Currently, Facebook has a strong yet simple lineup of virtual reality (VR) headsets, the Oculus Go, Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest. These take years to develop which the company occasionally teases at its Oculus Connect event, like the recent project Half Dome prototypes. Over on the Oculus Developers website, a recent leak suggests the next VR headset is codenamed ‘Del Mar’.
Details first appeared over on Reddit with an image from Oculus’ site as well as a link to further API documentation indicating the device is going to be mobile, most probably a standalone that could be a successor to Oculus Go or Oculus Quest. The documentation did also include the following lines (since removed) that mentioned a ‘Jedi Controller’:
ovrControllerCaps_ModelOculusTouch = 0x00004000, //< Oculus Touch Controller For Oculus Quest
ovrControllerCaps_ModelOculusJedi = 0x0000C000, //< Oculus Jedi Controller For Oculus Del Mar
Any mention of Jedi tends to conjure up thoughts of force powers and therefor hands-free control. While Oculus Quest has just seen hand tracking implemented the mention could also be in reference to Facebook’s recent acquisition of CTRL-Labs which is in the process of developing a wristband that can detect electrical brain signals so you can control devices with your mind.
Now, any news like this which does appear on Reddit usually needs to be taken with a little hesitation. If you head to the Oculus Developers forum now that bottom line of the above image is gone. However, Google Search has cached these pages referencing Oculus Del Mar development. Thus adding weight to not only the new codename but also the fact it’ll be some sort of wireless VR device.
The leak also mentions a Del Mar First Access forum for early developers, so there must be VR teams outside of Oculus working with new hardware of some description. That could make a new headset mention during Oculus Connect 7 (expected in September 2020) as a possibility. In the past, Oculus Rift was known as Crescent Bay while Project Santa Cruz became the Oculus Quest.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Facebook and Oculus, reporting back with all the latest news and announcements.