One of the most talked-about among those recently appeared on Kickstarter is without a doubt Oculus Rift, an innovative virtual reality viewer that will allow you to feel completely immersed within the mainstream.

After finishing the Kickstarter fundraising campaign (which has reached a total of $2.4 million and attracted 9,522 backers), Oculus Rift promoters have started pre-orders development kit to allow teams interested to begin experimenting and possibly support the viewer in waiting for the public launch. The idea is that by getting the tech out to the gaming community.

Prices will be in line with those of the Kickstarter campaign, with the kit that costs $300 for developers in the United States and $345 for those in the rest of the world. New orders are expected to ship August 2013. The firm has shipped 17,000 developer kits and there are more than 3000 units ready to ship off to developers all over the world, an indication that the world’s first consumer friendly VR headset is stepping closer towards mass release.

Leading Game Engine now Supports Oculus Rift VR System

Following the successful Kickstarter drive, the headset has been backed by major developers, including id Software, Valve and CCP and Epic Games’ middleware–Unreal Engine 4 now supports the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset. The Unreal Engine is exceptionally popular with development studios who don’t want to sink resources into developing their own engine. The Rift is also supported by the Unity Engine to bring every Oculus Rift developer four free months of Unity Pro.

“Unity provides game developers with amazing tools that bring joy to the process of creating games, while also lowering the financial and time barriers of high-end production,” said David Helgason, CEO and co-founder, Unity Technologies. “The next generation of video games will not only be found on consoles, but also on PCs, mobile devices and in the cloud though none of these platforms offer the ability to step into the experience. That is where the Oculus Rift comes in. We’re partnering with Oculus to give Unity developers the ability to create the most immersive gaming experiences yet.”

Valve’s free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2 supports the Oculus Rift VR headset. Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality will feature rendering of 2D user interfaces and how mouselook can interact with head tracking in a first person shooter.

Developing for the Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift development kit will give developers the time, the integration code, the intuitive toolset and access to thousands of ready-made assets to create VR games and interactive content across a range of platforms. Partnership with Unity Engine will also allow game developers of all skill levels develop some of the most unique games on the market.

Oculus has managed to set up its SDK to make full use of the Unreal Engine and Unity game development engines. They’ve also managed to get the full backing of gaming legends like Gabe Newell, Markus “Notch” Persson, Cliff Bleszinski, John Carmack and many more. The latest Oculus SDK v0.2.3 includes support for Linux to the Oculus C++ SDK and OculusWorldDemo and introduces Oculus Config Utility that allows players to easily configure their Oculus profile. Developer kits are currently up for pre-order at the project’s website.

Developers will also get a boost from Oculus in that the VE system is compatible across all gaming platforms, particularly current consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U) and the next generation of consoles as well. Oculus team is also working to make a compatible OUYA system.

Mitchell, as one of the founders of Oculus VR, says the best experiences are going to come from the indie community, in areas where we don’t even know what they are yet. It could be some scuba diving game that ends up being the best. Or a hang gliding game where you are flying over an island and you look around. You could imagine these neat experiences where VR gives you the ability to go anywhere and do anything, jumping on the moon or something like that.

The company is doing everything they can to create a true VR experience for developers. They will be increasing the resolution of the display from 720p to 1080p, for a more detailed picture. They will also likely add positional sensors to track not just the rotating and tilting of your head, but leaning forward, ducking, and sidestepping.

“Something that is going to be compelling is Skype in VR. Or if there’s a Wikipedia for VR: You walk around exploring a ruin, being able to explore the Colosseum. Those are some of the things I am most excited to see,” says Mitchell.

As for the games that have been confirmed to be fully Rift compatible are Notch’s new game, 0x10c, Doom 3: BFG Edition, Hawken, Dream, The Gallery: Six Elements, Half-Life 2, Miner Wars 2081, Star Citizen, Strike Suit Zero and many more.

Apart from these three games, there are more than 20 games that are currently in the conversion phase; among them important are Minecraft, Doom 4 and War Thunder. The complete lists of games can be found here.

Oculus Developer Forum

The company has created Oculus Developer Forums where developers talked about Oculus-ready games and demos that can be used with the Rift development kit; share and discuss any and all Oculus related topics, report any bugs or technical issues that you encounter related to the SDK or the Developer Center and everything else on virtual reality.

One of the topics that are being discussed in the forum is the future of movie making. Developer James views is that how filming in 360* brings up some interesting questions that game developers may relate too. Answering questions like how to tell a story and keep the viewer focused, camera positioning and what is the best placement for it may help developers focus the story. It can be used as a VR experience for student where they can learn and remember the things.