Virtual reality isn’t simply strapping a pair of goggles to your head. There is more than that, and devices like the HTC Vive have the ability to do room scale VR. For those unfamiliar, room scale VR is where you can walk around your room which in turn tracks your movements in virtual reality too, so it’s kind of like you’re actually walking in the virtual environment.This is one of the features that supposedly gave the HTC Vive an advantage over other headsets like the Oculus Rift, but apparently that is not the case. According to Oculus head of worldwide studios Jason Rubin, it turns out that the Oculus Rift is more than capable of doing room scale VR, but it seems that the company thinks there the lack of space in most homes is the reason why they did not include it.
Rubin was quoted as saying, “Some people will really want room scale. It’s definitely cool. We have the tech ability to provide room scale. Our tech doesn’t preclude that. At some point we’ll demo that. We don’t believe that the consumer has the space in general. Has the commercial viable space of the 15-by-15 foot square.”
That being said, the Oculus Rift is expected to ship with a slightly more confined version of room scale VR. Its controllers will include a second sensor which when paired with the other sensor, will allow tracking of 5-feet-by-11-feet, versus the 15-feet-by-15-feet offered by the HTC Vive’s Lighthouse sensors.
Filed in . Read more about Oculus Rift and Virtual Reality (VR).