Oculus SDK 0.4.0 Beta Released, Includes Display Option that Reduces Latency

After delaying its firs batch of Oculus Rift DK2 in order to fix some last-minute bugs, the Oculus VR team has now released the new Oculus SDK 0.4.0 beta, bundled with positional tracking support, Runtime package and other significant features.

Oculus VR is said to have released a few preview SDK builds for their new VR headset up until now. However, the improvements added to the preview builds did not include support for the Rift DK2 tracking feature. The new Oculus SDK 0.4.0 is the first build to support a ‘beta’ tag for the feature, giving developers the ability to start playing around and updating their games and software for all features offered by the DK2.

The Oculus SDK 0.4.0 patch highlights are as following:

• Added DK2 Positional Tracking support.
• Introduced Oculus Runtime that is installed separately from the SDK. Runtime package includes the Oculus Config Utility, service and drivers.
• Introduced Oculus Display Driver under Windows that routes rendering output directly to the headset, with an option of mirroring it in a window.
• Added Health and Safety Warning screen that should be displayed on application start-up.

For developers who want to read more about what the new version bring, the full patch notes can be found over at the Oculus Rift Developer Center. It is said that the new SDK is only available for Windows-based systems, having Unity as the only game engine integrated with the new build. Epic Games is not far behind, having the company currently building Oculus integration directly into their Unreal Engine 4.

Macintosh and Linux users are said to still be waiting on the ‘coming soon’ bench, as the sections listed in the Developer Guide state. In addition, Oculus seems to have updated their Best Practice Guide, Oculus User Guide and Health and Safety Warning with a new section on positional tracking. Also, Andres Hernandez, Oculus VR’s Community Manager, states that the new SDK includes a new display option which reportedly reduces latency.

Thank you Road to VR for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of Road to VR