Oculus VR Announces Crescent Bay Prototype

The virtual reality technology company, Oculus VR announced a new feature prototype, Crescent Bay at the first Oculus Connect conference.

“Crescent Bay is the latest prototype headset on the path to the consumer version of the Rift. It features new display technology, 360° head tracking, expanded positional tracking volume, dramatically improved weight and ergonomics, and high-quality integrated audio.

These enhancements allow for a level of presence that’s impossible to achieve with DK2.”

Crescent Bay Prototype is available now to try at Oculus Connect, and you can test it with the demo content Oculus VR team created called “Crescent Bay Experiences”.

The demo “demonstrate the power of presence and give you a glimpse into the level of VR experience you can expect to see come to life in gaming, film, and beyond.

Crescent Bay is still at a very early stage, the team says “There are plenty of technical challenges left to solve for the consumer Rift, but Crescent Bay is truly the best virtual reality headsets we’ve ever built.”

Epic has created Showdown, a new experience for Crescent Bay, which will be available to try at Oculus Connect.

The main draw here is Audio, which plays an essential role in delivering immersive virtual reality. Along with the integrated audio in Crescent Bay, the team is working to “build the hardware and software that developers need to create high-fidelity VR audio experiences for the Rift.

As part of our audio initiative, we’ve licensed RealSpace3D’s audio technology, a software stack developed over 10 years based on technology from the University of Maryland. RealSpace3D’s tech enables high-fidelity VR audio with a combination of HRTF spatialization and integrated reverberation algorithms.”

More information will be revealed in coming months.