The Oculus Rift is slated to be released in next year's first quarter, but it seems that the system requirements and specifications of the virtual reality headset are not yet finalized.
A Reddit user by the name of kontis spotted that the Oculus Rift, which originally needed two USB 3.0 ports, is now said to need a total of four USB ports, with three being USB 3.0 ports and the last one being a USB 2.0 port.
Kontis posted his discovery on the Oculus subreddit, and no other than Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey made a reply to the thread.
"This assumes using Touch and an Xbox One gamepad at the same time," Luckey said in his reply to the opening post, in reference to the fact that an Xbox One controller will be included in every purchase of the Oculus Rift. The Oculus CEO added that users could reduce the number of ports needed through hubs, but the overall Oculus Rift experience will vary depending on the hubs and computer used.
"We want to be totally honest with the maximum-use scenario so people can prepare and not have to swap ports around depending on the game they play," Luckey ended his reply.
The discussion on what the extra USB ports are for is ongoing. The two USB 3.0 ports that the current Oculus Rift DK2 version needs is used by the headset and camera, and from how the consumer version of the virtual reality headset looks, the two extra USB ports could be used by another camera and either for the Xbox One controller, audio, or Oculus Touch.
With the four USB ports needed by the Oculus Rift, and with most users having a USB keyboard and mouse, that bumps up the required number of USB ports in computers to fully utilize the Oculus Rift to a minimum of six, which might require upgrades to motherboards for a good number of users.
Another change to the Oculus Rift's system requirements is that a 64-bit system on Windows 7 or higher is now needed, which is understandable as virtual reality gaming on a 32-bit system would not be optimal.
