My first week in the Rift - Diary

[Invoke]

So I just decided it would be fun to document my first week of experiences with the rift and see if people are interested, maybe it helps alleviate the pain of waiting for your own unit to arrive :).

Let me know what you think:

3rd of October '13 - Day 1
After Mr. UPS Man (southpark reference) came and delivered my rift I went to hook it up. I had already downloaded a few demos and the SDK beforehand. First I was greeted with pain.. and then an ugly flat image, i measured my ipd and ran the 'settings viewer' .. I was disappointed and my eyes were still hurting from the lenses being too close.

After an hour more of fidgetting around I posted a dramatic thread on the forum as I at this point felt like selling it. Turns out that I forgot to move the screen assembly all the way out (or about half actually) with the screws on the side of the unit, the pain was gone. Next I re-measured my IPD and opened up the settings viewer again.. Hooray! Depth! .. and a screendoor effect :').

I tried some other demos, thanked the swift reply-ers on the forum thread and started enjoying myself. I mostly tried vr-cinema. The coasters made me want to violently throw up after the first slope. Then I demo-ed the Rift to another person, he liked it too and I envy him because he loved the coasters. After staying up way too long I went to bed as I had to go to the office early next morning.

Programs used today:

Tuscany (OculusVR)
Immersion: 4/5 (Going inside of the building is nice, so is looking at the fireplace and gazing at the sky from the balcony)
Fascination: 2/5 (Plain)
Fun: 2/5 (No gameplay mechanics but the scenery is enjoyable)
Nausea: 2/5 (Do-able if not moving too fast)

VRCinema
Immersion: 4/5 (No body)
Fascination: 3/5 (Mostly like being in the cinema but the scale isn't exactly right)
Fun: 3/5 (Can only view .avi files)
Nausea: 0/5 (Great!, unless you decide to go running or something)

Riftcoaster
Immersion: 3/5 (Some graphical glitches, weird wooden cart)
Fascination: 4/5 (I love coasters)
Fun: 3/5
Nausea: 5/5 (after the first 2 slopes: GET ME A BUCKET *quits*)

DreadHalls
Immersion: 2/5 (No body, low graphics quality.. which matters when you're wallhugging)
Fascination: 2/5 (Not much to see yet)
Fun: 4/5 (It can actually be scary because of the depth perception.. great (: )
Nausea: 10/5 (GET. ME. OUT. *takes off rift and lays down in bed for 20 minutes*)


4th of October '13 - Day 2
I brought my rift with me to my dayjob.. because hey It's a friday and they're pretty laidback. I showed it to my boss and 2 other employees which all seemed to like Tuscany and the VRcinema (I didn't want to risk putting them in a rollercoaster near my shiny office pc).

When I got home I moved the rift slightly closer to my head with the screws on the side and remeasured my IPD because I still feel it's off (already ordered an IPD ruler on ebay). Then I fired up OceanRift.. a simulation where you walk around in a divingsuit on the bottom of the sea. Wow!, after looking around I said to myself: 'I could do this for hours' .

And then some nausea kicked in, I slowed my movement and found out weirdly enough that: lifting up my feet and putting them down again in a walking rhythm really helped. I walked around for hours inspecting the fish, sharks, and other scenery.

At one point I found out i could jump up the side of a big rock until I got 'out of the water' (bubbles were still appearing). There I stood.. on a sandy mountain surrounded by a big skybox of clouds.. it was quite the sight.

I just enjoyed gazing at the clouds for a few minutes and then i decided to see if i could jump off, I could but I already knew there was no way back up and the experience of falling down to the bottom of the skybox was quite.. sickening. Luckily I kept my eyes closed through most of the falling.

That was enough for today, I had fun and my nausea is improving. Fun fact: the rift ocean map outline from below (falling down) is a circle, with a square sticking out at one side.

Programs used today:

OceanRift
Immersion: 4/5 (Don't have a body, good use of depth: seeing the sharks from below looks cool and so do the bubbles)
Fascination: 4/5 (Being below the water is a great experience)
Fun: 3/5 (No gameplay mechanics, but fun to explore)
Nausea: 3/5 (Under control if not moving too fast, it helps a lot to fake-walk with my feet)

Please excuse any grammatical errors / some spelling errors, I'm trying to type this out as I recall my experiences. I'm not trying to write a book, i'm not getting paid.

[snappahead]

Very nice. I personally will enjoy reading all of the posts you want to make here. I would imagine anyone who's still waiting will be riveted as well. Thanks for your thoughts so far. Im glad to hear things are getting better for you after the rough start.

[thatdude90210]

Try "Heli Hell" next. That's the demo that made me realized that VR is a whole new ballgame early on.

Tuscany & Rift coaster both didn't do that much for me. Rift coaster particularly didn't give me the kind of reaction I saw in youtube videos. And Tuscany made me motion sick due to ridiculous fast mouse movements.

[Invoke]

"Snappahead" wrote:
Very nice. I personally will enjoy reading all of the posts you want to make here. I would imagine anyone who's still waiting will be riveted as well. Thanks for your thoughts so far. Im glad to hear things are getting better for you after the rough start.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you liked it :). Yeah it's getting better but I wish getting VR-legs went faster.
I'll try to keep it coherent. 🙂

"thatdude90210" wrote:
Try "Heli Hell" next. That's the demo that made me realized that VR is a whole new ballgame early on.

Tuscany & Rift coaster both didn't do that much for me. Rift coaster particularly didn't give me the kind of reaction I saw in youtube videos. And Tuscany made me motion sick due to ridiculous fast mouse movements.

I'll try it tomorrow. Did you set everything up correctly, especially IPD and A lenses? Riftcoaster really relies on correct depth perception. When I use the mouse in VR I move it really slowly, I prefer the xbox controller.

[thatdude90210]

"Invoke" wrote:


I'll try it tomorrow. Did you set everything up correctly, especially IPD and A lenses? Riftcoaster really relies on correct depth perception. When I use the mouse in VR I move it really slowly, I prefer the xbox controller.

Yeah, calibration was the first thing I did. I even did the tweak for graphics for Rift coaster, something like the following: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1232

[gabbagod]

Great post! Keep it up, I also enjoy reading these, can't wait for more.

[robvld]

"Invoke" wrote:
Yeah it's getting better but I wish getting VR-legs went faster.

Ugh... I dont feel so good...
I feel like i am falling forward... hahahaha....

Current RazerHydra isnt working properly for me with HalfLife2

[MarkM]

Love the diary - keep going!

Does the IPD settings stick per demo?

Also when using a cup does moving the screen change how far seem to be away visually from your eyes reducing fov? Is it easy to get it back to factory settings?

[MarkM]

Love the diary - keep going!

Does the IPD settings stick per demo?

Also when using a cup does moving the screen change how far seem to be away visually from your eyes reducing fov? Is it easy to get it back to factory settings?

[Invoke]

"robvld" wrote:

"Invoke" wrote:
Yeah it's getting better but I wish getting VR-legs went faster.

Ugh... I dont feel so good...
I feel like i am falling forward... hahahaha....

Current RazerHydra isnt working properly for me with HalfLife2

Keep working on it :), baby steps.

"MarkM" wrote:
Love the diary - keep going!

Does the IPD settings stick per demo?

Also when using a cup does moving the screen change how far seem to be away visually from your eyes reducing fov? Is it easy to get it back to factory settings?

As far as I can tell the oculus config utility settings are 'global' so every supported app on your pc uses them.
You can move the screen closer/further away by using the side of a coin on the 'screws' on the side of the unit, there's a sort of notch between each step so yeah you can just turn it back by rotating the other way (make sure both sides are on the same distance!)