Oculus Rift Hands On!

I finally got my hands on the Oculus Rift, and it’s glorious! I was not one of the fortunate few who got it in an early pre-order, but by chance, a friend of mine was lucky enough to get one. Lucky for me, he had no interest in going through the trouble of updating his computer to meet the minimum requirements. I, on the other hand, was very intrigued by virtual reality, and happened to be in need of an upgrade anyway.

I'm not going to kid myself into believing I needed the Oculus Rift, I clearly didn't. The question then becomes, am I enjoying the Rift enough to justify the investment? As of now, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. I use it in some capacity almost daily. When first deciding whether I was actually going to go through with the purchase, I was worried my Oculus would just become a very expensive paper weight. Clearly this isn't the case.

After the computer was set up and ready to go, it was time to set up the Oculus. Setup was an absolute breeze. It took me maybe 10-15 minutes tops. This was not only shocking, but also a major relief. Previously, I had helped a fellow Krazy Knight to set up the HTC Vive, which was an absolute nightmare. It was nice to be able to just plug it all in, and click a few buttons. The beginning demo reel was also a nice touch, and it got me excited for AHTS availability on the device. As a side note, I will admit I felt slightly nauseous the first time wearing it, but I have not felt nauseous since then.

If you have an Oculus, or are thinking of buying one, I recommend purchasing Virtual Desktop on Steam. It’s an amazing application for watching Virtual Reality videos, and it works really well with Youtube 360 videos. One of the first things I watched was a short documentary about Pluto, which was just really cool. Honestly, I spend a lot of time using Virtual Desktop, even if I’m just listening to music, and looking around at the deep space backdrop. You would think wearing a device like that on your head for long periods of time would start to put a strain on your neck. Even with long periods of time wearing the device, I have not experienced any discomfort, though I do get red lines where the pads rest on my face.

I can't wait to start diving into games built for the Oculus. I’ll keep you posted on what VR games I'm playing, and if they are worth getting on the Oculus. Here's to Virtual Reality 2.0, Sword Art Online :)