Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition Revealed

It’s no secret that Oculus and Samsung are best friends these days, now after 12 months of work the company has revealed their Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition, a new mobile virtual reality headset that uses the Galaxy Note 4.

While the Oculus Rift is still pegged as the full fat next-gen VR experience, there have been big advances in the mobile market and the Galaxy Note 4 packs some serious punch thanks to its speedy GPU/CPU combo, matched with a Quad HD low-persistence 5.7″ 1440p AMOLED display, which is perfect for getting your face up close and personal. This may not be the same as having an ultra-high-end gaming PC jacked into an Oculus, but it does benefit from not needing any extra cables, making the Samsung Gear VR a completely untethered and independent unit. Just hook up the Note 4 to the headset, strap it to your face and you’re good to go!

The Innovator Edition is an early access beta edition of the actual device, this is intended for developers and enthusiasts rather than consumers, but it’s yet another step in the right direction for Oculus as they look to keep their lead on the VR market.

“John Carmack and the mobile team here at Oculus have spent the last year spearheading this effort. That time was split between developing a new Oculus Mobile SDK and optimizing Android and the underlying GPU drivers for virtual reality. Several of the key improvements include:”

• Allowing custom calibrated sensors to talk to a dedicated kernel driver
• Enabling real time scheduled multithreaded application processes at guaranteed clock rates
• Context prioritized GPU rendering, enabling asynchronous time warp
• Facilitating completely unbuffered display surfaces for minimal latency
• Supporting low-persistence display mode for improved comfort, visual stability, and reduced motion blur / judder

The new setup runs from the Oculus Mobile SDK and will launch with a few cool features such as Oculus: Oculus Home, Oculus Cinema, Oculus 360 Videos and Oculus 360 Photos.

Thank you Oculus for providing us with this information.

Images courtesy of Oculus.