When social networking giant Facebook purchased virtual reality (VR) specialist Oculus VR around two years ago now, it became immediately clear just how the company could utilise the latter’s head-mounted display (HMD), the Oculus Rift. Social VR has grown in importance since that time, and Facebook has made its first steps into VR compatibility, supporting 360 degree videos. At this week’s F8 developer conference, however, the company demonstrated even deeper possibilities for integrating the tech.
Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer and Michael Booth of the social VR team led a demo in which they used the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch controllers to demonstrate a number of potential uses for VR on the social site. The pair used orbs to teleport around the city of London while on-stage in San Francisco, with their heads being represented with blue avatars similar to those that can be seen in Oculus VR’s Toybox demo. They even took a selfie together in front of Big Ben and shared it via Facebook.
You can take a look at all of this in the highlight video below, too. Facebook didn’t state when these features might launch, though, with the Oculus Touch controllers not due to launch until the second half of the year, it’ll be some time yet.
Check back with VRFocus for the latest on the Oculus Rift.
