Oculus VR to Hold Pre-E3 Event to Demo Oculus Rift; Facial Expression Capture Could Be Included in Release; Adult Content Will Not Be Blocked

By Staff Writer

May 21 2015, 09:56 AM EDT

Oculus VR is set to hold an 11 June event in San Francisco to feature demos and to provide more information regarding its Oculus Rift.

The event comes a few days ahead of the Los Angeles 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the invitations to which were sent out two weeks after announcing the virtual reality head-mounted display's Q1 2016 release. Pre-orders are set to begin late 2015 in time for the holidays.

The invite shows the image of the Oculus Rift with the caption "Step into the Rift".

"In the weeks ahead, we'll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift," the company said in a blog post.

Last week, Ocuus VR released the technical requirements of the Oculus Rift. Users will need an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 graphics card or higher, at least an Intel i5-4590 CPU or equivalent, 8GB RAM, two USB 3.0 ports, Windows 7 SP1 or higher, and an HDMI 1.3 connection.

Oculus VR set the expectations that laptops are not capable of handling the Oculus Rift. The company also paused development of the headset's software for Mac and Linux.

"Note that almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec, though upcoming mobile GPUs may be able to support this level of performance," Oculus chief architect Atman Binstock said.

"[The company is focused on] delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows," he added. Meanwhile, developers behind the Oculus Rift have found a way to track the facial expressions of a user and transfer them to his avatar or virtual character.

"That could make inhabiting and interacting in virtual worlds more compelling. To get a virtual social environment, you want to convey this behavior to other people. This is the first facial tracking that has been demonstrated through a head-mounted display," said University of Southern California assistant professor Hao Li. Li and his team are working with Oculus VR in developing the project.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously mentioned that he's interested in the Oculus Rift headset providing new ways to socialize. Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014.

Being an open platform, no less than Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey said that the company will not block adult content, such as pornographic material.

"We don't control what software can run on it, and that's a big deal," Luckey said during the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference and Expo. Other VR manufacturers avoided giving a direct answer to the question.

Whatever the case may be, Oculus Rift is one of the most anticipated devices of next year. The E3 and the upcoming 11 June event will surely shed more light on the device's capabilities and roadmap.