Meet the Oculus Rift, the virtual-reality headset that has the gaming world going gaga

If you thought Ouya was cool, wait ’til you get a load of the Oculus Rift, a virtual-reality headset that Gamespy called “the closest we’ve come to Star Trek’s holodeck.”

Launched on Kickstarter Wednesday, Oculus has already exceeded its $250,000 funding goal, and it’s not hard to see why. At $300 for each developer kit, Rift is a bargain compared to the competition, and unlike traditional VR headsets, whose sluggish reflexes and pathetic fields of view are anything but immersive, Rift mimics users’ movements in real time and its dual displays offer them peripheral vision. And did I mention it’s tailor-made for 3D games?

“Most consumer-mounted displays have a diagonal field of view of about 30 to 40 degrees – you see a really small image way off in the distance and it doesn’t make you feel like you are there,” said Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus. “With the Oculus Rift you get a diagonal field of view of 110 degrees. That means you’re not looking at a screen anymore – you actually feel like you are inside of the world.”

Though it’s still in its infancy – Oculus hopes to start shipping developer kits in December – Rift already has the support of some of the gaming industry’s biggest names, including Doom creator John Carmack and Gabe Newell, chief executive of Valve.

Still not convinced? Watch the video above. We’ll bet you can’t help but drool.