Oculus VR announced the open-sourcing of its head-mounted display DK1 at the Oculus Connect virtual reality developer conference in Hollywood. Anyone would be able to download Oculus VR's full list of workings on the device and use all the information in ways that they see fit.
The Oculus Rift is a low-cost HQ virtual reality headset that is designed by the company to penetrate the VR mainstream. The product is aimed to change the way users relate to the games they play by making them completely immersed in the device's game world.
It should be noted that the fully open-source Oculus Rift DK1 does not include those pieces that are no longer in production. One of these would include the display.
"We don't want everyone to have the same risks we took. We just want to share the things we learned so you don't have to do that. We're all in this to build virtual reality together," said Nirav Patel of Oculus Rift. "We found just about the roughest and quickest contract manufacturer we could find in China. We were a ragtag group of 10 people nobody had ever heard of trying to create a product nobody thought was possible."
Oculus decided it is time to bring the DK1 to the community now that the DK2 is out. The company hopes that the community will work together to come up with easy 3D printable files and more. Several of such files needed high-end equipment, which most people don't have access to.
There is now an available list of firmware, schematics and mechanical documents that are used in creating the DK1. Developers and enthusiasts can also find detailed instructions on downloading the included firmware. The firmware indicates that the USB Product ID was set at 0x0001. Modifying it -- changing the USB interface -- would require the user to change the Product ID to 0x0000. The Schematics folder has the PDF of the schematic coupled with the Altium Designer files. Lastly, the Mechanical folder has the STEP files of the Rift DK1 housing, case and control box.
"We're more interested in seeing what people do with the individual components," said Patel.
The Oculus Rift DK1 hardware is released under the creative commons 4 license while the software is released under a custom license. This means that companies are free to use the assets as long as they give Oculus due credit.
