If the Oculus Rift is compatible with Java, Notch intends to support it for games both new and old.
You may not have heard of the Oculus Rift just yet, but there is an increasing number of developers who want that to change. The Rift is a virtual reality gaming headset that will allow players to directly control in-game avatars simply by turning their heads in the real world. While gamers have seen virtual reality headsets come and go, the Rift’s prototype quickly garnered a huge amount of support from the development community, including id’s John Carmack, Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski, and even Valve’s Gabe Newell himself. Now Minecraft creator Notch is showing his love for the device by promising fans that if it works as advertised, then his upcoming game 0x10c will have full Oculus Rift support. There’s even a chance that Mojang’s flagship title Minecraft will get retroactive support for the headset as well.
“Very excited about the Oculus Rift!” Notch exlaimed via Twitter. “If we get it to work with Java, 0x10c will support it.” Shortly afterwards, Notch followed up with “I can’t promise Minecraft until [Jens Bergensten] has tried it … If I like it, I will certainly ‘suggest’ it.”
To reiterate how big a deal this headset is to developers, one has to look no farther than the Oculus Rift Kickstarter Page. The project was launched on August 1st for the headset’s dev kit, a prototype version primarily of use to developers seeking to build virtual reality games. The project’s $250,000 goal was reached within a day, and as of writing, the project is sitting at $1.3 million. For an unreleased dev kit.
The Oculus Rift could be a pipe dream, but it’s a pipe dream that developers are throwing their money at and, in Notch’s case, already planning to implement in their games. Of course, the Rift’s ultimate success will depend on the commercial prospects of the headset itself, not the personal interest of developers. Since the team’s Kickstarter project was a resounding success, we’ll hopefully have a chance to judge the technology for ourselves soon enough.
