oculus_rift_xbox_one

Oculus Rift for Xbox One: Is Virtual Reality Coming to Xbox? Published 4 years ago by Mike Channell. An eye for an eye. After years of broken sci-fi promises, virtual reality is finally coming to homes with the Oculus Rift: a lightweight, affordable VR headset that actually works. It's the kind of technology that marketing gobs describe as 'disruptive' - it's entirely possible that gaming in five years time will look totally different from today because of Rift. It's also certain the Xbox One will still be around in five years' time. So will virtual reality make it to Xbox One? In this video we investigate exactly how the Oculus Rift works, why it's so spectacular and why there is no fundamental reason you couldn't connect it to your Xbox One. The hurdles are more bureaucratic than technological and actually, with Kinect 2.0 part of the package, Xbox One might be the best place to play Oculus Rift. And though we can't demonstrate how brilliant it is without popping a Rift on your melon, we can show you what happens when two people - specifically Andy and Jane - try the headset for the very first time. If you want a renewed sense of wonder as you walk around Half-Life 2's familiar opening moments, you need to try this thing. Instant immersion. We've got everything crossed that we'll be able to play our favourite Xbox games in this way. Imagine standing at the foot of a mountain in Skyrim and marvelling at the sheer, actual scale of the thing. Or staring at a Halo ringworld arcing up into the sky and feeling like you're standing in that world. What's brilliant about Oculus Rift is that it requires so few apologies and caveats. Everyone who tries it gets transported to another world. You could give it to an elderly relative and they would understand the magic of that. 'Immersion' is one of the most commonly tossed around marketing buzzwords in videogames these days. It's what every game developer is chasing. Oculus Rift does in an instant what game developers have been striving to do for years. There's still a way to go. The technology itself isn't currently perfect, and won't be officially released in its current state. There are also wider problems associated with virtual reality, such as how you can navigate the world in a way that feels natural. As the video demonstrates, though, there are already people working hard on those problems. We reckon Oculus Rift is the most exciting gaming technology in development right now, but what do you think? Would you happily spend hours at a time wearing a virtual reality headset? Which games would you play? Are there any problems with the technology that you can't get past? Let us know in the comments. About the author. Mike is co-editor at Outside Xbox. His favourite thing about making videos is adding unnecessary special effects. He has heard all of your 'channel' jokes. This site © 2002-2018 Gamer Network. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. | Contact us! Xbox One Game Streaming Coming to Windows 10 PCs with Oculus Rift on Dec. 12. At Xbox, we’re continuously exploring new ways for you to get the most out of your gaming experiences by providing the choice to play how you want, where you want and with whomever you want. With the launch of Windows 10 and the Xbox app, we first delivered the ability to stream your Xbox One games to your Windows 10 PC over your home network – and now, we’re bringing that experience to life, in partnership with Oculus, completely for free. Today marks an evolution in our ongoing partnership with Oculus, as Rift owners will be able to stream their Xbox One library to Rift with the new Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app, including fan favorites like “Gears of War 4,” “Forza Horizon 3” and “Halo 5: Guardians,” the biggest sports games, indie darlings, Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games, and more titles coming in 2017. The Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app is available for free in the Oculus Store on Dec. 12. The new Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift app connects to your Xbox One via your home network. Once connected, your console’s video output is streamed to your Rift headset and projected onto a massive screen in your choice of one of three immersive VR environments: “Citadel,” “Retreat” and “Dome.” An Xbox Wireless Controller with Every Oculus Rift. As you know, we’ve also been teaming up with Oculus to offer an Xbox Wireless Controller included with every Rift purchase. Designed for gamers, by gamers, the Xbox Wireless Controller makes interchangeable gaming between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs and tablets easy, including fine-tuned impulse triggers for greater precision and control and a D-pad engineered to deliver greater responsiveness. In addition, with the Xbox Wireless Adapter and new PCs with native Xbox Wireless support, you can play games on Rift using your controller wirelessly right out of the box. Windows 10 is the Best Platform for Playing Games on Oculus Rift. Rift works natively with Windows 10, which makes it easy to set up, jump in and have an incredible VR gaming experience. Combined with DirectX 12 technology that unlocks the full capabilities of new Windows 10 graphics hardware, made-for-VR games on Windows 10 will have the fastest frame rates and top performance. This holiday season, make sure to check out a new Xbox One, Windows 10 PC and Rift at your favorite retailer, and try Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift! More information on how to stream your games from your Xbox One to Windows 10 PC is available here. Xbox and Oculus Partner to Change the Face of Virtual Reality. Virtual reality has been a part of popular culture for decades, but for many years it served more as a sci-fi narrative device than as a viable technology for consumers. That has changed dramatically in recent years, as advances in technology have finally allowed the geniuses creating virtual reality platforms to bring their visions to life like never before. The era of virtual reality is here. That’s why we’re so excited to announce a new partnership between Microsoft and virtual reality pioneer Oculus VR. Earlier today, at an Oculus event in San Francisco, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer joined Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe on stage to share some details on what fans can expect to see when the Oculus Rift launches in Q1 2016. The Xbox One controller will be included with every Oculus Rift. The Xbox One controller is designed for gamers, by gamers, for interchangeable gaming between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs and tablets, with fine-tuned impulse triggers for greater precision and control and a D-pad engineered to deliver greater responsiveness. If you’re going to be playing your Rift games with a controller, this is the one you want in your hands. And, with the new Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows that we unveiled last week included, you can play games on the Rift using the Xbox One controller wirelessly right out of the box. Xbox One games will be playable on Oculus Rift . We shared earlier this year that you’ll be able to stream your Xbox One games to your Windows 10 PC or tablet. Now, we’re happy to announce that we’re bringing the same Xbox One streaming capability to the Rift, a feature that’s only possible through Windows 10. You can play your favorite Xbox One games, like Halo , Forza , Sunset Overdrive and more, on your own virtual reality cinema screen. It’s just like playing in a private theater, and you can even play with your friends through Xbox Live. Windows 10 is the best platform for playing games on the Oculus Rift. The Rift will work natively with Windows 10 to make it easy to set up, jump in, and have an incredible VR gaming experience. Combined with DirectX 12 technology that unlocks the full capabilities of new Windows 10 graphics hardware, made-for-VR games on Windows 10 will have the fastest frame rates and top performance. We’re really excited about today’s announcement and what it means for fans of both Xbox and Oculus. You’ll be hearing more about this great news in the future, so stay tuned to Xbox Wire. Oculus Rift. On June 11, 2015, Microsoft announced a partnership with Oculus VR just before E3. Every Oculus Rift headset will ship with a wireless Xbox One Controller. Not only does the Oculus Rift work with Windows 10, but the Xbox One can stream select games to the VR headset. Specific titles like Halo, Sunset Overdrive, and Forza were all mentioned as being compatible. Xbox One Price and Bundles Previous. How To Set Up and Get Started With Microsoft HoloLens. © 1996-2018 Ziff Davis, LLC. We have updated our PRIVACY POLICY and encourage you to read it by clicking here. IGN uses cookies and other tracking technologies to customize online advertisements, and for other purposes. IGN supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. Learn More. Explained: How the Oculus Rift streams PC and Xbox One games. The Oculus Rift can stream games from both a PC and an Xbox One, but it's not what you may think. Oculus Rift is arguably one of the most exciting products of the year. The Facebook-owned virtual-reality company unveiled the consumer version of its VR headset on Thursday alongside a slew of new titles that will arrive with it in the first quarter of 2016. The company also announced a surprising partnership with Microsoft. The Rift will come bundled with an Xbox One controller and can even stream Xbox One games. But the breakdown between the PC and Xbox aspects of the Oculus Rift is a bit confusing -- so much so that we wanted to help explain exactly what's going on. Oculus Rift: A virtual screen for your PC. It's important to start specifying what the Oculus Rift is and isn't. The Rift is a virtual-reality headset, yes, but note that it's a PC accessory, not a standalone device. Think of it as twin monitors that are strapped to your head, reacting to your motion in real time. In addition to the high-tech headset, the Oculus Rift package comes with that aforementioned Xbox One controller, an Xbox wireless adapter (so the controller can interface with the PC) and a special motion sensor (a desk-mounted tracking device to follow the headset's movements, and change the first-person point-of-view accordingly). The headset, tracker, and controller dongle are all tethered to your Windows PC (via USB and HDMI), and that PC is running an Oculus app to tie things together. With all that in place, you're good to go and have two ways to play: dedicated Oculus games (running on the PC) or streaming Xbox One games (from an Xbox console elsewhere on your home network, streaming to the PC). Playing Oculus games on a PC. Oculus has its own app store, the company's Steam-like platform that will be home to compatible Rift games. It's a dashboard from which you can interact with friends, learn more about games, buy them and play them. Once you purchase and download a game -- say, the space fighter sim Eve Valkyrie -- you boot it up, and it's off to intergalactic dogfighting. Again, to be clear: the Oculus games are running on the PC itself, and you're viewing the experience through the Oculus headset while controlling it via the Xbox controller. (Oculus also unveiled more radical controllers called Oculus Touch that will debut later; they can be used with compatible games in lieu of the Xbox gamepad.) Streaming games from an Xbox One. The second gaming option is having the ability to stream from an Xbox One. Microsoft previously revealed that Windows 10 users will be able to stream games from their Xbox One to a PC . This capability is essentially Microsoft's answer to Sony's sophisticated PlayStation Now service (playing cloud-based PS3 games on compatible TVs, Blu-ray players and consoles), its PS4 Remote Play (which allows PlayStation Vita and Sony Xperia phone owners to stream PlayStation 4 games to their portable devices), and Nvidia's Grid service (which streams PC games to Nvidia's Shield Tablet and Shield microconsole ). So, while all Windows 10 users (with strong enough hardware) will be able to stream their Xbox One games to their PC, Oculus owners will then have the extra ability of being able to view those games in the headset instead of on their PC screen. Keep in mind, however, that these streamed Xbox One games won't have the same immersion as native Oculus VR games. From what we saw at the Oculus press event, Xbox One games will be played on the Rift in a "virtual living room." Why play your Xbox in a virtual living room elsewhere in your home -- instead of your actual living room? We can imagine, for instance, the home's big-screen TV being monopolized for watching a hockey game or a kids' show, while you still get to play Halo 5 multiplayer. (Non-Oculus owners, of course, can do the same thing right on their PC screen, sans the trappings of the virtual living room.) Xbox One games will be played on the Rift in a virtual living room. Screenshot by Dan Graziano/CNET. PC requirements. Oculus previously announced that, in order to use the Rift, you would need a pretty good gaming computer. The company recommends a computer equipped with an Intel Core i5 4590 or better processor with 8GB or more of RAM. It must also have two USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port that supports HDMI 1.3 video output. The steepest and most expensive requirement is the graphics card. Oculus recommends having at least an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD 290 graphics card, both which can retail for upward of $300 (as of June 2015). While the Oculus Rift does support Windows 7, you will need to have Windows 10 installed to take advantage of both the Xbox One game streaming and to use the controller. This is because of the Xbox wireless adapter, which is only compatible with -- you guessed it -- Windows 10. You won't need to pay extra for Windows 10, though. Microsoft is offering Windows 10 for free to owners of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 who upgrade within the first year. Oculus hasn't announced pricing details just yet, although company executives hinted last month that it may cost around $1,500 when bundled with a PC. The Oculus Rift will be available in the first quarter of 2016. Editors' note: This story has been updated since its original publication with additional context and clarification. Share your voice. Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We'll remove comments that violate our policy. Oculus Rift Includes Xbox One Controller; Xbox One Games Stream to Rift. Windows 10 allows you to stream Xbox One games to a Rift headset through your PC. Last updated by Chris Pereira on June 11, 2015 at 2:16PM. You are now subscribed. Update: Oculus also today announced its own VR controller, the Oculus Touch. You can read more about that here. Original Story: The Oculus Rift headset will come with an Xbox One controller, and Xbox One owners will be able to stream their games to the Rift, it was revealed on Wednesday during Oculus VR's media briefing. Oculus VR chief executive Brendan Iribe announced at today's press conference that, rather than provide a controller of its own, as was widely expected, the VR headset will come with an Xbox One controller and a wireless adapter for connecting it to your PC. This doesn't preclude the possibility that it will offer an alternative controller, but it appears the Xbox One controller will be the standard for now. Xbox boss Phil Spencer joined Iribe on the stage to explain that the Rift will offer native support for Windows 10, making it easy to use the device with the upcoming operating system. More interesting was an expansion of the previously announced feature that will allow Windows 10 users to stream games from their Xbox One to a PC. Oculus Rift owners will be able to stream Xbox One games (through a PC) to the Oculus Rift headset. However, based on a very brief demo, it looks as if this won't offer a proper VR experience; you'll instead be playing games on a screen in a "virtual cinema." A video showing this with Forza Horizon 2 suggested all this does--besides put the video directly in front of your face--is add head-tracking support that allows you to adjust the camera by moving your head. While this partnership might come as a surprise, keep in mind Microsoft has a stake in Facebook, which owns Oculus. We'll have more details on all of this as they become available. More stories from today's Oculus Rift E3 event follow below. Oculus shows off final Rift virtual reality headset, partners with Microsoft's Xbox. The virtual reality company, which is owned by Facebook, says it plans to offer consumers a wide range of games and experiences when it goes on sale next year, including some for Xbox One. Oculus VR, one of the biggest virtual reality companies, is nearly ready to launch its flagship headset for consumers. The company, which was bought by Facebook last year for $2 billion, said Thursday it plans to launch its Rift headset early next year. But in a twist, the company also said it's planning a partnership with Microsoft that will tie the Xbox One game console to Oculus' device. The final version of the Rift, which was detailed for the first time, will come with a controller designed for the Xbox One video game console, Oculus said. The device will also include a camera to track your body as it shifts, whether you're sitting down or standing and moving around the room. Those movements are then interpreted in a game to make you feel as though you're in the game world. Oculus is also working on pair of hand controllers, called Oculus Touch, that resemble small joysticks with looping rings around the base. That hardware is being designed to bring more realistic hand motions to virtual-reality worlds that will let people interact with the environment. "VR allows us to experience anything anywhere, it is that powerful," said Brendan Iribe, head of Oculus. He said that developers will be able to do unique things using the company's hand controllers and that its partnership with the Xbox sets Oculus apart from other companies that make headsets. "We're on a single mission: VR." Through a partnership with Microsoft, Xbox owners will be able to stream Xbox One games to the Oculus Rift so long as it's connected to a Windows 10 PC. James Martin/CNET. The reveal of its final consumer version is sure to help bolster Oculus' efforts to grab the attention of consumers, who until now have only seen prototypes and demonstration videos of the headset. Yet the company has declined to say how much the headset will cost, with executives hinting late last month that it may cost around $1,500 when bundled with a PC costing $1,000 or less. Consumers won't have to wait long for new games, however. The partnership with Microsoft will bring the entire catalog of Xbox One games, including the upcoming sci-fi shooter Halo 5: Guardians, to the Rift through streaming technology built into Windows 10, Microsoft's next upgrade for its software to power computers, due out July 29. Xbox games will not be made for the Rift, however. They will instead play on a virtual screen, simulating a theater. The headset will only work with Windows at launch, and both companies said they have no immediate plans to plug the Rift directly into an Xbox video game console. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox group, said Microsoft will continue to focus on its own Hololens headset technology , which was announced in January. Still, Microsoft is working with the top VR companies in the industry, with plans to make the upcoming version of Windows as appealing as possible. "Oculus had such a head start," he said. "It's good for Windows, and it's good for Xbox." The promise of virtual reality, and the companies behind it, could be transformative. Put a headset on your head, and suddenly the screen and headphones transport you to a computer-generated world, be that an epic space battle, the forest floor while a giant walks overhead or a massive tower filled with mysteries to solve. Right now, Oculus' focus is on gaming, as creating virtual worlds to inhabit is similar to what game developers do everyday. But the company is dabbling in computer-generated films with its in-house production division, Oculus Story Studio, and bringing real-world captured video to the Rift that could transport you to far away places on Earth or even elsewhere in the solar system. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, has said he believes VR has the potential to even change the way we interact with computers, and the way we communicate with one another. "With Oculus," he said in a conference call last October, "we're making a long-term bet on the future of computing." The consumer version of Oculus' Rift headset will go on presale later this year before it arrives at retail next spring. James Martin/CNET. Oculus isn't the only company making this effort, of course. PlayStation maker Sony has said it's planning to release a VR headset, codenamed Morpheus, made for its video game console next year. Valve, the game maker that developed the celebrated Half-Life and Portal adventure games, said in March it has teamed up with smartphone maker HTC to offer its own headset, called Vive. That device will be launching in time for the holidays. Each has offered a different take on virtual reality. Sony is focusing primarily on its PlayStation, potentially limiting its reach and support from developers. Valve, meanwhile, has developed specialized lasers and controllers that are shaped like wands to let users control games by moving their bodies in the real world. This has led game developers to create titles that ask players to move around a room. Despite all the attention, VR likely won't be purchased by mainstream consumers at its start, analysts warn. That's why companies like Valve and Oculus have focused on gamers, who are both voracious consumers and a natural audience for virtual experiences. "It's mass-market in terms of what gamers will be after for 2016," said Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey took the stage Thursday to show off Oculus Touch, the company's in-progress touch controllers. James Martin/CNET. While it works on its experimental controllers, Oculus has said it plans to focus first on games that can be played sitting down, with a controller containing familiar buttons and joysticks that is held by both your hands. Those game titles right now include Eve: Valkyrie, a space shooting game that puts players in the cockpit during massive, Star Wars-style aerial combat, and Chronos, a third-person adventure game that marks one of the first VR experiences designed from an aerial point of view and not looking through someone else's eyes. Oculus says it plans to put $10 million toward fostering the develop of VR games among the independent developer community. Whether Oculus' showcase today is enough to convince consumers to put money down for the consumer Rift when it goes on presale later this year remains unclear without a specific price tag. "Things have come so far so fast," Luckey said to close out the press conference. If you'd shown a video of this event a few years ago, it would have seemed like science fiction, he added. "But this isn't science fiction, it's reality." Share your voice. Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We'll remove comments that violate our policy. Xbox One Controller and Oculus Rift. All Oculus Rift virtual reality sets come bundled with an Xbox One Controller and an Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows. Note In Japan, the Oculus Rift virtual reality set comes bundled with a 9-foot micro-USB cable instead of the Xbox wireless adapter. If you need help setting up your bundled Xbox One Controller or Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows, you’ll find setup information on the Oculus support page, Setup Your Xbox Controller (wired mode), or the Xbox One support page, Using Xbox One Wireless Controllers on a PC. Oculus Rift can play Xbox One games starting next month. Above: Streaming Xbox One games into an Oculus Rift. You don’t need to sit on your couch in your living room to play Xbox One games anymore. Now, you can enter virtual realty and sit on a digital couch in a digital living room to play Xbox One games. Beginning December 12, Oculus Rift owners will have the option to stream Xbox One games from their console to the Oculus Rift using a new app from Microsoft. This does not put you inside of the games, but it will give you a way of playing them on a gigantic virtual screen. Anything that runs on your Xbox One, including Forza Horizon 3, Halo 5: Guardians, or backward-compatible Xbox 360 games, will run in the Rift, and you can use the wireless Xbox One controller that came with your Rift to control the games. The “Xbox One Streaming to Oculus Rift” app is a free download on the Xbox One app store. This is part of Microsoft’s ongoing relationship with Oculus VR. The Rift debuted in March for $600, and that VR headset only works with Windows 10 headsets and comes with the aforementioned bundled Xbox One controller. Microsoft has also announced plans to bring VR to the upgraded Xbox One Scorpio console that’s going to launch in late 2017, but it has not confirmed whether it will support Oculus devices. We’ll attempt to test out this new streaming app once it launches, but for now you can see an early demo of the technology that Microsoft and Oculus teased way back at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show event in 2015: Xbox One And Oculus Rift Could Be A Perfect Combo But Here's Why You Might Need To Wait. Despite attracting tremendous public interest, the Xbox One and Oculus Rift combo might not be available anytime soon, but Microsoft is working closely with Oculus Rift, which shows signs of a promising but possibly long start. So far, E3 2015 viewers have gathered that players can expect to play in a virtual-reality living room by streaming games through Windows 10 to the Rift. These games include the Xbox One version of Paranormal Activity VR , which is scheduled for release in May 2016. Microsoft will also offer a Windows 10 Minecraft version that's compatible with Oculus Rift. Eager players are wondering why it's going to take a long time before the virtual reality and console combo comes, and it's not like the Xbox One isn't equipped with the necessary specs to run virtual reality games, not to mention that Samsung is going to release a VR peripheral that can run using a Samsung 2015-model smartphone. "What we were finding is that it's hard enough to deliver a great experience reliably on Windows, never mind adding OS X and Linux to that, which are different beasts entirely," said Nate Mitchell, vice president of product and co-founder of Oculus, in an interview with Polygon. The retail version of Oculus Rift is confirmed to have an Xbox One controller, and Microsoft says that Windows 10 will natively support the virtual reality peripheral, calling it the best platform to play games using Oculus Rift. Microsoft also intends to replace Xbox One's operating system with Windows 10, which caused fans to speculate that the Oculus will probably work natively with the console as well. However, Microsoft has put a stop to the circulating rumors. "We've said that Xbox One will be able to stream games through Windows 10 to the Rift, letting you play Xbox One games in your own virtual reality cinema. This means you can play your favorite Xbox games on a cinema screen in VR - it will be like playing games in your very own theater. We have nothing further to share at this time," says a Microsoft spokesperson. It seems that Microsoft isn't planning on focusing on the Xbox One and Oculus Rift mix, but the company is working on the virtual reality gear's integration with Windows 10.