Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift First Thoughts

So the development kit came in yesterday and I was able to look at some samples and test out the equipment. It's a prototype so I'm not expecting everything to work without some issues.
After spending some time reinstalling drivers, rebooting, trying every different video port I finally found the trick on my system to get it working.

So the thing requires two usb ports and a video ports, has two wires coming out of the camera as well as two wires from the head piece, so there is a bit of cabling here. The head set is fairly light, even though it looks like a brick.

The house demo that comes with the game has some low resolution textures, and these really stand out in VR. I got the feeling that I was looking props made out of paper and cardboard, kind of like visiting a local haunted house.Surfaces that don't have normal maps really stand out.  So the suspension of disbelief is less forgiving.

The head tracker can allow you to turn all the way around and look behind you, which I wasn't expecting. It seem to work really well as allowing me to look around seamlessly.

The device puts you entirely in the world, since it cuts you off from reality. You can't see your own hands, so you have no sense of self. You guide the controls by feel, and it's an odd feeling to look at your hand and not see it. When lights flicker out in a game, you really end up in the dark.

The inverse is also true. Sitting in a bright sunny game can make you forgot that it's night time.
It's curiously dangerous on how immersive it can be. Then again I'm an old dog raised on Atari where my adventure guy was a block.

I also was getting a bit of vertigo when looking down off of tall ledges. I'm not sure if everyone would experience that, but you really do get a sense of distance and scale, and I'm a bit afraid of heights.

Unfortunately I can't really show a video or picture that can get any of this across, so I recommend trying one out if you get the opportunity.

Speaking of vertigo