Oculus Rift, Virtual Reality Gaming Headset, Seeks Kickstarter Funding For Development

Video game developers are hailing the Oculus Rift, a hardware attempt at making 3-D and virtual reality gaming accessible and functional for the consumer, Kotaku reports.

Previous attempts at 3-D include Nintendo's disastrous Virtual Boy console, and current titles being ported to 3-D, like "Batman: Arkham Asylum."

Having reached their goal of $250,000 via KickStarter, the team behind the Oculus Rift can now provide game developers with dev kits that will let them use their device's impressive virtual reality system. Noted developers like John Carmack (of id Software fame) and Gabe Newell (head of Valve) already have shown support for the Oculus Rift, with Carmack's recently announced "Doom 3 BFG Edition" supporting the use of virtual reality in conjunction with the headset.

The folks behind the Unity engine, according to Kotaku, have also pledged support for the Oculus Rift, as well as EPIC, the people behind the ever-popular Unreal graphics engine. The headset promises "negligible latency, 3D and a panoramic field of view." Such a tool for game development could set off a huge trend going into the next generation. With Unity and EPIC already having broken ground on their new graphics engines, the Oculus Rift, with their support, may already be developing high-resolution and powerful graphics.

Here's what notable video game developers are saying about the Oculus Rift (courtesy of KickStarter):

"What I've got now, is, I honestly think the best VR demo probably the world has ever seen"

- John Carmack, id Software

"Needless to say, I'm a believer... We're extremely excited here at Epic Games to get the Unreal Engine integrated with Oculus"

- CliffyB, Design Director EPIC Games

"I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to program with it and see what we can do."

- Michael Abrash, Valve