Oculus Announces Latest Prototype, Crescent Bay

The consumer version of the Oculus Rift is not here yet, CEO Brendan Iribe said on Saturday at the company’s developer conference, Oculus Connect — but a new prototype being unveiled is “much closer.”

The prototype is called Crescent Bay and features improved 360-degree spatial tracking and integrated audio. Oculus also said it would license the 3-D audio technology developed by RealSpace 3D at the University of Maryland, which makes virtual worlds sound more true-to-life, like personal surround sound.

“This is still very, very early hardware and software, but it’s in a state that we’re ready to show you today,” Iribe said.

Iribe said Oculus had shipped more than 100,000 copies of its previous development kits to virtual reality game and app developers. He called the jump from its latest kit, DK2, to Crescent Bay a “massive leap” that is “sprinting toward [a] consumer version.”

Since Facebook bought the virtual reality startup in March, its staff has more than doubled, Iribe said. He also highlighted the contributions of ex-Valve engineers like Michael Abrash, now reunited with his former VR collaborator, Oculus CTO John Carmack.

Pricing and release timing for Crescent Bay were not immediately available.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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