The Oculus Rift S has arrived, and while it's a perfectly competent VR headset on its own, there are some accessories that can boost your experience both inside and out of a VR world. We've rounded up a bunch of the best right here to help get you started.
Keep Touch controllers on
The Touch controllers included with the Rift S each require a AA battery to operate and, speaking from experience, you're going to want to invest early in some rechargeable batteries to save money in the long run. This pack includes a wall charger that can handle four AAs at once, so you shouldn't have any downtime while waiting for a charge.
Prescription inserts
Wearing prescription frames inside the Rift S is possible, but you can take things a step further with custom prescription lens inserts that fit right into your headset. Set your prescription, choose if you'd like some blue light filtering, pop them in when they arrive, and forget about the hassle of glasses while in VR.
Display your Rift S
This VR stand from AFAITH accommodates your Rift S headset and the new Touch controllers, offering up an elegant solution for temporary storage. The headset sits at the top, and the controllers hang from the sides. It's sturdy, it's adjustable, and it's made of black plastic to match your Rift S.
Padded floor for your space
The Rift S allows for a full room-scale VR experience, and you can make things a bit more comfortable for your feet — especially if you're playing in a room that's tiled or has hardwood floors — with some foam interlocking tiles. It's also a great secondary warning (aside from Guardian) that lets you know where your playspace stops. The kit comes with six tiles that together can handle 24 square feet.
Hold onto your Touch controllers
Mamut's Touch controller grips provide a firm hold on plastic that otherwise becomes quite slippery once you start sweating. Two straps are included, and they are designed to work with the redesigned Touch hardware coming with the Rift S.
Suspend your Rift S cables
The Rift S still requires a cable tether back to a powerful PC, and you might want to get that tether up off the ground and out of the way of your feet. HyperKin's FreeStep system makes this possible with six retractable carabiners that stick to a ceiling and provide the right amount of slack to keep the Rift S cable at a perfect length.
Take control of your spacecraft
With an affordable price, comfortable grip on throttle and stick, weighted base, and detachable build, the Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X is a great option for anyone who wants advanced control over their craft. It has 12 programmable buttons and five programmable axles so you can set things up how you want, and it connects to your PC with USB-A.
Protect your Rift S
Transporting your Rift S to a friend's house can be a bit scary. It's an expensive piece of hardware, and you want to keep it safe. This hardshell plastic case fits your headset and Touch controllers thanks to a customizable foam interior, and double clamps on either side of the handle keep it closed tight.
Extend headset USB
If you're extending the DisplayPort cable on your Rift S head-mounted display, you'll no doubt also want to extend the USB cable to match. This option from Cable Matters should have no issues working with the Rift S, and it's long enough to fit most setups.
Extend headset DisplayPort
The Rift S has made the switch over to DisplayPort 1.2 for a video connection, so you'll need an extension cable to match. This one from Rankie has been seen working with the Rift S, and it's the same length as our recommended USB-A extension so that there's no extra slack lying around.
If we're making some suggestions
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All of the above accessories can complement your Rift S, but you might be wondering where to turn first. Since you'll no doubt be spending a lot of time in VR, the sooner you invest in some rechargeable batteries for the Touch controllers, the sooner you'll stop having to deal with dead controllers. The Energizer batteries we recommend come with four AAs so you can charge two while using the other, and the setup is quite affordable at only about $17.
We also can't help but recommend checking out WIDMOvr custom prescription lenses for your Rift S. A lot of prescription frames will fit, but the level of comfort you can achieve by having lenses built right into the headset is unmatched. No more risk of scratching, no more skewed sight, and no more risk of breaking your expensive frames when removing or putting on the headset.
If you'd like to check out a bunch more accessories that are on the cheaper side — none cost more than $20 — we've also rounded up a bunch of quality options in a separate collection.
