Earlier this year at the Oculus Connect event, it was announced that Oculus would be bringing in a large overhaul to the Oculus Rift experience with Rift Core 2.0. Those plans now come to fruition as Rift Core 2.0 is launched on the one-year anniversary of the launch of Oculus Touch.

The new update is the biggest overhaul of the Oculus Rift experience so far, utilising the capabilities of the Oculus Touch controllers and modern PC virtual reality (VR) rigs to introduce native virtual computing, a new customisable home space and a redesigned user interface created to work perfectly within a VR environment.

The new and overhauled features in Rift Core 2.0 are:

Dash – A new system interface that lets users access the PC desktop and content library and communicate with friends both in and out of VR

Oculus Desktop – A virtual display that lets users select a portion to ‘tear off’ and carry with them elsewhere through the VR experience.

Multi-Tasking – Users can be sculpting in Medium and bring up Google Image art references, or developers can play an app and work in the Unity editor. Or gamers can watch a YouTube walkthrough and still play the videogame within VR.

New Oculus Home – The Oculus Home space is now fully customisable, allowing users to show off achievements to friends and display their own taste and style

Redesigned Oculus App – The new app makes it easier for users to play videogames, discover new titles and communicate with friends.

The Beta for Rift Core 2.0 is available for users to try now by opting into the Public Test Channel. The development team are seeking feedback from the Oculus Rift user community and have set up UserVoice, to allow users to provide feedback and vote on what new features and changes they wish the developers to focus on.

VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest news on Oculus Rift.