Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team certainly had plenty to talk about during the opening keynote of F8 2018, touching on new Facebook features, privacy and of course virtual reality (VR). In fact VR featured fairly prominently with the major news surrounding the new standalone headset Oculus Go. VRFocus covered the announcements extensively yesterday but for those after a nice little round-up of what was going on we’ve created a quick recap video.
As mentioned Oculus Go was the main talking point when it came to VR. Retailing for $199 USD for the 32GB model and $249 for the 64GB version, consumers can now purchase the headset via the Oculus website in 23 countries. The head-mounted display (HMD) is all about making VR even more accessible to the masses. You don’t need a specific smartphone, or and expensive PC to run it as everything is built in, just an Android or iOS device that can run the accompanying app for setup and software purposes.
While the headset announcement wasn’t really a surprise – it was first shown at Oculus Connect 4 (OC4) – the accompanying software additions were certainly eye catching. Social meetup point Oculus Rooms got an overhaul, updating the original Gear VR version with a customisable environment and new games care of a collaboration with Hasbro. As part of that, Oculus Avatars also got an update adding custom skin shading, hair color, and clothing whilst making them fit with the lighting and scene better.
Then there was Oculus Venues, another social feature that’ll let friends watch live events together, from sports tournaments to comedy shows and concerts, with a big part of that helped by a collaboration with NextVR. And just to round things off there was Oculus TV, a virtual living room with a massive TV which will serve as a launch area for apps like Facebook Watch, Red Bull TV, Pluto TV and Netflix.
Then there are all the videogames and other apps that Oculus Go customers will be able to enjoy thanks to the headsets integration with Oculus’ Mobile SDK, meaning compatibility with Gear VR content, unlocking over 1000 experiences on day one.
Check out the video below for more details. VRFocus will continue its coverage of F8 as the conference moves into its second day.