I ordered in March and it arrived today. I have a particular application in mind - I didn't really just buy it to play games, I think it's going to be perfect for an idea that I've been working on for a decade (R/C model airplane, camera on 2-axis controls, downlinked wirelessly to a VR headset. I have a working prototype now, but it's not 3D, it's not anywhere near the resolution of a Oculus VR and I don't have head-tracking so I control the view with a joystick... the resolution and the head-tracking of an Oculus could really make the experience totally different.. It was a bit expensive, but I had made a bunch of money on Bitcoins and, like I said, I've been working on a project for years and the Oculus could be much better than my current solution.. anyway, I digress from PC Gaming).
So I fired it up and it's definitely a "wow" moment. It really really feels like you are there. I've never seen anything quite like it. There's a slight lag to things - very slight, but noticeable, and there's a weird sort of optical distortion caused by the lenses I think. But the effect of being there is uncanny and disconcerting and very, very cool.
While it's amazing, it's also a bit nausea inducing. I have never had any serious problems with motion sickness in my whole life... ever... not once, not ever. I don't get seasick, I don't get carsick, I think rollercoasters are fun and turbulence in an airplane doesn't bother me (except worrying about metal fatigue in the wings). But I put the Oculus on and I can feel my stomach get that weird butterfly thing that you get when you are on a rollercoaster or something. I'm not sick and I'm not nauseous, but I'm am feeling a bit weirded-out almost immediately and I'm noticeably woozy after about 15 minutes. Jumping in minecraft was a bad idea, walking backwards was even worse, and turning off the head-bobbing is a requirement.
I have only tried Minecraft, and there's no real support for Oculus in Minecraft so you have to hack it in. But it works - controls are a little kludgy, but they work.
There's a bit of lag to it - not a lot but noticeable. The resolution is 1280x800. The 3D effect works very well, although my eyes are not totally matched optically - I have a very mild astigimatism in my left eye - and it's not usually a problem (I don't wear contacts, I don't wear glasses and never have) but I find that my eyes don't look matched in the Oculus. One is noticeably blurrier than the other. But they work well enough.
Then there's vertigo... again, I'm not really afraid of heights (I rock climb for fun) but I think I have a fairly natural reaction to heights ("wow, that's a long way down") in real life and everything was fine in Minecraft until I climbed a tall mountain in the game and looked down and I had that same reaction that I'd get if I climbed to the top of a 6 story building, went to the edge and looked down. That same weird vertigo feeling. Combined with the vague nausea feeling and I think I want to go lay down for a while. And that was only 15 minutes.
But nausea and vertigo aside and mild lag aside, I have to say that it's really impressive. It really really feels like you are there. All of the details stand out and things look real - like I said, I got vertigo from looking down and that's not a problem that I have playing on the monitor. It looks really really real. It's really an amazing effect - you feel absolutely like you are inside the game. Although, so far, maybe too much.
On more practical notes, while the hardware seems reasonably solid, the setup feels a bit like a beta. There's no support for desktop mode, so when you have the headset on you have a hard time getting Windows to do anything. So I had to clone my main monitor and then lower the resolution from 2560x1440 to 1280x800 and then set everything up, make the app fullscreen, and then put on the headset. But it all works.
So I fired it up and it's definitely a "wow" moment. It really really feels like you are there. I've never seen anything quite like it. There's a slight lag to things - very slight, but noticeable, and there's a weird sort of optical distortion caused by the lenses I think. But the effect of being there is uncanny and disconcerting and very, very cool.
While it's amazing, it's also a bit nausea inducing. I have never had any serious problems with motion sickness in my whole life... ever... not once, not ever. I don't get seasick, I don't get carsick, I think rollercoasters are fun and turbulence in an airplane doesn't bother me (except worrying about metal fatigue in the wings). But I put the Oculus on and I can feel my stomach get that weird butterfly thing that you get when you are on a rollercoaster or something. I'm not sick and I'm not nauseous, but I'm am feeling a bit weirded-out almost immediately and I'm noticeably woozy after about 15 minutes. Jumping in minecraft was a bad idea, walking backwards was even worse, and turning off the head-bobbing is a requirement.
I have only tried Minecraft, and there's no real support for Oculus in Minecraft so you have to hack it in. But it works - controls are a little kludgy, but they work.
There's a bit of lag to it - not a lot but noticeable. The resolution is 1280x800. The 3D effect works very well, although my eyes are not totally matched optically - I have a very mild astigimatism in my left eye - and it's not usually a problem (I don't wear contacts, I don't wear glasses and never have) but I find that my eyes don't look matched in the Oculus. One is noticeably blurrier than the other. But they work well enough.
Then there's vertigo... again, I'm not really afraid of heights (I rock climb for fun) but I think I have a fairly natural reaction to heights ("wow, that's a long way down") in real life and everything was fine in Minecraft until I climbed a tall mountain in the game and looked down and I had that same reaction that I'd get if I climbed to the top of a 6 story building, went to the edge and looked down. That same weird vertigo feeling. Combined with the vague nausea feeling and I think I want to go lay down for a while. And that was only 15 minutes.
But nausea and vertigo aside and mild lag aside, I have to say that it's really impressive. It really really feels like you are there. All of the details stand out and things look real - like I said, I got vertigo from looking down and that's not a problem that I have playing on the monitor. It looks really really real. It's really an amazing effect - you feel absolutely like you are inside the game. Although, so far, maybe too much.
On more practical notes, while the hardware seems reasonably solid, the setup feels a bit like a beta. There's no support for desktop mode, so when you have the headset on you have a hard time getting Windows to do anything. So I had to clone my main monitor and then lower the resolution from 2560x1440 to 1280x800 and then set everything up, make the app fullscreen, and then put on the headset. But it all works.
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