Oculus developer page leaks a new VR headset codenamed ‘Del Mar’
A leak on Oculus’ website suggests it’s making a new virtual reality headset codenamed “Del Mar.” Recently, some Oculus developers noticed a new infobox for “Oculus Del Mar Development.” It references a developer program called “Del Mar First Access” that may already exist or be nearing launch. And some now-removed documentation refers to a “Jedi Controller” designed for Del Mar.
The information has since been removed, but we retrieved it from a Google cache of developer portal pages. Facebook declined to comment on their contents.
“The information contained on this page is restricted to early Del Mar developers only. Do not share this information. Any questions should be directed to the Del Mar First Access forum or your Oculus partner,” reads the box. (The page included general documentation, so we’re not sure what information this refers to.) And as seen above, a mobile API documentation page contains a line for the “Oculus Jedi Controller for Oculus Del Mar.” UploadVR also published screenshots of the cached pages.
Oculus has codenamed several headset prototypes after California beach cities, including “Crescent Bay” — later called the Oculus Rift — and “Santa Cruz,” a predecessor to the Oculus Quest. And as VRFocus notes, “Jedi” could imply some kind of Force-style hands-free controls. That might involve traditional hand tracking (something the Quest added experimentally last month) or a neural armband like the one from CTRL-Labs, which Facebook acquired last year.
This doesn’t mean we’ll see a new headset soon, of course. Under normal circumstances, we might hope to see Del Mar at the fall Oculus Connect conference. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has shut down most major tech events this year, it’s hurt electronics manufacturing in general, and we don’t know when it will end.
Still, it could signal a leap for the Facebook-owned company. Oculus completed its first-generation lineup with the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S in 2019. It’s said that a next-generation product would need to involve significant upgrades. And the Del Mar leak might indicate that Oculus has something big and new to offer.
A leak on Oculus’ website suggests it’s making a new virtual reality headset codenamed “Del Mar.” Recently, some Oculus developers noticed a new infobox for “Oculus Del Mar Development.” It references a developer program called “Del Mar First Access” that may already exist or be nearing launch. And some now-removed…
