Oculus Rift has been on the headlines just recently and they owe it to the much-awaited price announcement; however, it is said that HTC Vive will give Rift VR a tough competition on Virtual Reality department this year. (Photo : YouTube/Thio Joe Tech)
Oculus Rift was released in March but it requires a high-end PC to run smoothly. Now, it was announced that the VR headset was made compatible with the low-end personal computers thanks to a new update.
The Oculus Rift can now finally run on PCs with video cards less powerful than those in the minimum specs. Gamers who want to have a VR experience can now do so in a cheaper way as they can slash several hundred dollars off of their VR rig along with the VR headset itself, TechRadar has learned.
In October, Oculus announced that they were going to lower the minimum spec of their Rift VR headset. The feat was accomlished due to the improvement in the technology dubbed Asynchronous Spacewarp, or AWS.
With the use of AWS, VR games can stay fluid by generating the in-between frames of animation when graphics start to lag. It does so without having to churn out more power than needed.
AWS helps reduce motion sickness down to a minimum as it aims to churn out up to 90 frames per second which is the minimum for players not to feel nausea.Though, the Oculus Rift was able to improve performance, the company still urges developers to improve their games for smooth play at 90 frames per second instead of relying on AWS, which does not kick in for high-end rigs because the tech is not really needed.
Even the minimum specs from before are pretty high for the average game, Business Insider reported. Gamers who do not have a rig yet could now consider the Oculus Rift as an addition to their budget..
As for the price, it could have cost $1,600 for the Oculus Rift headset and Oculus-ready PC combination. But now, the Asynchronous Spacewarp (AWS) technology lets gamers use the Oculus Rift VR headset with a PC that costs half the price, or $500 (£395).
Gamers should still check the new requirements whether they can run the VR games. AWS can help immensely but it does not really guarantee a perfectly smooth VR experience especially on less powerful systems compared to the recommended specs.
