Oculus announced during its Oculus Connect 4 event today that Rift Core 2.0, the new built-in software user-interface programs for the company’s virtual reality hardware, will go into beta in December as a free update.
Rift Core 2.0 includes a revamped Home and Dash. Home is now a customizable 3D space that you can decorate (which is giving me flashbacks to the ill-fated PlayStation Home). It makes your Home experience more, well, homey. You can even launch apps by inserting cartridges into a retro-style game console.
“Because Home is persistent, you can share yours with friends and visit theirs to see what they’ve created,” Oculus details in a blog post. “In the future, we’ll open up new possibilities for community and co-presence, letting you hang out, play, and explore with others.”
Dash is the new interface that you can access while in apps. It includes a task bar, friends list, and notifications. Oculus designed it to work with its Touch controllers.
“We’ve built true virtual displays at the hardware level, so you can run multiple apps and windows, all with full graphic fidelity and performance,” Oculus adds in its blog post. “You can peel off individual windows, place them anywhere, and easily resize and move them for an infinite workspace. Developers can even debug their VR apps while inside them, using Visual Studio, Unity, and Unreal.”