Yesterday I took the Rift to work and spent 4 hours walking a handful of folks through several applications:
1) Dreamdeck 2) Showdown 3) Lost 4) Affected 5) Technolust 6) Luckys Tale 7) Chronos 😎 Darknet 9) Virtual Desktop
First let me say that I sure as hell hope Oculus gets their shipping delays sorted out mighty fast, cause virtually everyone I demo'd the Rift to is ready to order. Second, I was happy to see how many people were huge fans of Luckys Tale and Darknet.
The most common theme was, "games like Luckys Tale are great for the whole family," and... "something like Darknet will let me come home after work and just space out for an hour in VR."
Of course, Virtual Desktop was a game changer for just about everyone. Since I work with a technology company it was rather mind-blowing when I was launching Microsoft Visual Studio and writing C# code while floating "in space." I also launched the game, Pillars of Eternity, and let folks walk around while in a Space Nebula.
After walking through the Manor in Affected, that cloth cover was drenched in sweat; but the Rift itself was barely moist so hooray for the new VR Cover adequately doing it's job.
I was surprised at how quickly the 4 hours flew by, so I plan to do more demo's in the future.
I downloaded a version that runs directly from an EXE; no extra configurations needed. It's about 700MB and the main site no longer has links due to their work on a CV1 improvement version.
So if anyone wants to use the original version that is compatible with CV1 then send me a PM with a DropBox link (or similar); and I will gladly upload it for you.
@xi11ix - hey bud, too bad you can't fly with your VR device. Maybe one day nano-technology and optical computing will make all this stuff as easy to transport as a cell phone.
Regarding the Vive's wow factor; I can see how the hand controllers can be more alluring during a demo to folks who enjoy video games. When I was demo'ing to gamers yesterday, the first thing they mentioned is, "how cool it would be if I could use my hands in here." I showed them the video for, "The Unspoken," which will be ready with the Oculus Touch:
... which only further confirmed their desire to invest in the Rift.
In my case, at least half the people I demo'd the Rift to aren't really gamers, just industry professionals. And there is something special about Oculus Studios that conveys a message of "seriousness" while giving the distinct impression that the user has entered in to a new era of societal evolution. As silly as it may sound, going in to the Dreamdeck and hearing the "welcome" message; followed by each experience carries with it an element of class that is hard to match. Coupled with the immersion of Lost, and hearing actor Elijah Wood narrating during Henry - Oculus specific development can be surreal even for a non-gamer.
There are at least 2 individuals at my workplace that own Vives. Those conversations are non-competitive (cause real life talk sessions rarely resemble forum wars); but Vive experience conversations are at least 90% video game and entertainment app -style conversations. Whereas Oculus Rift conversations lean more towards, "how the world is changing."
Just my take, and these perspectives are heavily reliant on the target audience of course. o:)
me too took my vive at work and all impressed. You always impress people that never saw VR right ?
I showed it to my wife and she basically said, "That's nice..." and went back to playing clash of clans.
Haven't had a chance to show it to anyone else, maybe could have arranged something with the coworker who bought a Vive. Kinda lost my enthusiasm for comparing them when he started saying I was stupid for buying a Rift and should have cancelled it.
@Zenbane I agree that from the outside looking in it seems Oculus has a well rounded focus when it comes to VR and Valve/HTC are all about games. I say from the outside looking in because we have very limited knowledge of what each company is working on. We do know Valve/HTC just announced the Vive Business Edition, so I have a feeling Valve/HTC also have their eye on far more than games as well.
Creating Oculus Studios was a fantastic move on Oculus' part. Oculus knew if VR was going to take off it was going to need content and the best way to generate content is to create a publisher to fund it. I think this is one of the things that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the Facebook buyout everybody seems to hate. Valve, however, is not a publisher and I don't think they want to be. There is still high quality content for the Vive and I think the Vive VR intro is just as high quality and impressive as the Dreamdeck.
I don't agree that gamers are the ones that care about the motion controllers. In my experience gamers are far more willing to accept using the Xbox Controller than non-gamers. Both my parents, who are in no way gamers, said the Rift felt incomplete without the controllers. They used the Vive first (that's what I got in my hands first) and when they got to use the Rift they liked it but they didn't have the wow reaction they did when using the Vive. Part of the lack of a wow reaction is them having used a headset before but I think the lack of controllers played a factor as well.
Motion controllers seem to have a similar effect on non-technical non-gamer people as putting touch screens on phones. It provides a far more natural interface to the virtual world than a keyboard or controller.
PS: My mom loved Henry and I'm sure she'd love more of these types of experiences. You are so right that it's important to know your target audience when demoing VR. 🙂
