Oculus Connect 4 is just a few months away; the developer conference returns to the San Jose convention center on October 11th – 12th. We’re expecting to see what’s new with the company during a busy keynote speech but, until then, an initial list of sessions and workshops has been revealed for the two-day event.
There’s not much here that points us towards what Oculus might reveal at the show, but there are definitely more than a few sessions you shouldn’t miss. With the rise of games like Echo Arena and Sparc, for example, the ‘VR Esports: The Future of Competitive Gaming’ talk from Partnerships and Head of Esports, Christopher McKelvy, is sure to be one to take note of. This session will take a look at how the genre will grow in the coming years.
Personally? We’re more excited about a Post Mortem for what’s easily one of the best games on Rift so far, Lone Echo. Members of developer Ready at Dawn will gather to discuss working on the game, which makes some startling revelations in both locomotion and interactivity. They’re sure to have plenty of interesting stories to tell.
Interestingly, there’s also a session named ‘What’s New in the PC SDK’, with an unannounced speaker. It notes that “The Rift SDK has just introduced a number of new powerful features for advanced VR rendering and composition.” We’re not sure if those features will be added in the next few months of if this means pre-existing features, but this will be one to head to do sure.
Oh and there is, of course, John Carmack’s app critique section, which has become something of a staple for Connect. Brave developers can bring their apps on stage to showcase to the legendary game maker, and he’ll point out all the pros and cons he can spot over a few minutes. This one’s going to be streamed and usually takes place pretty early in the conference, so make sure not to miss it.
