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.

[RirtualVeality]

I haven't gotten mine, but I feel my impressions will be around where yours are. I've been getting a little sucked in by reaction vids showing people just FREAKING OUT over this thing (some fake, some genuine), but yeah, a part of me thinks I'll get that same reaction when I know I won't.

[MorbidDonkey]

Honestly, everyone looks at it differently. The people that area freaking impressed are on the YouTube. My advice is to not think that the device is like plugging into the matrix because its not. However, quit fighting it too. There were some teenage kids on my street who've been hearing about the Rift and wanted to give it a shot at my place. These are the same kids that scream at their computer playing CoD, saying everyone is cheating but them. So you know their going to do everything in their power to hate it because to them if its too good to be true, its a gimmick.

And I was right - Here are some comments. "OMG, look at those pixels! Frickin' HUGE!" "The resolution sucks!" "You could never replace the monitor!".......

Once they got that out of their system and started to just enjoy it (Letting the device soak) you got more of the "Wow, the 3D is pretty good", "If you pay attention to the game the screen door disappears, trippy!", "OMG, Alone in the Rift freaked me out! I can't wait to see what other dev do!" - then they would swig a Red Bull.

Point is, don't set your expectations too high. It's pretty dope right now, but its not DESTROY YOUR FLIPPIN' MIND AMAZING. However, after I let it soak in it's pretty close.

[MannyLectro]

The same thing happened to me when I tried the Rift for the first time. I was expecting so much that I got a bit disappointed. Of course I knew everything there was to know about it before I tried.

I think a lot of people don't understand what the Rift is before they try it, even when you tell them. They don't understand that it takes most of your FOV, that the 3d is a realistic (they think about cinema 3d) and so when they wear the Rift for the first time they find it great because they were not expecting such strong immersion.
But the fact that we knew what to expect, and that we spent so much time seeing reactions from people who didn't, makes us disappointed.

But some things you say are weird compared to my experience with the Rift :

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.

Ok... I am really intrigued... I had the same problem when I tried the Rift. People always say that the head-tracking is so fast that it seems perfect, but when I had the Rift on my head I felt like being drunk because of the tracking latency. Can someone confirm that it is a problem coming only from us ???? This is one of the immersion breaker for me. I don't wanna feel drunk when playing with the Rift.

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.

This is strange. The 3d effect was for me one of the only things that surprised me when I tried the Rift. I was impressed by how perfect it was. The sense of scale was just amazing, even if it was affected by the screen door affect.

The field of view, I definitely didn't feel like everything I saw was the game, there was black around it.

Using the A-cups with the lenses pretty close to my eyes the picture was taking almost all of my field of view. Maybe you should play a bit more with your lenses configuration.

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.

I guess you didn't feel sick because you didn't really feel like you were there.

[Vin]

Puking is a fantastic indicator of motion sickness. When the inner-ear and the eye are in disagreement about motion, the brain interprets that as having eaten some bad food, which is where the sickness comes from. The brain begins to induce vomiting, and away you go. Some people experience motion sickness in different ways, as comes from the various descriptions of how people get. For you, it's manifested by a stomach ache apparently. Listen to it so you don't puke on your keyboard.

[aminemo]

my first experience with the rift was very good ,extremely immersive
the resolution is 'ok' but the bigger probleme is the lags.
Honestly afeter something like 10 seconds you feel that your are teleported it is really like going inside the matrix.
First you start to feel a very starge feeling inside your brain "something like a reorganisation of your neurons" and you don't feel your body the same it something like if you enter the dream world ,it is like ipnose and it is not related to the screen resolution. The only thing to improve is the lags I think.

[VRMS]

Perhaps the lag you are experiencing is due to an underpowered PC, and not the rift itself?

[SMOK3Y]

ya I haven't noticed any lag & I use my PC in duplicate mode which people say causes lag... but I do have enough grunt I spose

[svetoslav]

Я думаю что мои впечатление размыты но мне хотелось бы предложить дополнение к этим очкам которое легко впишется к ним и будет даже к стати, и хотелось бы чутка изменить дизайн. А если заинтересованы прошу ответить письмом.

[360FOV]

KaTsuoo1, to get a good stereo effect make sure you have your IPD set correctly. If the stereo doesn't feel impressive then I think your IPD is set to low. 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. On higher IPD settings 3D should really pop for you. It should feel like a real object is just inches from your face and you can reach out and touch it. That is my experience anyways and I am a 3D junkie who pumps stereo setting to the max while using my Nvidia 3dvision glasses. So if stereo looks good to me it should look good to everybody. I think the default IPD is 64mm but I get best results at 67mm. Use the Oculus Configuration Utility to find your idea IPD.