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Oculus Rift Crescent Bay prototype features 360 tracking and integrated audio

Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype

It’s barely been a few months since Oculus were showing us their latest DK2 prototype of their VR flagship device, the Oculus Rift, and now they’ve only gone and made another one. The ‘Crescent Bay’ prototype features tech that’s “impossible to achieve” with DK2, including 360 degree head tracking, improved weight and “high-quality” integrated audio.

Folks at this year’s Oculus Connect show managed to get their hands on it. The rest of us will have to make do with some photos.

On their never-ending mission to develop a device fit for consumers, Oculus have developed the Crescent Bay prototype.

A new display is being used, but the exact specs are unclear. The DK2 used the same screen from The Galaxy Note 3 smartphone, so an educated guess is they’ve moved onto the one from The Galaxy Note 4 – which displays 1440p. This will also expand the FoV and provide higher refresh rates too.

Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype 2

One obvious addition is to the tracking markers on the rear of the headset. This allows for 360 degree tracking within a virtual environment, with the help of the specially designed camera. It should also help with accuracy.

The final improvement is an optional integrated pair of on-ear headphones, used in collaboration with a new piece of audio software: Real Space 3D Audio Specialisation. It’s been 10 years in the making, and will help produce realistic replication of sound within a VR space.

Outside of the device, Oculus have also announced an extended partnership with Unity. The result – Oculus Rift is now fully supported in both the free and pro versions of Unity, so developers everywhere can start making even more VR games.