Virtual Reality Apps On Facebook

Oculus Rift: Nearly a Reality

Facebook's development of the Oculus VR is moving quickly as we go into 2015, but what exactly are Facebook's plans?

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In March 2014 Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had acquired Oculus VR, the leading product in virtual reality gaming. After a massive total of two billion dollars were exchanged in a combination of Facebook stock, cash and incentives for the brand, the question on everybody’s lips: what did the multinational social networking site want with a gaming device?

There were initial concerns that headstrong Zuckerberg might turn the innovative headset away from gaming and into a social platform. On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said, “Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.”

Facebook Chief, Chris Cox explained earlier this week at the Code/Media conference that the company was already developing their own virtual reality apps. Although detail was limited and the release date of these apps is a long way off, Facebook have said that they want to be able to send bigger and fuller pictures using VR, instead of the snippets that can currently be uploaded to Facebook.

Nonetheless, this is not to say that Oculus has abandoned gaming altogether. The original developers and creator, Palmer Luckey, have continued to work on their projects with little interference from Facebook. The demo of Crescent Bay, a standing-up virtual reality game, was trailed early this year and the reviews were more than encouraging.

gizmag.com

The relationship between Facebook and Luckey is currently proving to be highly beneficial and is really accelerating the progress of Oculus which has developed greatly since its prototype in 2012.

Luckey is able to focus on the engineering of the product, whilst Facebook can take on all the paperwork and recruitment that a normal company in its early stages would be battling with. However, the headset still isn’t available for the general public to buy and there are still problems with input devices and sound quality.

But overall, progress is moving at lightning speed and who knows what the future holds for Oculus when there is a company as formidable as Facebook behind them.

Source: http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/02/virtual-reality-apps-on-facebook.html