By Derrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Oculus has unveiled a new prototype of its virtual reality headset. However, the VR company still isn't ready to release a consumer edition.
The hew headset intended for creators of VR experiences is nicknamed Crescent Bay and features a higher resolution and refresh rate, integrated headphones and 360-degree head tracking.
"That was not easy," Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe told the audience Saturday at the company's first-ever developers conference. "It's still not perfect. None of this is perfect yet, but it's much, much better."
Oculus' headset covers a user's eyes and can create immersive worlds that react to head movement.
The original prototype of the Oculus Rift headset was unveiled in 2012 and has received considerable attention from film and video game makers. Oculus released a second prototype headset to developers earlier this year. Iribe said 100,000 development kits have been shipped to 130 countries.
"I never expected it go this quickly," Iribe said. "None of us did."
The Irvine, California-based Oculus VR Inc. was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for $2 billion. Iribe said Oculus' staff has doubled in the six months since the acquisition.
"We're really spiriting toward the consumer version," he said.
Oculus recently teamed up with Samsung to introduce Gear VR, a $200 headset with a slot for using the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone as a VR display.
Over the past two years, Oculus' technology has been demonstrated at events like San Diego Comic-Con and the Electronic Entertainment Expo with interactive experiences that recreate scenes from the "X-Men" and "Pacific Rim" films and thrust users into an intergalactic dogfight in the game "EVE: Valkyrie."
Iribe reiterated several times during his talk at the Oculus Connect conference that creating a sense of presence would be integral for the widespread adoption of VR technology, which continues to leave some users feeling queasy despite Oculus' strides in creating lower latency and more realistic imagery inside the goggles.
"You should believe you're there and feel great, even if you're super-sensitive like me," Iribe said.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More