A win-win situation. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Looking forward to your impressions.
If this is combined with Kinect (so if you move your hands, they move in the game) it will be incredible.
After a fun, yet at times frustrating, evening I can give my first impressions of the Oculus Rift.
Probably the best thing about it is it really is a plug 'n' play device so you can be up and running in no time.
My first stop was a vrcinema3D app/demo. It puts you in a virtual cinema..and that's it. It really does put you in a virtual cinema, it was an incredible feeling. Because your entire FOV is taken up in the experience, you are there. The sense of scale on the cinema screen was no different to me being at our local VUE. It's one of those things that's hard to explain without seeing it. You read about various headsets give you an impression of a 90" screen at 10ft or whatever but this doesn't do that. I was looking at a 50ft screen. Naturally the resolution isn't favourable but I'm not interested in that, I knew the res was low and that screen door effect is there but it's easy to forget that once you're in.
Being a movie fan with a dedicated room and projector setup, I already know I will happily watch a movie like this in my room (obviously preferably on the consumer unit with better res) but it was that impressionable.
Next up was the rollercoaster demo that's been doing the rounds for ages..and it's great. I didn't seem to react like some of the youtube vids show but the first time I did the long drop I felt an uneasy sense of being there data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 The demo is short and just loops so it's not something you'd do more than a couple of times.
My main interest was racers so I spent the rest of the evening trying to get Dirt 3 up and running. It wasn't an easy job. Using the virieo drivers and a razr hydra I planned to get up and running with 6dof head and positional tracking. I had limited success but know where to start when I get back on it tonight.
Issues - trying to work out the best solution for using Oculus in my rig was hard enough. I ended up having to unplug all but one of the screens and then plug in the Rift as windows and CCC didn't like me trying to duplicate onto the Rift. That was frustrating and took at least an hour to sort.
Next up was getting the virieo drivers to run...that was more of a pain, I couldn't find instructions on how to do it, just various settings from people. Lots of trial and error and a good 2 hours just to get it to running.
Next was headtracking using Rift and hydra...that took 2 minutes..and was amazing data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7Once I got in a car I felt like I was sitting in a car. I turned my head and saw my co-driver it was really cool. I used the Dirt2 FOV changer and set to a FOV of 88 I felt great. I really felt like I was looking at my steering wheel and arms, it was very surreal yet felt so natural after just a few seconds.
BUT - the driving was awful. The controller input seemed to lag so it was pretty much unplayable for me, but again I think I know where I need to make changes tonight. Also I couldn't get the in game res to change to 1280x800 (which you need for Rift) so my screen was too big and didn't help at all.
I gave up at around 3am...but raring to go again tonight data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
First impressions...it's amazing BUT...if you do get a dev kit you simply must be prepared for the low res and even moreso for the amount of tweaking and frustrations if you want to get current games working with drivers.
There's lots of demos which are really more experiences than playable demos so they will be fairly short lived.
I'm excited about the VorpX drivers now as that should be more of a plug n play solution and also any official support from our fav racer developers data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
From 6pm to 3am, in and out of various bits and not once did I get any ill feelings. I was pleased about that.
Got mine today too. Didn't spend much time with fiddly demos like Steve, mainly tried the more ready to go ones - blue marble, Tuscany, roller coaster, museum of the micro star, space walk. I did also try minecraft which took some patching but nothing too complicated.
Overall I like it a lot. Resolution is obviously low, but the tracking is amazing and combined with the FoV really helps with a sense of being there. My biggest issue is probably that only the centre of my view is clear. If I try and look around the view (especially up) its noticably blurrier.
Next I'll try HL2 and doom 3, and then war thunder, but all three need quite a bit of setup. Then maybe a driving game (dirt 2 or 3 seem good candidates) align with my wheel. But I realise there will e a lot of trial and error so I'll do one at a time
How do you get one of these? data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Free with a happy meal data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Originally on kick starter but I believe you can still get dev kits directly through their website.
There is an awesome article in Edge this month on the Oculus Rift well worth the read, especially when it goes into detail regarding the problem with getting the games to work with in with the likes of how most games have that little bit of bounce when you walk but having that in VR just makes people feel ill.
I thought about picking up a development one, but decided to wait until the final release, as a) I'd much rather have HD and b) I just don't have time for trying to get it working with games, I just need it to work, if I did have time I'd order one now!
According to the website it's an August release, which doesn't sound so far away?
August is the expected shipping date for the current devkit, if you order now.
no information on any consumer version - most estimates expect end of next year for that.
Definitely worth the $300 for 18 months of entertainment while waiting for the consumer version. And even the manual patching of games will probably get better, either through the developers releasing official support, or patches being more plug and play.
I gave up on trying to get things like Dirt 2/3 running properly as it's pretty hit and miss with the current virieo options. Hopefully VorpX will be an easier solution. So I spent most of the evening getting and messing around with the other demos and apps around and had a much better time.
Some of the early stuff ding the rounds are great and show the possibilities of a headset.
I still think vrCinema3D is the most impressive for me, just because it's something I enjoy anyway and it's done in such a great way.
I had a blast on Proton Pulse, which was pretty cool, sort of virtual Breakout where you control the bat with your headtracking.
Cartoon World demo was interesting, it's like wandering around a cartoon world and the first thing I thought of was a racing games like Motor Toon GP or Pen Pen data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7It also made me realise that perhaps I'd be more interested in completely unrealistic and fantastical game worlds rather than the 'real' stuff. It was a nice surprise data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
After reading the current reviews I bought HL2 from Steam and will give that a bash over the weekend sometime..it's been years since I played it and even though it's not my choice of game, it'll be the first AAA title I've tried withdeveloper 'injected' VR...
Tonight I'm going to plug my screens back in and leave my racing to triple screens for now data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Now I have to work out a proper way to play the VR stuff. I don't want to use my racing PC cos it's in a different room and I don't really want to be sitting in my race seat playing HL2 and I don't want to keep unplugging the screens.
I have an i7 Vaio laptop which is fine but probably not good enough for the more demanding games and I have my games table project which I haven't turned on for months which is pretty chunky I think...but then I think I want a VR station where I can set it up permanently...maybe time for a new project data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7