Nerdy Awesome shit you bought!
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WPKenny
Resident Freddy
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I've been scouring various forums and news feeds for a while. There's no firm information on anything but historically they have said it will be the end of 2014 at the very earliest before a consumer version is out. They know exactly what they want in the product, it's just working out the kinks. Plus I 'm sure they will want a few fully formed launch titles to go with the consumer version. Palmer Luckey apparently isn't making an appearance at the GDC in March which most people are taking as a sign that there won't be any hardware announcements for a while.
At the very least they will be producing DevKit v2 and releasing that several months before the consumer version so I reckon I've got until at least july to make the most of this one.
It's marked as "processing" now which is supposed to mean they're prepping it for shipping. Fingers crossed I should have it in a week or so.
Plus there's the warm and fuzzies from knowing I'll be owning a part of what is almost certainly the beginnings of proper VR for the masses.
At the very least they will be producing DevKit v2 and releasing that several months before the consumer version so I reckon I've got until at least july to make the most of this one.
It's marked as "processing" now which is supposed to mean they're prepping it for shipping. Fingers crossed I should have it in a week or so.
Plus there's the warm and fuzzies from knowing I'll be owning a part of what is almost certainly the beginnings of proper VR for the masses.
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You should be getting it @WPKenny they're quite good on the old reddit, etc.
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1yee6i/official_oculus_shipping_status_update_feb_19th/
Basically reading between the lines, if you order one, you'll get it from stock, but when they run out of stock you'll get nothing because they're having to exchange parts that are unavailable for parts that do the same job so they can release dev kit 2, which doubtless has the knock on effect of pushing any consumer version further into the future.
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1yee6i/official_oculus_shipping_status_update_feb_19th/
Basically reading between the lines, if you order one, you'll get it from stock, but when they run out of stock you'll get nothing because they're having to exchange parts that are unavailable for parts that do the same job so they can release dev kit 2, which doubtless has the knock on effect of pushing any consumer version further into the future.
DaGaffer
Down With That Sorta Thing
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- Dec 22, 2003
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I've been scouring various forums and news feeds for a while. There's no firm information on anything but historically they have said it will be the end of 2014 at the very earliest before a consumer version is out. They know exactly what they want in the product, it's just working out the kinks. Plus I 'm sure they will want a few fully formed launch titles to go with the consumer version. Palmer Luckey apparently isn't making an appearance at the GDC in March which most people are taking as a sign that there won't be any hardware announcements for a while.
At the very least they will be producing DevKit v2 and releasing that several months before the consumer version so I reckon I've got until at least july to make the most of this one.
It's marked as "processing" now which is supposed to mean they're prepping it for shipping. Fingers crossed I should have it in a week or so.
Plus there's the warm and fuzzies from knowing I'll be owning a part of what is almost certainly the beginnings of proper VR for the masses.
Has anyone announced any actual games for Oculus Rift yet?
WPKenny
Resident Freddy
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- Dec 22, 2003
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The Oculus Rift has arrived. Well, it actually arrived on friday but I've been too busy immersing myself in un-reality to come back and tell you.
I read up well beforehand. I knew about the low res and the screen door effect. I knew about the lack of positional awareness (i.e. when you lean forward it doesn't know.) I knew it's just a dev kit, not the finished article. Even with all these faults, it's just amazing!
I first tried one at a small "GeekFest" in Margate a few weeks ago and was seriously underwhelmed. I thought "how can something so meh get so much hype? Can all those people really be wrong?". I decided it was due to the fact they were indy developers showing off their own game and nothing else. The game was a bit simple and I don't think they'd quite realised the potential of the rift with it. So I bought one for myself direct from Oculus. £245 delivered if anyone's interested but stock is running low.
I was like a kid at christmas. It arrived at home early on friday morning. The working day went so slowly it was agony.
5.30 came and I raced home, kissed the wife, petted the cats and ran upstairs to set it up.
The first thing to do is calibrate it. You do some quick diagnostics which let it figure out how far apart your eyes are and which lenses you have put in. There's three lenses to choose from since it's not so easy to wear glasses with the Rift. Apparently in the consumer model they will be adjustable rather than needing to swap them out for each person with eyesight different to yours.
Next was THE demo. Tuscany! You start in a sunny garden set on a cliff edge with a simple, 2 story stone house, overlooking the sea. Wow!
In the garden there's butterflies flapping about, you can hear the sound of the wind gently breezing past. Every now and then dandilion seeds float by.
Just looking around is fascinating. The sense of depth! You can look up at the trees and see branches reaching towards you. The house almost looms over you.
Time to go for a walk. Woah! That feels weird! Moving but not actually moving. I stop for a second and get my bearings before carrying on, passed the fountain and into the house. I notice a fire is lit and roaring away in the fireplace so I head over there. I look down to my left as I pass the chairs laid out in front of it. I feel my hand scrape the wall next to me as I realise I just reached out to touch the chair. I start to feel the nausea creep in already so I take the headset off and I'm brought back to real life with a bang. An intense first proper try of the rift. I am amazed.
It really is the future.
Next, I called for the wife so she could have a go but I'll let her tell you about her first time in the Rift...
@Damini !!!
I read up well beforehand. I knew about the low res and the screen door effect. I knew about the lack of positional awareness (i.e. when you lean forward it doesn't know.) I knew it's just a dev kit, not the finished article. Even with all these faults, it's just amazing!
I first tried one at a small "GeekFest" in Margate a few weeks ago and was seriously underwhelmed. I thought "how can something so meh get so much hype? Can all those people really be wrong?". I decided it was due to the fact they were indy developers showing off their own game and nothing else. The game was a bit simple and I don't think they'd quite realised the potential of the rift with it. So I bought one for myself direct from Oculus. £245 delivered if anyone's interested but stock is running low.
I was like a kid at christmas. It arrived at home early on friday morning. The working day went so slowly it was agony.
5.30 came and I raced home, kissed the wife, petted the cats and ran upstairs to set it up.
The first thing to do is calibrate it. You do some quick diagnostics which let it figure out how far apart your eyes are and which lenses you have put in. There's three lenses to choose from since it's not so easy to wear glasses with the Rift. Apparently in the consumer model they will be adjustable rather than needing to swap them out for each person with eyesight different to yours.
Next was THE demo. Tuscany! You start in a sunny garden set on a cliff edge with a simple, 2 story stone house, overlooking the sea. Wow!
In the garden there's butterflies flapping about, you can hear the sound of the wind gently breezing past. Every now and then dandilion seeds float by.
Just looking around is fascinating. The sense of depth! You can look up at the trees and see branches reaching towards you. The house almost looms over you.
Time to go for a walk. Woah! That feels weird! Moving but not actually moving. I stop for a second and get my bearings before carrying on, passed the fountain and into the house. I notice a fire is lit and roaring away in the fireplace so I head over there. I look down to my left as I pass the chairs laid out in front of it. I feel my hand scrape the wall next to me as I realise I just reached out to touch the chair. I start to feel the nausea creep in already so I take the headset off and I'm brought back to real life with a bang. An intense first proper try of the rift. I am amazed.
It really is the future.
Next, I called for the wife so she could have a go but I'll let her tell you about her first time in the Rift...
@Damini !!!
Damini
Part of the furniture
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- Dec 22, 2003
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It's really hard not to get too excited about the Oculus Rift, because it genuinely is like something out of a sci fi movie. I grew up without the internet, and my first gaming experience was on a ZX Spectrum, so to be able to put on the headset and be transported to a virtual world is just insane. It's not perfect by any stretch (and the sudden waves of nausea are certainly a barrier to long term use at the moment) but the sheer sense of potential is mind boggling.
For me, I think the exciting thing is the wonder element. Sure, shooting games are fun (or will be once you stop getting the mouth sweats when you move) and I can see why some people might be interested in playing horror games (not for me, as I'd just be playing a "Stand with your back to the wall, refusing to move and filling your headset with tears" simulator) but when you can fully immerse yourself in a fantasy world and explore - that's awesome, and I mean that in the archaic sense. The demos I really loved were Blocked In and The Room, and they literally involved sitting at a desk, and wandering around a room respectively. It sounds mundane, but when you can watch dust twitching in the beams of light in front of you, or when you can look out the window and see Tetris bricks falling from the sky like some kind of geek apocalypse... Imagine standing on an alien planet, wandering through the USS Enterprise, entering Mordor, standing in the middle of New York after a plague has wiped out all the people, imagine wandering through your home town 600 years ago... Blocked In felt to me like I was in a dream, which was the weirdest and most wonderful experience.
Its frustrating that I am not techy in the slightest, as I have SO many ideas for what you could do with the oculus rift, and I'm pretty sure none of them can be achieved with my knowledge of MSPaint and my ability to write word games on the ZX Spectrum.
For me, I think the exciting thing is the wonder element. Sure, shooting games are fun (or will be once you stop getting the mouth sweats when you move) and I can see why some people might be interested in playing horror games (not for me, as I'd just be playing a "Stand with your back to the wall, refusing to move and filling your headset with tears" simulator) but when you can fully immerse yourself in a fantasy world and explore - that's awesome, and I mean that in the archaic sense. The demos I really loved were Blocked In and The Room, and they literally involved sitting at a desk, and wandering around a room respectively. It sounds mundane, but when you can watch dust twitching in the beams of light in front of you, or when you can look out the window and see Tetris bricks falling from the sky like some kind of geek apocalypse... Imagine standing on an alien planet, wandering through the USS Enterprise, entering Mordor, standing in the middle of New York after a plague has wiped out all the people, imagine wandering through your home town 600 years ago... Blocked In felt to me like I was in a dream, which was the weirdest and most wonderful experience.
Its frustrating that I am not techy in the slightest, as I have SO many ideas for what you could do with the oculus rift, and I'm pretty sure none of them can be achieved with my knowledge of MSPaint and my ability to write word games on the ZX Spectrum.
Damini
Part of the furniture
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At the moment we're using the Razor Hydra or a standard controller, but I think this is why movement makes you sick - that juxtaposition between your visual input saying you are moving, but physically you stay still. Also, the lack of correspondence between head movement in a leaning/jumping/walking gait sense. It feels very much like reading in a moving car.
WPKenny
Resident Freddy
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- Dec 22, 2003
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It depends on the game. Most allow you to use the xbox360 controller. Left stick for moving, right stick for looking around since it's not really practical to rotate 360 degrees when you're sat in a chair.
There's a load of alternative methods floating around.... playstation move controllers, Leap controller, kinect etc. The most used alternative is the Razer Hydra since it allows you positional tracking on your hands and is most familiar to people since each stick has triggers, a bunch of buttons and an analogue stick. Some games give you a gun in your right hand and suggest you strap the left controller to your chest so the game then knows when you're ducking and leaning. e.g. Hydra Cover Shooter.
One of my favourites is Crashlanded. You use the hydra and hold a gun in each hand and use the analogue sticks to move around. You can hold them close to your face and examine the guns. Really immersive.
Nate
FH is my second home
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Thinking something like this http://shop.virtuix.com/ but $500 lol
TdC
Trem's hunky sex love muffin
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Damini
Part of the furniture
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Have you ever been sat in a moving car, and tried to read a book or something similar? It's like that - you can do it for a while with no ill effects and then suddenly your body will go NOPE. You don't feel sick exactly, but definitely queasy. Everyone that tried it instinctively made a bee line to the back door to get some fresh air, rather than a beeline to the toilet.
Fweddy
FH is my second home
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Apparently the latest prototypes are far less nausea inducing. As for keyboard and mouse, you can use any control method your PC/game will accept. Most people seem to recommend pads because keyboards are harder to use when you can't see them and you don't need the precision of a mouse when you can move your head to look around.
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Its travel sickness, the liquid in your ears is telling your brain you are not moving but your eyes are saying otherwise. The confusion causes you to feel sick. Nothing will cure it except for either travel sickness medication or getting some sea legs, arrrr...
Fweddy
FH is my second home
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My understanding is that the current Dev Kits affect people a lot worse than normal travel sickness because of the lag between moving your head and your view updating, that's why people who don't normally get travel sick feel nauseous using the Rift. Reducing this has been one of the main things Oculus have been working on.
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TdC
Trem's hunky sex love muffin
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Would really like to play Elite on it.
aww man that would be tremendous. the wireframe version I presume? not that poncy faux-texture shit that was Frontier?
That aside...did you know that Elite
angerous has made it's kickstarter a million years ago and that delivery is soon/now? It looks pretty spiffy, but tbh in the light of the really awesome space arcade-ish sims coming out...well they're all a bit meh tbh: either "free to play" shit or some stuff I personally simply dislike. E will have multiplayer heavilly integrated, and logically you'd expect everything DB and his chums have learned in the past 30 years would make it an awesome game, but hey ho there's nothing like the old magic 
Billargh
I am a FH squatter
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God damnit Scouse, just let the controller into your life!Meh. I'm a touch-typist anyway
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Billargh
I am a FH squatter
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pics or it didn't happen.Got one. For use when appropriate.
I.E. Very rarely
Litmus
Resident Freddy
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WPKenny
Resident Freddy
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- Dec 22, 2003
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That's a lot of fans....Do you have to use special straps on your case to stop it flying away?
Thats impressive. I just bought one of these for my media centre pc - this takes things in the other direction - only one fan and runs fully of mobo power. The 8800 GTX I pulled out and binned weighed a ton had two separate power connectors.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-188-GW
Admittedly, not as sexy.
