR arcade headsets that have eye tracking that demod with foveated rendering last year. Either way…you’ll need a Turing card to make it work.

          • Sporadik Styles

            As far as i’m aware Vive Pro Eye has eye tracking didn’t see anything about it being used for FR

            Endgadget has a video on it using FR they posted a couple months ago.

          • bmichaelb

            “The ‘Resolution vs GPU power’ discussion becomes pointless once you have foveated rendering working.”

            To a point…but once you start talking 4K per eye, with a 170+ FoV, then you’re getting into the same issue we have with our current headsets and current GPUs. Foveated rendering can reduce GPU by as much as 50%. That’s a best case scenario. The Pimax 5K can barely handle a 170 FoV, using the 2080Ti.

          • doug

            Thank you for such informative comments about Vive Pro eye, RTX, etc. I had no idea foveated rendering’s benefits are so limited. Now I don’t see how the benefit outweighs the hardware and privacy costs. Simply buying a faster GPU sounds much smarter.

          • bmichaelb

            Except 1080Ti’s are pretty much sold out, so you’re stuck with Turing…either RTX 20xx series, or the upcoming GTX 16xx series, which will be cheaper than RTX. The hardware we have right now, without foveated rendering, are only capable of ~2K per eye…maximum. The 2080Ti can only handle about 170 degree FoV for Pimax 5K, even though it’s marketed as 200 degree FoV. Screens are going to get denser and bigger as time goes on, and they want at least 4K per eye to get rid of the screen door effect. It’s not so much the speed of the GPU, but the amount of video memory the card has. The Vive Pro Eye increases resolution by 9x the original, then reduces the clarity outside the focal point. That’s going to take a lot of memory. And since it’s done by using the Turing shaders, it’s not going to work with the GTX 10xx series.

        • doug

          Yes, and Facebook will be first with eye tracking, because they have so many different ways to monetize the data of what you looked at, and for how long.

          • bmichaelb

            Eye tracking with foveated rendering already exists in the upcoming Vive Pro Eye, as well as a few of the higher end VR arcade models, and Pimax has eye trackers planned as addons available later this year. Nvidia’s RTX cards have what’s known as Variable Rate Shading, which is used for foveated rendering. The GTX 1660 has the same Turing GPU, so hopefully it will have the same shaders as well.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Yes, once eye tracking is standard and developers adopt it. But we are nowhere ready for that, not much headsets already available at this point. So before we have headsets with eyetracking as a standard option (at $400), we’re propably a few years further.. And maybe eye tracking isn’t needed anymore in the future if GPU’s are capable of handling all that screenspace without a problem (but ofcourse eyetracking is very usefull for more natural viewing, so not only for decreasing GPU load).

      • Brenton Tarrant

        No one said you must run it at max resolution.
        We need 4K even 8K OLED panels for that Pixel density and the games can run in FHD, for now

        • Net Shaman

          No way, games running a this resolution will be ugly, cause that panels simply dont run att their native res.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            That’s not something I agree on. but i also don’t agree on having 4k/8k panels for pixel density. There certainly is no reason to use panels like that at this time, the price of those panels are very high at the moment and the hardware to drive those panels (I mean the chips in the headset) are also pretty expensive (of you want decent fps/handlng). I’d rather have native panels with a lower resolution now which are much cheaper, and then in a couple of years when the GPU’s, which can handle those higher resolution panels natively @ 120fps) have dropped in price, and the 4k/8k panels by that time will be a lot cheaper (and the chips inside the headset to handle them too).. So I’d rather buy a headset for $400 with 1600×1800 panels now, and in a few years buy a new one with 4k panels for the same price, than having to shell out $800+ now for a headset with 4k panels which might not run as good in 2-3 years as the same 4k $400 headset which might be released by then.

      • Tesla

        Did you play games with WMR? 1050 Ti and Odyssey+ work together very well. If you want 200-300% subsampling, then only then buy the 2080 RTX for 680 EUR. You can play all games with 1060 easily. This card is not expensive. You could have bought Odyssey+ for just 299 USD. So, together it is cheaper than new iphone and Samsung Galaxy S10. People buy these phones every year.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          You’re joking.. Yeah, you can play a lot of games decently, IF you turn down the graphical options. A game like Battlefield 1 already runs like crap on 1050Ti. And not many people buy those high end phones every year, certainly not your average consumer.

      • jimbo5Z

        The lower end ‘casual’ market is already covered.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          But the higher end is too small to actually make it worth while, they would propably never get their investment back in the timeframe they expect (ofcourse it will be usefull for their nextgen consumer product).

      • Mradr

        Wouldn’t Eye tracking basically break your whole arrangement from the fact that eye tracking allows FOVA and there for – even the 900s cards from NV a chance to run the same or better resolution than we have now:)? We dont have to brut force the raw requirements.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, those panels may be available pretty soon, but that doesn’t mean there are headsets that will use them real soon. And those panels will propably be twice the price of the current panels which would increase the price of a headset by a few $100 bucks, and that will put it out of the consumer price range (people bitch about the price of the HTC Vive Pro)..
      And as others said, it will require even a better GPU than the current highend GPUs to drive these panels with the visuals people come to expect from highend stuff. And eyetracking may be the solution, but it adds another hefty bulk of money to the already hefty price of a headset.
      So yes for a professional headset it might not be a problem, those headsets costs a couple of thousands bucks, but for consumer headset any price above $400 is already a hefty price..

      • MosBen

        It also can’t be stated enough that the reason to include the 1600×1440 screen is because that’s what they’re already using in the Quest, which is probably already in production now. This is about saving money on production costs, now what could they do if they wanted to produce a Rift 2. This will allow them to produce a Rift for significantly less money than the current Rift costs to make, which either means that it will be more profitable at the current $350 or that they can launch it for an even lower price.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          I don’t mind, if they can release a PC version of the Quest for lesst than $350, I’m all for it.

          • MosBen

            Same here. As someone with a CV1 I’m not sure that I’ll pick up a Rift S, but for someone looking to get into VR for the first time a $200-$250 HMD with controllers is a great deal, especially with better displays and an easier setup. And I’m very likely to pick up a Quest.

  • superdonkey

    Pimax 5k+ has already delivered vr gen2
    Not so excited by gen 1.2 oculus

    • Cybis Z

      Pimax may have created an impressive HMD, but there are so many open questions about them. Namely, how is their customer support, will they honor their warranties, and are their headsets built-to-last or will they break within a year?

      • bud01

        Its not impressive, the rift is more impressive hence the reason I put my 5k plus back in its box with in a few minutes and a week later past it on.

        It being delivered with firmware? which had tracking disabled was a huge red flag for me, I waited that amount of time (which is fine) and then they deliver a headset which only ran with base station off in pimax tool?

        You do that I have zero confidence in you, also the pi max forum is a mess of issues, dozens, hundreds of people all kinds of this and that is not working how to fix it and then long I tried this, he tried that, it works for a bit of time if you do x-y-z

        Ill wait for a proper company and a proper gen 2 headset,

        Also yes the headset in this article is great, but ideally the Rift 2, the StarVR product is available.

        • Hivemind9000

          What a load of bollocks

          • bud01

            Product is on my to review list for Xmas 2019, by then it maybe some thing worth considering, not now.

            I am not spending 10 hours deleting lighthouse Json files and closing restarting services to “maybe get it working”.

            Vendor had two years, the pitool was a nice insight into how much further they have to go.

            You need to have trust in a vendor, its not just about what is sitting on your lap that has potential.

            If you have a product which you have launched, which several dozen people are complaining about it failing to track with basestations…

            Do you think its maybe important to enable your pitool to have a latest fw download option with in it, do you think it is important to post an information banner link to steps to resolve with available fw versions ?

            Its not just the lack of tracking, its not the attitude language barrier, its the capability, no way I am left holding the baby whilst some dudes on the other side of the earth are ignoring emails.

            I lived through and watched the Manhattan project type approach to the rift cv1 creation, remember the length of time (300 worlds best Engineers )took to finally deliver even “just seated” tracking.

            It was a joke how long and unsure they were to when it would be available for production use

            Stick with the rift until there is a proven alternative.

            It all sounds nice but its a complicated device that needs a big boy brand to support it, to produce it.

            It has potential, but I want a device I can use not hold whilst it matures like a bottle of whiskey.

            Your welcome.

          • Hivemind9000

            You write a lot but say very little. It’s hard to tell what exactly your specific problem was. How long ago did you get your headset?

            So, you waited over 12 months for a fairly expensive piece of hardware, then give up after only 20 minutes of trying to set it up? Perhaps Kickstarters are not for you.

            I received mine about two weeks ago (backer #5872). The setup was fairly seamless. It updated the firmware as soon as it connected. Initially had an issue with the headset not tracking but as soon as I disconnected my Vive headset (and paired my controllers) it was all sweet.

            The Pimax IS impressive – a generation better than the Rift CV1 and Vive. So much clearer and really nice FOV. I hope the person that bought your headset is enjoying it as much as I am.

          • bud01

            I am happy for you :-) keep safe if doing room scale with chaperone on in steam? Another option is to (also?) get that exercise floor mat for your assigned room area, and the ceiling drop cable kit so your HMD cabling routes up and drops back down vs it dragging around.

            If like onward in VR? give this a try:
            https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/19830035/vr-haptic-system-forcetubevr-by-protubevr?ref=user_menu

      • Andrew Jakobs

        As some reviewers who have tested them already said the build is very flimsy, don’t expect these headsets to last long (just like their previous 4K headsets). On paper they are excellent headsets, but in reality, they are just poorly designed and manufactured headsets. That’s a shame, with a slight increase in price they could have produced a solid headset.

    • doug

      I just watched two reviews that dissed it for a flimsy design that cracks under normal use, and black levels much greyer than Vive or Rift. Both reviewers complained about frequent technical problems, and both reviewers went back to their old headset for regular use. Didn’t sound like the gen2 I am waiting for.

      • Foreign Devil

        How could they review a product that hasn’t even been announced yet?

        • doug

          Comment was in response to superdonkey about pimax 5k+, which is out.

          • bud01

            We need to wait for a major brand to deliver the GEN 2, just think about it, its not a small cottage company task.

            I put the dots together with in minutes, if the headset cost me 250, 350$ I would have gone ahead and thrown it back in its box and opened it again after two or three months to find out if they had got their act together and if the dream of the headset was progressing, but to have a headset delivered which I literally spent a whole Saturday of my life trying to get working (10am to around 7pm) and I am a long in the tooth IT tech support person that likes every thing to do with this whole space.

            Its not ready yet, the upgrade to 2080ti was un-necessary here but I do get to run onward on rift at 1.6 zero issues.

            The headset is not a £700 HU, just because its here early because I am a backer means only one thing, the premium of that is going down the toilet really fast each day.

            i actually put the tracking issues to the side and just used the device with base station disabled in pitool and did some laps around spa or what ever, and the distance view was terrible, like a dark black mesh, over all the image was wide, pretty fresh and good.

            As you start getting older… you have less time to invest in things and have to pick wisely, for my gaming time I am definitely sticking with a brand that delivers quality experience.

            Its not enough to throw a product at a customer, you need to be seen to be knowing wtf you are doing, giving me a headset which failed to pair whilst wand(s) did 100%, there is an issue.

            The maturity of the software was a clear sign to get out and fast.

            If you want a Pimax, come back in 6 to 12 months and see what they are doing.

            Rift was ahead of its time with the lens Engineering, those lens really illustrated the gap between it and the vive for example.

            Future is bright for the VR space but its going to take time for it to progress,

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Sadly (as expected), the Pimax 5k+ doesn’t deliver.. In specs it’s an excellent headset, in reality it isn’t really a good headset.

  • 3872Orcs

    Hmm I will be waiting to see what Valve and HTC does before I decide what to get next. Though if they pull eye tracking out of the hat I’ll get it as fast as possible.

  • 144Hz

    I’m excited. Can’t wait.

  • mfx

    I think Rift S is simply going to be a Quest without embedded processor/os, a bit cheaper and available later in the year to not concurrent the Quest. Future will tell.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      That’s exactly what I also think.

    • MosBen

      Yep, that’s what I think to. The increased resolution is going to be nice, but probably the best feature of the S is that it will allow them do drop the price of the Rift even further. If Oculus is going to sell the Quest for $400, taking the battery and on-board processing out of the HMD takes out most of the cost. We could see the Rift S launch at $200-$250, which is a really attractive price.

  • doug

    No mention of new tech that makes inside-out tracking latency on par with Vive or Rift. Is this a headset for people who would rather suffer bad tracking than install an outside-in tracking system?

    • benz145

      Good inside-out tracking headtracking has largely caught up with with Rift and Vive. HoloLens, Windows VR headsets, Google Daydream standalones, and Vive Focus all use inside-out tracking and do it well.

      • doug

        Can those track reaching into a backpack? Sheathing a sword? Pulling a bow to full draw? Beat Sabering at expert? How does latency compare and how much does lighting matter? Tracking envelope, accuracy, precision, and latency are all things a consumer will need to know to make an informed choice.

        • Bob

          Inside-out tracking will exceed the capabilities of outside-in tracking eventually; to think otherwise is naive and narrow minded. Things are solved over time just like everything else. It’s not a matter of if but when.

          • doug

            Gotta measure them to declare a winner and a margin of victory.

          • Bob

            Not really when you can probably predict where tracking systems are going within the next decade based on current market trends.

          • MosBen

            I think that it’s a bit much to say that inside out will exceed outside in. It will always be easier to track what a body is doing with one or more external camera(s). The question is whether inside out will get as good as external tracking, or at least good enough so that most people won’t be able to notice the difference. Based on what I’ve read, we’re probably pretty near that point now, but inside out tracking will steadily improve until we get there.

          • Bob

            No I used the wrong word. It will match is what was supposed to be said.

      • doug

        I believed you until today when I saw this guy’s shaky tracking. Imagine trying to aim with that. At the end of the video it shows WMR controllers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrz2xte7zqg

  • Yoshi Kato

    While I’m curious to see what Oculus has planned, I’ve been so underwhelmed by them these last few years that I’m not expecting them to announce a true 2nd gen, game changing headset.

    • MosBen

      I wouldn’t expect one yet. I suspect that going forward they’re going to have two tiers of PCVR HMDs, and possibly two tiers of mobile HMDs, and I’d expect a lot of them to use similar parts to simplify production and cut costs. So I’d expect something closer to a Rift 2 in 2020 or 2021.

  • With its easiness of use, it will help VR in becoming more mainstream

  • Tesla

    It will be Odyssey+, half year later, worse processor, worse fps, just wireless. No innovation from Facebook. They just copied Odyssey+, like German car manufacturers copied Tesla.

    • I think you’re confusing Quest for Rift S.
      Rift S is going to be a tethered PCVR headset, we can reasonably expect the same 90 hz panel refresh we’re used to, and it likely won’t have a wireless option.
      Quest is a standalone headset with all processing handled onboard using a mobile SoC.

      • Home Audio

        Oddysey+ is a tethered PCVR headset as well (with inside-out tracking). Looks like Oculus will not show anything more in the “Rift S” headset than already we have seen from other companies. Definitely For now I will stay with my CV1 and I maybe ill buy Oculus Quest.

        • Right, I was mostly responding to, “worse processor, worse fps, just wireless” part of their comment, as those grievances seemed aimed at the Quest.
          I’m largely in the same boat as you, unless Rift S comes in at, say, $200, then I might consider it. I expect Rift S to be fairly similar in nature to the Xbox One S. If you already have an Xbox One, there’s probably not too much reason to get an S. Some users will though, and there’s a constant flow of new users entering the platform who will now default to Rift S which I think will be a better starting point.

          • Tesla

            I wrote about both, with wireless relating to Quest. Rift S will have OLED panel from Odyssey+ – you will see I was right. The problem is they want Rift S to live for another 2-3 years, which is a total joke. If will be right (I really hope not) and they add 1440×1600 resolution to Rift S I will hate this company. Billions of dollars on the account and they can’t afford to keep 20 people working on this thing (high quality one) and release 2 versions – for pro (2000×2000, 160 FOV) and for poor (current specs 1440×1600 panels from WMR)

    • Andrew Jakobs

      What nonsense.. Make sure you know what you are talking about, both in regard to VR headset (as Doctor Bambi already explains, this is the S not the Quest), and in regard to EV’s..

  • CombatSanta

    I just hope they don’t remove the headphones because it’s one of the best features of the Rift.

  • Gnoll

    I thought about it and concluded this is actually a good move. The reality is VR is an iterative industry at this point, an industry that will likely need to appeal primarily to niche business needs and the prosumer market. Having gradual upgrades with lower price points is a good thing. Sure, I would have loved to see a better resolution but the truth is we still have another 3 years before graphics hardware is cheap enough for the average setup to support a new resolution. Because the VR market is still small and the momentum has slowed it’s important to expand via price and availability instead of bleeding-edge premium hardware for every release. VR is still mostly a novelty at this point and is largely considered to have low to mediocre success. We all know that AR is going to drive mass adoption and eventually AR and VR will be combined. We just have to improve and iterate where we can for about 5 years until AR hits the scene in a real way and acts as a bridge to VR, because you know when people get a real taste for AR communication and interaction that they will eventually want the occasional full-immersion experience at some point.

    • Mradr

      Wouldn’t Eye tracking basically break your whole arrangement from the fact that eye tracking allows FOVA and there for – even the 900s cards from NV a chance to run the same or better resolution than we have now:)?

      • Gnoll

        You bring up a good point. I’m all for eye tracking but that tech isn’t fully implemented yet across all the headsets so we still need to wait a few years either way. Eye tracking is just icing on the cake for even better graphical performance once it’s widely adopted.

    • MosBen

      The thing to keep in mind about a hardware refresh is that it’s less about giving existing customers what they want for an upgrade and more about saving production costs by streamlining components, assembly, etc. The bump in resolution for the Rift S is a nice upgrade for consumers, but it’s much more likely that the reason it’s being included is that it allows Oculus to save money on display panels by having the same component in the Quest and Rift. Similarly, room scale out of the box is nice for consumers, but using inside out tracking they can stop spending money making and shipping base stations and can get better deals in ordering the tracking parts that are being used in the Quest.

      For that reason, it seems unlikely that the Rift S will have any features that require new hardware that isn’t being incorporated into the Quest. That’s just not what the Rift S is for.

      • Gnoll

        Good points.

    • Tesla

      WRONG. Odyssey+ is 1440×1600 x 2 and 1050 Ti card EASILY let you play VR games with it at medium specs. I bought 2080 RTX and I can play at 200-300% subsampling, basically resolution x 4. Current hardware can easily support 2300×2800 x 2 resolution. Hardware from tomorrow or 1 year further EASILY supports further resolution upgrades, not to mention when they add foveated rendering which lowers GPU specs by 5x…

      • Gnoll

        I understand what you’re saying but I’m talking about the average setup, as in someone who’s bought a mid-level machine within the past 2 years. In my opinion, this is the sweet spot for getting maximum buy-in.

  • JP

    Oculus should really adapt a “new features every year” system such as cell phones have. Minor changes may not warrant an upgrade, but having older phones being sold on ebay and at discount rates warrant adaptability.

    • Tesla

      Exactly. More resolution every year. What they do with Rift and Oculus Go is a total joke from customers and VR fans. People now want 2000×2000 pixels per eye and 160 FOV at least. And not that Facebook buys 6 months old Odyssey+ OLED screen, copies WMR inside-out tracking, puts cheap and slow 835 processor into this and call it a 2019-2022 VR headset. If they do not update the specs compared to Odyssey+ I will be criticizing them everywhere for 1 year.

  • TwinFire

    I want my 2080 Ti to stretch its legs with this – please please please higher resolution with true RGB pixels, not them pentile phoneys

  • brubble

    Call me impatient and unrealistic in expectations but just give me the god damn CV2 proper already. Give. It.

    I suppose I’ll simply have to wait to see what the Rift S is all about.