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How the Oculus Rift made me cry(and what it means to me)

Blyss4226
Rising Star
This thread may come off a bit weirdly to some of you, but I think also a lot of you will understand. I'm going to explain how the CV1 moved me to tears and what it really means to me. So here we go!

When I first heard about the Rift it was right before the DK2 was released. I had wanted something like virtual reality for a long time for a lot of reasons, but I never thought I'd see it come to fruition in my lifetime. I'm currently 32 years old by the way. Oculus got my hopes up. VERY highly. I wanted very badly to buy a DK2 but I just simply couldn't afford it. As I've said before I don't have a lot of money. In fact I had to save for most of a year to afford my CV1. And it was totally worth it.

I've had my Rift for a week now. And I absolutely love it to death. It
is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced and it absolutely
exceeded my expectations in every way. It's everything I'd hoped. It
will make my life so much better and happier. See, I'm disabled. There
are a lot of things I can't do because my body is very rekt. A lot of
things I want to do that I would NEVER be able to do. But now I can.
That has so much meaning to me that the first day I got to REALLY spend
time in the Rift(which was the third day I had it) I wound up crying inside of it(not recommended, kinda wrecks immersion :tongue: ). I realized that so many doors that
were forever shut to me are open now. So many things I would have never gotten to see or do can be seen and done now.

I don't know if you can understand the emotional weight of something like that. It's kind of like this. Imagine that you had no legs. And for most of your life, you haven't. But then one day somebody suddenly gives you legs. And now you can walk. It's like that. The major physical limitations I have suddenly matter a whole lot less. Sure, it'd be better to not have them at all. But that's not the life I live. This is the life I live. And Rift has already made it better.

And this is only the beginning.

I've said before in other threads that I lost a lot of faith in Oculus recently due to their incredibly tight lipped nature and refusing to reveal any information about what's going on at all. Unfortunately that still holds true. But the hardware... is everything I could have dreamed for. I fervently hope Oculus gets their s**t together and starts acting like a consumer oriented company instead of a faceless Facebook subsidiary. They've given me something so beautiful that it honestly hurts me to have to be suspicious of what they are doing and why they are doing it. But that is not what this thread is about. I just wanted to make it known that my position has not changed on this particular matter.

But the hardware... is nearly perfect.

I spend most of my life right here in this bedroom. Probably 90% of my time is spent right here. There is obviously a very limited amount of stuff you can do in a single room. Mostly I just do stuff on my PC. I moderate a forum(PCSX2), do lots of gaming, some coding, hang out with some really good friends in VOIP. But some days even that is too much. Some days it's too much to get out of bed and sit in this chair in front of my PC. That is how real and bad my problems with pain are. Right now my neck is just a massive fireball of pain, for instance. But it can get sooo much worse. Imagine not even being able to sit on your butt in front of your PC.

But I don't even have to get out of bed to use the Rift. Sure, it's better sitting here in my spinny chair. But the point is now, even on those days when I can't get out of bed at all I can experience life.

That is what the Rift means to me and that is what it gives me.

Life.

Gaming: Intel i7 3770k @ 4.2Ghz | R9 290 | 16GB RAM | 240GB SSD | 1 TB HDD Server: AMD FX 6300 @ 4.4Ghz | GT 610 | 8GB RAM | 240GB SSD | 320GB HDD
64 REPLIES 64

Ryder35
Protege
Thanks for taking the time to write this. Really inspirational. My wife is wheelchair bound (MS) and the first thing I am going to do once my vive is set up is stick her in the Blu. I think it could be a real game changer for people who are essentially house-bound.

f1iceman07
Explorer
a real nice story and i will,be using the story to tell my friend who can n ot walk either i really am very happy for you and vr future with this in mind thubs up to everything right now to do with vr.

Anonymous
Not applicable
@Blyss4226   Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring story.  My mother too wanted VR very badly, she lost a long fight to cancer but we would have discussions about how if she had something like VR, she could still explore right from her bedside.  You are a testament of the reality she wanted.  I am so happy for you, cheers and see you in VR!

dead4sure
Adventurer

VizionVR said:

I can relate (sort of). I was in a terrible crash two years ago that smashed my femur into 4 pieces. Because of complications and three debilitating surgeries I'm still working to walk again. VR helps by freeing my mind from the restrictions of my body. Plus, depression hit pretty hard. All I wanted to do was sit and play games. Roomscale VR has been a MAJOR enticement to just get up and move again.

Funny story: One of the first games I played after the accident was Day Z (on a monitor). Day Z is a pretty hardcore survival game. Well I was doing pretty good walking from town to town gathering supplies and generally enjoying myself. So I go into this old barn to check it out. I climbed up to the hayloft and found a revolver! Coming back down the ladder I mis-stepped and fell AND BROKE MY DAMNED LEG! So there I was, leg broken, playing a game where I had to crawl around the f***ing map for literally days looking for ways to cut wood and make a splint, while staying alive by eating stuff I found on the floor! I never found a saw or hatchet and resigned to the fact that I had to restart the game. Well if you know the game, you know that the only way to restart is to die. So now, there I am, I'm crawling around like a lunatic trying to figure out ways to kill myself!! My god! It was the most depressing game I ever played! I finally just crawled out into the street and lay there. A couple hours later I got the attention of a zombie that shambled over and ate me to death!

I never played Day Z again.


I know I shouldn't laugh but that did amuse me. That's certainly DayZ for you.

@Blyss4226 I really feel for you. I think VR is going to make a difference to a huge amount of people with mobility issues. I have a young Nephew who suffers from a chronic pain problem and he has to use a wheelchair to get around. He's really into gaming and I'm hoping that VR will offer him some great experiences as he ages.

While we are on the subject, there are some great charities out there that help disabled gamers with custom peripherals that allow them to get involved in what they love. I heard of SpecialEffect a few years ago very much admire them for what they do. Check them out if you like http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/

Zothar
Explorer
@Blyss4226 Great story! I Love hearing how technology can help in endless ways.  

For years I was an engineering aid to a very smart man with Cerebral Palsy.  He had extremely limited movement of his body.  Simple things like turning a page would take alot of time and effort.  His mind was full of ideas, but he was limited to how fast he could get them into AutoCAD or onto paper even with help.  Simply designing and building a "foot mouse" that would allow him to control his computer was a huge and emotional step for him and independence.  Later I helped make him a foot switch that would let him turn pages to read on his nook.  If he were still around today to try an Oculus Rift, he would be blown away and controls based on head movement would have expanded his world ten fold.  

I can see how you shed a tear given this new freedom.  

Roming22
Adventurer
@dead4sure you did a typo in the link to the charity.

dead4sure
Adventurer
Thanks @Roming22 that link function always trips me up.  🙂

roadczar
Protege
Great story. Everyone who thinks that VR is all about room scale should read. 

obzen
Expert Protege
Don't worry too much about Oculus. If they mess up, someone else will pick up the slack. 10 years from now, we'll have high-res displays (or other tech), wider FOV, foveated rendering, eye tracking, hand tracking, body tracking, and quite possibly more. 

VR and AR are gonna be huge, and not just for gaming. I think VR forums will have to expand their categories to professional fields, especially the medical profession. 
DK1 FREAK...

LZoltowski
Champion
So nice to see that not everyone on these forums is dead inside! I feel fuzzy and warm now. Humanity +1
Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂