Oculus Rift – Virtual Reality for the masses

The Purpose of this blog.

This blog details my journey in ordering, setting up and using the Oculus Rift. It is aimed at others who are setting out on the journey into Virtual Reality and I hope it may be of some assistance.

What is Oculus Rift?

The Oculus Rift is a head mounted display that is worn like a ski-mask and plugs into a computer.  It has two lenses inside that focus onto a screen onto which is displayed a movie or game.  Due to the magic of science the images not only appear in 3 dimensions but the viewer feels as though they are actually in the scene rather than just viewing it. This is known as ‘Presence’. Sensors attached to the front of the rift track your head movements so you can look around objects and even look behind yourself while in the scene.

A user is wowed by the Rift

Source: accessed 13/08/14 via Google Images

 

The Journey begins

I first tried an Oculus Rift at a presentation given at the Bridge Street Collective in Nelson early in 2014. Even though this was the first generation of Rifts (known as the Development Kit One or DK1) it was still very impressive. I felt that  I was actually inside the gallery, looking up at a  real statue of David. If not being supported by the bench and restrained by the computer cable I felt like I could walk around it and look at it from all sides. We also tried out the Tuscany demo which involves exploring a villa in Tuscany and admiring the view from the upstairs balcony.

Orders opened for the Development Kit 2 in early March 28/03/14. Due to production delays the first ones shipped late July 2014. I ordered mine on 28/03/14 and I’m still waiting  as at 14/08/14.

Tuscany demo – the demo that comes with the Oculus Rift!

Source: Oculus VR, accessed 14/08/14 via Google Images

 

reddit.com/r/oculus/

There is a great community of Rift users on reddit.com swapping information and experiences of using the Rift.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/oculus, accessed 14/08/14

 

Extra for the Rift

I have bought a X52 Pro flight control system for use with the Rift. This is a joystick and throttle which is the same as the one used in one of the best games so far for the Rift called Elite : Dangerous. It is a space adventure game where the player is pilot of a rocket ship exploring the galaxy while trading and fighting and is supposed to be totally amazing!

This will ameliorate one of the issues with the Rift in that you can’t see your real hands. This breaks the feeling of presence as you fumble around trying to find the correct key on your keyboard. With a proper control stick movement will be much more natural.

The X52 Pro by Saitek

Source Saitek.com (accessed 14/08/14 via Google Images)

 

 

 Cleaning the lenses

This issue has cropped up from some of the first people to receive their DK2 Rifts. It seems that the cleaning cloth included with the DK2 is too rough and causes scratches easily. Whether or not it is the cloth causing the scratches, it’s best not to use it and buy yourself a ultra-soft one from an optometrist or camera shop. A proper air blower should be used first to remove any large specks of dust. Then the lenses should be cleaned with a gentle stroking motion from the centre of the lens to the outside. Do not rub with a circular motion as this will scratch the lens.

Source: Zebrastealer, http://www.Reddit.com/r/oculus, uploaded 02/08/14, accessed 14/08/14

 

Motion Sickness 😥

One of the early issues of virtual reality headsets has been the motion sickness that many people feel while using it. My first experience was too brief to have caused any such problems but the second brought it on big time. I had been playing a series of game demo’s for about half an hour when it hit. Dune buggy was the culprit. I think I spun it once to often and felt very queasy. Even after taking off the headset I still felt really bad for about 1/2 an hour. This is not unusual and happens for some people when they are just walking around in a virtual world. The main cause of this is the latency between the movement of your head and the movement of the scene in front of you. This has been pretty much resolved in the Development Kit 2 (DK2) which is currently being shipped with the much improved head tracking. However spinning around in a dune buggy may still result in motion sickness. If you did this in real life you would probably feel sick too.

Dune Buggy demo. Very realistic – including motion sickness when you flip the buggy.

Source: http://www.share.oculusvr.com, accessed 14/08/14 via Google Images

 

Remedies recommended on Reddit:

1. Only go in for 10 minutes the first time and build up time spent in virtual reality (VR) slowly. As soon as you start feeling queasy, leave VR and go for a real walk!

2. Start off with games that don’t involve too much moving around until you get your VR legs. The feeling of motion sickness will reduce over time and some people even report becoming cured of their susceptibility to car sickness after using the Rift for a while.

3. No matter how much fun it appears, don’t spin your vehicle on purpose. Reversing can also cause sickness. Some games are worse than others for some people so if one game in particular makes you sick then avoid it and try something else. There are many demo’s available on the official Oculus VR website https://share.oculusvr.com/ so browse through them until you find some you can stomach.

4. Check your Frames-per-Second (FPS) is over 75. In some games like Live for Speed this can be done by pressing F9 or F11. Use low persistence mode.

5. Check your interpupillary distance (IPD) has been calibrated correctly using the Oculus set-up wizard.

6. Consume ginger/ginger beer before and during going in to VR.

7. According to research out of the MIT priming users about the possibility of motion sickness  before they begin using the Rift helps.

Source: http://mit.cos.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Surprising-Effects-of-Priming-on-Incidence-of-Simulator-Sickness.png (Uploaded to the internet 2013,Accessed 17/08/14).

 

Tune in next week for the follow-up post, ‘Selecting a new Personal Computer to run your Rift ‘.