Oculus Unveils New Crescent Bay Rift Model With Integrated Audio, 360 Tracking

Oculus VR has unveiled a new model of its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, Crescent Bay, which includes integrated audio and 360 motion tracking.

The company revealed the new device at its Oculus Connect developer conference in Los Angeles today. As you can see in the image above, the new model comes with built-in headphones, though Oculus Chief Executive Officer Brendan Iribe said that you'll still be able to use your own headphones if you want.

"Crescent Bay has the presence we need for consumer VR," Iribe said. "It's not the consumer product, but its much closer to the the final thing." He added that the leap between Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 and Crescent Bay is as significant as the leap between Oculus Rift Developer Kit 1 and 2.

The Crescent Bay model is much lighter, features improved ergonomics, and has the same LED lights we first saw in the Crystal Cove model built into the back to allow for improved, 360 movement tracking.

Oculus is also developing its own audio tracking software, which it says is hugely important to establish presence in virtual reality. Iribe said that Oculus is currently working on audio for the Rift just as aggressively as it's working on the vision aspects of the device.

"As part of our audio initiative, we’ve licensed RealSpace3D’s audio technology, a software stack developed over 10 years based on technology from the University of Maryland," Oculus said in a post to its website. "RealSpace3D’s tech enables high-fidelity VR audio with a combination of HRTF spatialization and integrated reverberation algorithms.

GameSpot is at Oculus Connect, and will bring you hands on impression of the new Crescent Bay later today.