Virtual reality Kickstarter endorsed by Carmack, Bleszinski

A Kickstarter for the "Oculus Rift" virtual reality headset has started up seeking funds to provide development kits to studios. It has already surpassed its $250,000 goal.

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Another Kickstarter is grabbing funds and the attention of some big names in gaming. The "Oculus Rift" virtual reality headset is raising funds to create a development kit, so that studios can begin toying with the device. The project isn't trying to bring the product to market for consumers yet, as the plan seems to rely on first gaining strong third-party support.

To that end, the Kickstarter project carries endorsements from John Carmack of id Software, Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games, Gabe Newell and Michael Abrash of Valve, and David Helgason of Unity. It's a fairly impressive line-up, and Oculus promises that the SDK will be easy to integrate with existing games.

The company was aiming for a project goal of $250,000, but has already surpassed it with nearly a million dollars in its first few days. It still has 29 days to go, which gives Oculus plenty of time to think through push goals for the extra funds.

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  • reply
    August 2, 2012 5:45 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Virtual reality Kickstarter endorsed by Carmack, Bleszinski.

    A Kickstarter for the "Oculus Rift" virtual reality headset has started up seeking funds to provide development kits to studios. It has already surpassed its $250,000 goal.

    • reply
      August 2, 2012 5:53 PM

      If you like Defense Grid, check out their Kickstarter. Only 11 days left!

      http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiddenpath/defense-grid-2

      • spl legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        August 2, 2012 7:17 PM

        Unfortunately there is no way it's going to make it. And even if they did, that's only 1/4 of the way the DG2. =(

    • reply
      August 2, 2012 6:17 PM

      Aren't they showing it at Quakecon? If so I'm super curious shackers opinions of it.

    • reply
      August 2, 2012 6:39 PM

      I get to see it tomorrow.

      • reply
        August 2, 2012 6:42 PM

        Cool, please post your impressions (or record video!)

        • reply
          August 2, 2012 8:10 PM

          100% this ^^^^ AWESOME John enjoy you are really lucky to try it out.

          If you can try and see if that rez of 1280x800 is a issue compared to 1080p gaming and even multi screen if you have tried it

          Also let us know what the 3D stereo quality is like

          Last but not least does the actual gameplay work or does it just confuse the shit out of you since look is no longer controlled by a mouse

          Thanks

      • reply
        August 3, 2012 1:19 AM

        Ask Carmack about mod tools for RAGE while you're at it.

      • reply
        August 3, 2012 4:04 AM

        Awesome... looking forward to that writeup.

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      August 2, 2012 7:43 PM

      The seizures we'll get from this thing are gonna be so much more awesome than the seizures we got from the VirtualBoy.

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      August 2, 2012 7:45 PM

      I think I might just shell out for the dev kit, even though I'm woefully unqualified!

      • reply
        August 3, 2012 5:00 AM

        this. I don't know what I would do but the things look like fun.

    • reply
      August 2, 2012 8:59 PM

      Good, those guys can donate their fortunes to this endeavor and I'll just keep my money until it actually exists.

      • reply
        August 3, 2012 12:14 PM

        I don't think the project is that much about the money. You'll see it's a dev build, not a consumer product. They want developers to buy into the idea and start supporting the device, and then when they have a consumer version, there will already be a few games for it.

        tl;dr: Keep your money, this kickstarter's not for you.

    • reply
      August 3, 2012 1:40 AM

      lol bleszinksi

    • reply
      August 3, 2012 7:20 AM

      Anyone else going to buy the hell out of the final version? o/

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