id's Carmack unveils $500 VR headset prototype

id Software co-founder and lead programmer John Carmack showed off a prototype virtual reality headset at E3, and said development kits will release for it soon priced at $500 each. The industry veteran gave PC Gamer a demonstration of the device, which acts as goggles that block out all light and show the on-screen action via small screens in the headset. As part of a Doom 3 demo, players could use a controller to walk around and shoot enemies, and then look around the environment via a head-tracker. The head-mounted display, dubbed "Rift," was built by tech enthusiast Palmer Luckey, who plans to launch a Kickstart project to produce and distribute the open-source kit for other developers to tinker with soon. The headset follows work from Valve's Michael Abrash, who is currently researching "wearable computing" prototypes. Abrash said that the virtual reality gear will be "the most valuable thing I could do at Valve," with computer-generated graphics that are seamlessly overlaid in your view.