Oculus Rift S: Redefining VR for Consumers
Oculus, one of the main giants in the VR headset space, has recently announced their successor to the original Oculus Rift. Following the apple trend, they have simple added an s to the end to keep the same branding overall.
What’s new?
The Oculus Rift S boasts a new headband design that seems relatively similar to the Playstation VR headset. It is a solid strap that adjusts to your head, where the original rift had velcro straps to adjust. However, the most notable difference is all the new sensors that are positioned on the headset itself. These are meant to take the place of those pesky standalone sensors that the original rift utilized. This is huge for any VR lover because it means that most, if not all tracking, is handled by the headset, so you don’t need extra desk space specifically for the sensors.
Because all the tracking occurs on the headset itself, the wands now have the sensor disks on top of the remote instead of on the bottom. This is done, presumably because it will be easier for the sensors on the headset to pick them up. It will be interesting to see how this change works out ergonomically, as those top saucers seem to be in the way just from the pictures, but I could be wrong.
Rift Vs. Rift S
Other than cosmetics, what are the actual specification benefits that the s has over it’s predecessor? First off, it does have a slightly improved resolution, but that comes at the price of a slightly diminished refresh rate and locked interpupillary distance (the distance between your eyes). Other than that the differences are minimal.
The biggest things to note as far as non hardware differences, is the ability to track in 360 degrees in the rift s vs. the 180 degree abilities of the original rift. Because of the headset trackers, you shouldn’t ever lose tracking for the remotes.
As a VR developer myself, one of the nicer improvements is the removal of all the connections required. The original rift requires 3 USB ports, and an HDMI port, where the rift s only requires a display port and one USB port. This will greatly increase it’s practicality in the consumer space. I personally use a gaming laptop for my oculus rift, and I’m lucky enough to have enough ports for it, however, for people who don’t I know it is a huge pain. Often, you will use a USB hub, but this will cause problems because you don’t get enough power to the hub to power multiple things. So the reduction in this area will be huge for a lot of people.
To Upgrade or Not
I’m currently in this debate with myself at the moment. I just recently purchased a rift for my own personal use and for developing school projects. However, it is the model that requires standalone sensors, so the on-board tracking would be a huge upgrade. Unfortunately, I’ve had the headset for too long to return it, so I think I will stick with the one I have rather than purchase the rift s when it comes out. However, for someone who is just entering the space, the extra $50 is more than worth it in my opinion.
