You can only expect some of the world’s greatest minds to sit tight for so long, knowing their work will never see the light of day. Especially when they’re on first-name terms with the people in charge of the commercially viable, Facebook-backed alternative. Another developer behind Valve’s astonishing VR tech has made the leap to Oculus.
Aaron Nicholls has joined Oculus after four years as a developer at Valve – during which time he conducted research into the company’s virtual reality tech.
He joins fellow former Valve staffers Michael Abrash – now Oculus’ Chief Scientist, if you can believe that job title – and Atman Binstock.
Binstock had been Valve’s lead VR engineer, and was credited with creating the VR Room demo that so shocked guests at this year’s Steam Dev Days. He’s now Oculus’ Chief Architect, heading up a new R&D lab in Bellevue, Seattle.
Nicholls will work with Binstock and team in Bellevue, announced Oculus.
“It’s been exciting working on VR at Valve,” Nicholls tweeted yesterday. “Can’t wait to continue working on the future with Atman, Michael, and the Oculus crew tomorrow.”
He added: “Moves like this are always a little scary, but I’m very excited and can’t wait to start in the morning. Figured we should get the news out before the April Fools rush renders an entire day of news unbelievable.”
Oculus have collected nearly the whole set. Is there anybody else you reckon they need to nab from Valve?
Thanks, Gamasutra.