UPDATED 12:27 EDT / MAY 21 2019

EMERGING TECH

Oculus Quest and Rift S hit the shelves today along with 50 VR titles

Facebook Inc.’s virtual reality division Oculus VR announced today that the next generation of VR headsets will hit the shelves today.

The all-in-one untethered Oculus Quest and the powerful personal computer-connected Oculus Rift S are now shipping. Both devices retail starting at $399 and are immediately available from oculus.com, as well as from Amazon and Best Buy in the United States.

The Oculus Quest is the company’s first all-in-one wireless VR headset with six degrees of freedom. It features Oculus’ specialized tracking technology that can instantly track movements and fully immerse users.

The device uses an organic light emitting diode display with a 72Hz refresh rate and 2880×1600 total resolution (1440×1600 per eye). The entire system runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and comes in a 64-gigabyte and 128-GB models.

The Quest also features positional audio built directly into the headset — no need for external headphones out of the box — but it also has a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack for users to adapt their own headphones for private listening.

On the high-end side of VR, the Rift S connects directly to a gaming PC or a compatible computer to put the best cutting-edge VR gaming with a higher-resolution display, room-scale tracking and fully immersive Touch controllers.

The Rift S improves on the previous Rift’s hardware with better Fresnel lenses and a fast-switch liquid crystal display designed to reduce glare and what is called the “screen door effect.” It supports a 2560×1440 total resolution (1280×1440 per eye) which represents 42 percent more pixels than its predecessor.

The new halo headband of the Rift S, designed by Lenovo Group Ltd., is designed to be as comfortable as possible for wearing for long periods of time — all the while remaining easy to put on, take off and adjust to any head shape.

These two second-generation headsets will arrive with a lot of things to do, the launch lineup includes over 50 immersive VR titles that run the spectrum from fast-paced shooters to serene, calming social games.

The Oculus Quest comes preloaded with a number of demos for new users to try out right off the shelf. They include “Beat Saber,” a rhythm game involving sabers similar to those in Star Wars; “Creed,” a virtual boxing game; “Journey of the Gods,” a puzzle-based adventure game from Turtle Rock Studios; “Space Pirate Trainer,” a game that’s pretty much exactly what it says pitting players against waves of droids to get them ready for a life of piracy; and “Sports Scramble,” a zany twist on traditional sports such as playing tennis with a hockey stick or hitting a home run with a football.

More titles and further features and details are available on the respective product pages for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S.

Photo: Oculus VR

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