On August 1st of 2012, a new campaign started on the website, Kickstarter, by self-taught engineer Palmer Luckey. The campaign was centered around a virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift. The invention immediately sparked an international interest, as the technology used for the headset was like no other.

It had a high resolution screen, a ultra low latency, was light-weight, and the process of developing games suitable for the device was simple. As a result, the campaign gained over two million dollars. Much bigger than the anticipated two hundred and fifty thousand dollar goal.

The excessively large amount of money led Palmer to expand his company. The team was so big that the first development kits came out as early as March of 2013 (Just 8 months after the kickstarter launch).

The development kits of the Oculus were used to build software for the upcoming product version. Many game engines (software that runs a video game) like Unity, CryEngine, and Unreal utilize the development kits.

A year later, Oculus was soon bought by Facebook for two billion dollars. This turned away many developers, as they thought that Facebook would step away with the ideas of games for the headset, for more software based on social networking.

Much to their surprise, games remained as the main focus for the Oculus. However, there exists apps for the Oculus Rift that does not involve gaming. One of them is a Netflix app, where you can watch Netflix in a virtual living room. It’s the perfect way to chill.

But at last on November 27th 2015, the first consumer version of the Oculus was released. It was called the Gear VR, and does require the use of a computer. Instead, the VR headset uses a Samsung Galaxy phone, as the phone itself has an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and enough power to experience virtual reality. To control the headset, there is a built-in touchpad, so that you can utilize the software without the need of a controller or other device.

As for the computer version of the Oculus Rift, it has yet to be released. Oculus states that they  will come out with their Rift in March of 2016, with the price of $599. They also stated that the Rift will be bundled with an XBOX One Controller, to enhance the gaming experience.

There is also another controller that can be used, made by Oculus itself, known as the Oculus Touch. Instead of holding one big controller with two hands, the Oculus Touch is split into two small controllers, that each is held with one of each hand.  It even comes with a sensor to track your head movements when you’re using the headset.

The computer of the Oculus Rift so far only supports Windows, but plans to run the Rift on Mac OSX and Linux. However, not many details has been giving when support for these two operating systems will be available.

Even though the Oculus Rift has been gaining a lot of hype, there are still many other companies that are trying to invest in Oculus’s popularity. One of these companies is Google. In 2014, they created Google Cardboard, which is a virtual reality headset that is literally made out of cardboard.

You put your phone into the cardboard, and you look through it with the glass built into the cardboard. Even though it is extremely cheap, there are not many apps available for it just yet, even for IPhone users.

Sony is also trying to cash in, with it’s new Playstation VR, which is coming out in 2016. It’s a virtual reality headset for both the Playstation 4 and the handheld gaming system Playstation Vita. So far, over 100 games are being developed for the accessory, and the headset runs games at 120 frames per second, instead of the usual sixty.

This will make the games run smoother, and faster. The price has not yet been determined, but it is rumored to be around the same as a regular video game console.

Another video game company known as Valve has also teamed up with HTC to create a game-based VR headset called the HTC Vive. It has the same screen resolution as the Oculus, which is 2160×1200, and has a controller of it’s own as well. It will be soon be available in April, just after the release of the Oculus, and will work with games that are on the video game service, Steam.

But ultimately, the computer version of the Oculus Rift seems to be the best virtual reality headset to look after for so far. Besides, over 175,000 development kits were sold for the Oculus Rift, and has already created new innovations. For instance, developers modded some games like Minecraft and Microsoft Flight Simulator X to work with the Oculus Rift.

And even if other people are making games for the headset, Oculus is even making its own games for the device such as EVE: Valkyrie, and Lucky’s Tale. Yet, there is still some time left before Rift hits the market. However, the Oculus Rift will break through not only revolutionarily, but reality.