Virtual reality glasses on Linux

Conclusions

The Oculus Rift and its relatives could see virtual reality become mass market material for the first time; consumer devices are expected in 2015. It appears likely that players in particular will be interested in the new technology. However, there is also interest in VR technology in the CAD and movie industry, as well as in medical technology. Engineers of the private space company SpaceX are already experimenting with the new technology [22]. It remains to be seen to what extent a VR Internet will eventually emerge, but virtuality would certainly be an interesting field for conferences and live streaming.

Looking at the list of existing demos and games for the Oculus Rift, Linux users seem to once more cross the finish line in third place. However, minor improvements are noticeable: The SDK works on Linux, and the major game engines now offer Linux support.

Which controllers will win the race is an open question. Clearly, however, a combination of keyboard shortcuts and VR glasses is less than perfect. The Razer Hydra seems to be popular, and it comes with a Linux SDK [23]. Additionally, work is in progress on some data gloves.

Infos

  1. Futurama excerpt: http://vimeo.com/37047687
  2. Oculus VR: http://www.oculusvr.com
  3. Oculus SDK license: http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1dfnhw/id_like_to_hear_palmer_respond_to_this_oculus_not/c9pvvwg
  4. Sony's Project Morpheus: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/03/18/introducing-project-morpheus/
  5. Sony Morpheus vs. Oculus Rift: http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/VR-Brillen-Sony-Morpheus-und-Oculus-Rift-2-im-Vergleich-2150859.html (in German)
  6. Sulon Cortex: http://sulontechnologies.com/cortex/
  7. True Player Gear: http://www.trueplayergear.com
  8. Performance recommendations: https://developer.oculusvr.com/wiki/Oculus_SDK_Performance
  9. Oculus SDK download: https://developer.oculusvr.com/?action=eula&v=8
  10. Demos and games for the Rift: http://www.riftenabled.com
  11. Oculus Rift in action: http://www.manning.com/bdavis/
  12. GitHub repository for Rift developers: https://github.com/OculusRiftInAction/OculusRiftInAction/
  13. Unity and the Oculus SDK: https://developer.oculusvr.com/?action=doc
  14. Source SDK by Valve: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013
  15. Torque 3D: https://github.com/GarageGames/Torque3D
  16. Panda3D: https://www.panda3d.org
  17. BGE support for the Oculus Rift: http://lubosz.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/oculus-rift-support-in-blender-game-engine/
  18. vr.js with head tracking: https://github.com/benvanik/vr.js/tree/master
  19. Three.js: http://threejs.org
  20. Rift demo with Three.js: http://threejs.org/examples/#webgl_effects_oculusrift
  21. CtrlAltStudio client with Rift support: https://ctrlaltstudioviewer.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest
  22. SpaceX using the Oculus Rift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNqs_S-zEBY
  23. Razer Hydra: http://sixense.com/linuxsdkdownload

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