Although the HTC Vive may have had room-scale VR capability since its launch, the Oculus Rift only began supporting the feature when its Touch controllers were initially launched back in December. Even then, the Rift room-scale capabilities were provided as an experimental feature to headset owners with more than one sensor.
Now, after weeks of testing, the 1.15 software update has been pushed to the stable channel and has brought with it official room-scale motion tracking support for the Oculus Rift. However, there is a caveat, as the new 360-degree tracking is only available in the stable release for the three sensor implementation, with two sensor tracking still in the experimental phase.
This may be an issue considering the cost of a setting up a full room-scale VR experience will be quite substantial - though still cheaper than the Vive -, but existing Rift owners may be tempted to open their wallets for a couple of more sensors considering the upgrade in user experience.
In addition to the highly anticipated room-scale feature, the update also brings a handful of other improvements; these include notifications for when the headset is plugged into the wrong graphics card, as well as a notification if an antivirus software blocks an app's installation. Also, a short video regarding the safe use of the Rift headset and motion controllers will now play as part of the new user experience. Lastly, a toggle to enable or disable the health and safety warnings that appear whenever a user enters a UI is now available.
Source: Oculus via TechCrunch | Image: Oculus
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