Oculus Rift hires Valve VR specialist for 'top secret' R&D

Valve's former Team Fortress 2 VR specialist has been snapped up by the company behind the VR headset Oculus Rift.

Tom Forsyth worked on Team Fortress 2's VR support with Joe Ludwig and Michael Abrash. At Oculus VR he'll be working on the Oculus Rift SDK, alongside a few "top secret" R&D projects.

"The Rift is a great bit of kit and combines a bunch of different technology together in a very clever package," said Forsythe.

"It was amazing working with it on Team Fortress 2 and seeing the extra immersion people felt inside a game they already knew so well. I'm really looking forward to helping other developers work with this tech as we go towards a consumer version."

Oculus VR has also announced the hire of robotics expert Steve LaValle, who previously worked as a researcher at the University of Illinois. "Steve's leading research and development on some of the toughest VR challenges including sensor fusion, magnetic drift correction, and kinematic modeling," said Oculus VR.

Development kits for the Oculus Rift are still being sent out to backers of the project's barnstorming Kickstarter campaign, though huge demand for the device has caused strain for the fledgling company. "All Rift development kits from Kickstarter are marked as 'Processing' or 'Shipped' in our system," says Oculus VR.

A consumer version of the VR headset is in the works.