Sign of things to come? Oculus Rift owners are now recommended to upgrade their PCs to Windows 10 in order to enjoy the full experience of the popular virtual reality headset.
Not doing so will mean that they may miss out on certain features of Rift Core 2.0 and subsequent versions of the platform.
This is what the company announced while lifting the minimum and recommended specifications to Microsoft’s latest operating system.
“As of today, we’re updating our minimum and recommended spec OS to Windows 10 to power the full Rift experience. Windows 7 and 8.1 users are still supported for the Rift features they know and love today, but they may not be able to use many new and upcoming features and apps. We encourage everyone who isn’t already running Windows 10 to upgrade now to avoid missing out on what’s next.”
In other words, Windows 10 is integral for supporting some of the resource heavy features in the Rift Core 2.0 update that is currently in beta. Owners of the VR headset that plan on sticking with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will still be able to download this version in its polished form later this year.
But Oculus makes it clear that there will be some limitations — Oculus Desktop and the ability to run Dash are two features that will only be available in the newest version of the OS.
Fair warning.
Of course, the technologies Windows 10 offers are one reason, another is the fact that Microsoft is keen on deprecating mainstream support for these older versions of Windows as quickly as possible. The idea is to move as much of the userbase as possible to Windows 10.
Luckily, Oculus has little to worry here, as according to the headset maker, 95% of the active Rift owners are already running the new operating system.
That’s a majority, if there ever was any!
