Oculus just did the unthinkable. Revealing much sooner than anybody expected a true successor to the Rift. Not another standalone product like Oculus Go or Santa Cruz, but what can only be the Rift CV2 judging by the variety of next gen features listed.
Do you begin to realize how fucking pumped I am for this? By basically every single metric the Rift CV2 is going to be an enormous leap over the CV1. VR is advancing much faster than I thought it would, and I'm something of an optimist where VR is concerned.
Let's take a closer look at the image onscreen. It showcases the motorized display assembly used with the varifocal lenses. This, combined with eye tracking, means you can now properly focus your eyes on stuff that is close up or far away in VR:
Here's what that looks like in practice. It's not totally sharp of course. The displays will be nearly three times as pixel dense as the CV1 displays but we're a ways off still from perfect sharpness. Still, it can now be as sharp as possible at whatever focal distance your pupils indicate to the eye tracking cameras.
Now below, let's have a look at how the lenses compare. On the left, the current CV1 lenses with a FOV of 110°. On the right, the CV2 lenses with a FOV of 140°. Miraculously, this increase has been achieved without increasing the size or weight of the headset!
Then below, you'll see what this will translate to in terms of how much larger and more immersive it will appear to your eyes. Not too shabby! We were told not to expect incremental improvements between models but big jumps, and it would seem Oculus has delivered on that promise.
When will the CV2 drop? That info was not revealed. Some say Winter 2019. I personally doubt that, but I also didn't expect the CV2 prototype reveal so soon. CV1 was released roughly 2 years after the reveal of it's prototype, so following that timetable we should expect the CV2 by 2020, certainly no later than 2021.
Stay Cozy!