Wired UK carries an article announcing the launch of a new service from the creators of Oculus Rift.
Oculus Share, launched in a beta mode on August 20th 2013, is described as “a platform to enable users to discover games and experiences which use the technology” and is initially aimed at those with the Oculus Rift development kit. However, plans will see the service transition into a fully fledged marketplace for for heaset-ready games, applications and experiences; a move which will likely coincide with the official launch of Oculus Rift as a consumer product some time in 2014.
A blog post issued by Oculus Rift provides a description of the intended use of the service in this first iteration:
Oculus Share (or simply, Share) is the first of many steps we’re taking to build the best virtual reality platform. With Share, you can host Oculus-ready games and experiences that you’ve created, browse and download content from other developers, rate experiences on quality and VR comfort level, provide feedback to devs on what you enjoyed (and what you didn’t), and tip fellow developers for their work in cash, should you feel so inclined.
Experimentation, iteration, and actual playtesting are at the heart of pushing virtual reality forward. One of the main goals in building Share was to help developers on all these fronts by creating a centralized community portal for Oculus content. And while it’s simply a sharing service today, over the coming months we’ll work toward making Share an incredible marketplace for Oculus-ready games, experiences, and applications.
The service offers six categories under which items can be uploaded / shared: Full Game, Demo, Experience, Alpha, Beta and Mod, with a further sub-class of genre for items: Action / Adventure, Casual, Exploration, Puzzle, Simulation, Sports, and Strategy. As might be expected with the initial launch, content is currently light, but will doubtless grow as word spreads. For now the Demo category is the most heavily populated section, featuring a number of Oculus Rift’s own commissioned demonstrations, such as the Tuscany World from Fenix Fire.
Applications, mods and games are each featured on a page of their own, some with screen caps, others with a video (or both), together with a description, system requirements and set-up instructions – think Steam or Desura for the Rift, and you get the idea.
Within the current set of uploads there are intriguing hints at how additional technologies might be used with the headset. In the Trial of the Rift Drifter, for example, head gestures can be used for communications, while in another demo, the potential for eye movement to be used for in-game object control is outlined.
The content categories are currently focused on games, which is not surprising, given that is perhaps where the most interest with the technology lies. However, it would be nice to see a couple of non-game categories added to the service to cater for the likes of virtual environments (such as SL, OpenSim and others looking into the technology) and for real-world applications (medical, engineering, research, training, etc., simulations – although it might be argued that the Simulation genre is the catch-all for these; not ideal, but it is there).
Oculus Rift are currently vetting all submissions to Share in order to prevent the upload of offensive or malicious content. As a result, they do warn that items submitted to the service might take a while to appear, and ask for patience from those making submissions. As a beta service, Share is also liable to some teething problems as well – Wired UK reports it was down for maintenance just a few hours after launch – so again, patience may well be the order for the day for those wanting to make use of Share, as things are bedded-in and improved.
The potential for the platform is clear. By launching a service of their own, rather than relying on portals such as Desura and Steam, etc., Oculus Rift are presenting a “one stop shop” through which Rift developers and users can both promote and discover products specific to the headset without either necessarily having to use or peruse multiple web stores. As such, it will be interesting to see how Share grows in the months leading up to the commercial launch of the headset – and beyond.
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