My First Impressions of the Oculus Rift

[KaTsuoo1]

First I have to say, I'm not quite as impressed as I thought I would be. However, I had been looking at everything about the Rift so I was quite hyped about it. It doesn't mean that I don't like it so far though.

When I put them on, I thought for myself, wow these pixels are tiny! Which is quite the opposite from what people usually say, but that is most likely because I have read so many people say how noticeable they are, so I expected them to be bigger. They are just big enough for you to see them. About the same goes for the screen door effect.

The head tracking was a bit laggy at first when I tried the Tuscany demo that came with full SDK. I saw that there was no fire, water from the fountain, etc, so I switched over to another version. When I played that one, I didn't think about if the tracking was still lagging or not, but if it still was, then I must have got used to it.

The 3D Effect, again, I thought it would be more impressive than it was. Don't get me wrong, it is a good 3D effect, but I guess it is as mind blowing as real life 3D. I looked up at the ceiling of the Tuscany building, and it didn't feel like it was that far away honestly. I did calibrate it, but I may have to do it again.

The field of view, I definitely didn't feel like everything I saw was the game, there was black around it. However, I hadn't touch the knobs on the sides to bring the screen and lenses closer or further away. So when I was playing, they were about in the middle. Afterwards I did bring the screen and lenses as close as possible, and when I put on the Rift, the lenses didn't crush my eyes, which is always nice. I don't think that it still will fill out all of my field of view, but it should improve it.

I expected to get sick in some way. However, when I did put on the Rift and started to move around in the Tuscany demo, I didn't feel anything at all. Well, I felt a strange feeling in my feet as well as in the stomach when I walked up the stairs, but nothing too bad at all. I even ran up and down the stairs with the run button pressed, while I was pushing the right stick in one direction making my view spin. Even that had no effect on me.

But over the course of the two hours that I played around with it, my stomach started to hurt. At first it felt like I was hungry, or that I had eaten too much. I always find it tricky to figure out if it is one or the other. Later it started to hurt to the point where it wasn't too pleasant but I could still keep on going. In the end, I puked in the toilet and the stomach ache did go away pretty quickly. And now, about an hour after using it, I feel just like I felt before putting them on.

People have mentioned that they have got light headed, dizzy, disoriented, but I don't think I got that at all. At least I didn't feel it. I'm just not sure, because I have no idea what it means because the only way I can get sick is if my stomach is hurting.

So far I have played the Tuscany demo, Rift toon as well as Minecraft. Minecraft is the one I enjoyed the most of them. A highlight for me was when I got under water, for some reason, it was pretty awesome. The squids also looked enormous.

I will have to play around with it more, as said, so far I'm not quite as impressed as I expected, but I'm sure I'll find a demo that can blow me away a bit more than those I tried. I'll try to keep you updated on my future experiences if anyone is interested.

[hydro13]

as i have been waiting for 10 years on this 🙂 i was pretty hyped, when i got my one.
The thing is dat my laptop has not the power to do 60fps, and in the beginning it was very bad..
Blurry, lagg like a dia show... that destroys the hole rift experience!!

what i did :idea: , sinds i got a dell latitude e6430
i disconnected my HD monitor, and got my old lcd screen hooked up, max resolution to 1200*800 (same as the rift)
and use the old lcd as main.. and the rift as dupe. turned down all 3d settings on my graphic card ...

blurr is gone, lagg (head tracking) is fast.. this was making a huge impact in my experience..

I have been a sailor (i live on a sailboat) all my life and i don't get sea sick 🙂 not even when i'm drunk :mrgreen:
yesterday i played, or better walk around in skyrim for 5 hours , and i loved it.. but it took me 4 nights to tweak around my laptop and setup the rift so that is was optimum for me...

That i need a faster pc or laptop is a fact. but do keep in mind that you can tweak a lot before you find your rift sweet spot.

good luck 🙂

[360FOV]

"jweaver" wrote:

"360FOV" wrote:
While in the Tuscany demo go up to one of the sunflowers and press the space bar and use the + and - key to adjust the IPD setting. .

If you do this in the Tuscany demo.. Are you just making changes for that demo? And for that time you run it?

Do you have to repeat this every time you run the demo?

I assume that if you use the OR Config tool, you don't need to do this.. Can you clarify?

Jon

Yes, it would only affect the Tuscany Demo and you need to change it every time you run the demo. I think it resets to 64mm IPD by default at the start of the demo. 64mm is supposed to be the average persons IPD so that means that it won't be correct for most unless they luckily fall at the exact average IPD. I have only checked the IPD for me and one other person. His was 64 and mine was 66.6. So I guess it isn't impossible that you could be one of the lucky 64's to match the default IPD.

If you use the OR Config tool you can set your profile as the default and your user data gets loaded when the demo starts.(players height, players sex, lens used, players IPD) I think the programmer would have to implement the importing of the OR Config tool data so I am not sure which other demos use this feature but it definitely works for the Tuscany demo.

If you wish to implement the OR config Tool into your apps then you can do a search in the forum. I'm sure someone had to discuss it somewhere in here. This info may be in the SDk documentation also but I haven't checked yet. The OR Config Tool is a great feature that will make widespread adoption of the Rift flow more smoothly and I suggest anyone working on a demo or game to make sure and include it.

[Bad_Santa]

"jweaver" wrote:

"360FOV" wrote:
While in the Tuscany demo go up to one of the sunflowers and press the space bar and use the + and - key to adjust the IPD setting. .

If you do this in the Tuscany demo.. Are you just making changes for that demo? And for that time you run it?

Do you have to repeat this every time you run the demo?

I assume that if you use the OR Config tool, you don't need to do this.. Can you clarify?

Jon

If your still having problems the ipd app is called.. my chic pd..it's pretty accurate using a camera

[jweaver]

"Bucks11" wrote:

"jweaver" wrote:

"360FOV" wrote:
While in the Tuscany demo go up to one of the sunflowers and press the space bar and use the + and - key to adjust the IPD setting. .

If you do this in the Tuscany demo.. Are you just making changes for that demo? And for that time you run it?

Do you have to repeat this every time you run the demo?

I assume that if you use the OR Config tool, you don't need to do this.. Can you clarify?

Jon

If your still having problems the ipd app is called.. my chic pd..it's pretty accurate using a camera

Cheers.. I am OK as my other 1/2 is an Optician (I knew she would come in useful at SOME point) but I am sure this app will help others.. And, in truth, I will show her the app as it could be useful to her too!

[outlander]

"Bucks11" wrote:


If your still having problems the ipd app is called.. my chic pd..it's pretty accurate using a camera

http://mychic.com/pd_measurment_app/
Lazy link ^

Thanks for this.

[KaTsuoo1]

Thank you for all the replies.

There is a few things I'd like to clarify, that have been misleading in my first post. I didn't mean that I'm disappointed with the Rift, all I meant was that I got less impressed than I expected to be. So I do think it is a great device.

Also the 3D effect, what I actually meant was that the 3D effect is about as good as in real life, which means that it doesn't stand out that much to me since I'm already used to the 3D in real life. However, I can certainly understand why people think I meant that I don't think it is that good because of my ceiling comment. I took another look up at the ceiling today, and now it feels like it is further away than I remembered. I didn't calibrate it again before that, so I'm not sure why.

The field of view is also something I made sound worse than it actually is. Now when I have moved the lenses and the screen as close as possible to my eyes, I can say that it do cover most of my field of view. However, there is still noticeable black parts to the side. The vertical field of view is greater but there is also a bit black on the top and bottom. The problem is that I can see ring around the lens cups, even with the A lenses as close to my eyes as possible. But even then, it is a great field of view, and it is certainly enough for me.

Regards to my computer specifications. The Tuscany demo that caused the head tracking to lag, I had above 100 frames per second, so it can't be the frame rate. In the other Tuscany demo I changed to, it capped at 60 and the head tracking was smoother.

My specifications are:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, Socket-AM3+
Processor: AMD FX-4300 4-Core Processor
Ram: Kingston DDR3 HyperX PnP 1866MHz 8GB
Graphic card: AMD Radeon HD 6770

I did upgrade the three first for about 350$. I will upgrade my graphic card once I got the money for it.

I hope that covers the different questions from everyone.

There have been a few demos that I have tried since last time, and Proton Pulse is one that really stands out for me viewtopic.php?f=29&t=600. It really opened my eyes for the great kind of gameplay that the Rift can bring. It combines the great 3D, field of view and head tracking with great gameplay. I would recommend anyone that haven't tried it yet, to try it.

[jweaver]

"KaTsuoo1" wrote:
T
There have been a few demos that I have tried since last time, and Proton Pulse is one that really stands out for me viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2960&hilit=proton+pulse. It really opened my eyes for the great kind of gameplay that the Rift can bring. It combines the great 3D, field of view and head tracking with great gameplay. I would recommend anyone that haven't tried it yet, to try it.

Where do you download Proton Pulse? I read that thread right through at it talks about Alpha and then Beta releases, but there was no download link..

Jon

Edit: I found it.. This is a better thread:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=600

[ryukishi]

I just got my Rift yesterday and I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who is a bit disappointed. I was not ready for that, my expectation was really high on the stereoscopic 3d effect. My first demo was Bluemarble and I didn't like it, it was like looking at an old quicktime video like the animated sequence in the myst game era (but with extra head tracking and 360 view), the 3d effect was almost absent. I did some other demos and the 3d looked like one of those imax 3d movie which I don't really appreciate. I was a bit sad, but what cheered me up was the Tuscany demo, the calibration really helped alot with feeling the 3d effect. I did had motion sickness, but it was because I tried the Rift with the A lens thinking it was the c one. I felt sick when I pull out the Rift only. Things that also didn't help feeling the 3d were the texture detail as you are getting closer to things (3d game engines need to adapt to the Rift), the ability to get your view closer and closer to objects (like body tracking which will probably be include in further Rift versions, plus seethrough object in 3d engine as we are too close) and finally the flat shape of the screen, but maybe it will vanish as the screendoor effect goes away.
But still I will support Oculus to make this better and better.

[fin231283]