Oculus Rift is now shipping

[Freycinet]

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3zt7ul/i_am_palmer_luckey_founder_of_oculus_and_designer/

 

"I am Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and designer of the Rift. AMA!

I am a virtual reality enthusiast and hardware hacker that started experimenting with VR in 2009. As time went on, I realized that VR was actually technologically feasible as a consumer product. In 2012, I founded Oculus, and today, we are finally shipping our first consumer device, the Rift. AMA!"

 

- Price is $599, ouch...

 

Can't wait to see the first reports on how well it does in flight sims!

[Freycinet]

Oops, not quite shipping, that will only happen in March...

[II./JG77_Manu*]

I know already plenty of guys who have one of the Dev versions, so i guess the question how it does in flight sims is long answered

nothing really new now, the consumer version. VR is pretty much the holy grail for flight/space/racing sims..when you combine them with something like this the same applies for first person shooters or horror games. 

At the end it's only a financial thing i guess. I myself will wait a little longer, for second generation (better resolution) and the respective rig you need to be way cheaper then right now. 

Edited January 7, 2016 by II./JG77_Manu*

[BlackDevil]

At least half of the first customers will resell it, because they get sick. So there should be cheap ones on ebay soon

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

At the end it's only a financial thing i guess. I myself will wait a little longer, for second generation (better resolution) and the respective rig you need to be way cheaper then right now. 

 

My exact thoughts here. I'll hold out until prices are lower, Il-2 official support comes out and the systems themselves are a little more refined.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Lucas_From_Hell

[Potenz]

I don't that it will be a huge sales at release as for 600 the price is quite high for a peripheral.

[II./JG77_Manu*]

I don't that it will be a huge sales at release as for 600 the price is quite high for a peripheral.

what people don't get, it that the price for the Oculus itself is not the big deal. But to run it properly (games like DCS), you need a very expensive Rig. At least a 980Ti, and a good I7. You'll need at least a PC for 1500 quid. If the device is 200 more or less doesn't really change anything. Nobody is expecting huge sales. This is a brand new technology. Right now this is a technology for the so called early performers..well-heeled, tech-interested people. Same people who bought an HD-TV 10 years ago for 5000 quid. The first wave always has to pay a huge part of the R&D. Like any other technology, it will evolve, become cheaper, and more importantly the PC to run it will become cheaper, and then it reaches the mass market. When you are jumping on the train is completely your decision.

[Dakpilot]

Not only a good a very good PC but also decent ergonomic Hotas, no good fumbling for a keyboard you can't see...

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[II./JG77_Manu*]

Not only a good a very good PC but also decent ergonomic Hotas, no good fumbling for a keyboard you can't see...

 

Cheers Dakpilot

you actually can look out of the Oculus at the bottom side, and you can use a keyboard without moving the Oculus from your head. However it's not ideal (immersion goes away). If the Hotas doesn't have enough switches (for example jets in DCS), i'd rather buy/build an additional device like that 

[Dakpilot]

Yes that type of device would definitely be an improvement

 

Cheers Dakpilot 

[Freycinet]

I know already plenty of guys who have one of the Dev versions, so i guess the question how it does in flight sims is long answered

nothing really new now, the consumer version. VR is pretty much the holy grail for flight/space/racing sims..when you combine them with something like this the same applies for first person shooters or horror games. 

At the end it's only a financial thing i guess. I myself will wait a little longer, for second generation (better resolution) and the respective rig you need to be way cheaper then right now. 

 

I'm interested in the progress from the dev kits to the consumer version. Would be great to see someone take Il-2:BoS up for a spin...

 

I have the first dev kit as well, posted about it all the way back in 2013: http://www.flightsimvids.com/2013-10.Warthunder.with.Oculus.Rift/index.html:

 

"October 2013

 

I have seen the future of flight simming.

 

...And in one word (well, two) it is: virtual reality.

 

I got my Oculus Rift Development Kit in the mail two days ago. What is it? Well, no more than a couple of smartphone screens in a box, a pair of thick lenses creating a wrap-around field of view, foam padding and a big old strap to hold the contraption on the head, plus some wiring and fancy software. The skimpy download that went with it basically just consists of a set-up proggie and a demo: a Villa in Tuscany you can walk around in.

 

As the interior of the villa appears on-screen the magic begins. And it is that most believable of magic: the understated art of just rendering what your brain expects, what you would see if you actually stood in the villa. Look up, ceiling beams, look down, terracotta tiles, look left, a fireplace, look right, a painting on the wall. The viewpoint follows your head movements exactly, with no delay. You're THERE. It may be a bit of a blurry world, because the resolution is quite limited, but the feeling is that of being transported to another place, and it is real. Obviously it doesn't look like a real villa, it is after all just a rather low-poly model with so-so textures. But the feeling of moving in a three-dimensional space is absolutely real: true-to-life visual stimuli that convincingly overpower your body's remaining sensory apparatus.

 

On to flying! Best bet seems to be War Thunder, an online arcade flying game which implemented Oculus Rift support a few months ago. A game I normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, but well, beggars can't be choosers, it supposedly has gorgeous graphics and is one of the few programs that support OR. At least it is free-to-play at the level where I want to use it, namely just flying around. A 5gig download and some jumping through hoops later, and I am ready for take-off, in a P-36 Peashooter parked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

 

Let's get the downside out of the way first. Looking at the landscape, especially far-off bits, reminds you of one of those days where you leave your house and realise you forgot to put in your contact lenses. It is a somewhat blurry world, rather low-res, and no matter how much you squint you won't ever get details crisp and sharp. You're back in low-res, 1990s, European Air War territory, where objects first appear as indistinguishable blobs that later turn into pixelated shapes and only up close acquire recognisable features. Sounds rather underwhelming, doesn't it?

 

Well, it ISN'T! Because the illusion of being inside this make-believe world is totally real. The light and colours and depth are real, the heft and physicality of your cockpit, wing struts, fuselage and wings is absolutely real. As you roll along the runway on Hickam Field and slowly climb into the air, the sense of speed is visceral and very much felt in the seat of your pants. Shadows play in the cockpit and over the wings as you bank and turn inland towards the mountains. Approaching them, there is an almost dreadful sense of mass and humonguousness to them, with their high summits and deep valleys, covered in dense vegetation. You can't actually see the details of trees and shrubbery, but here you brain fills in the blanks, because the sense of being there is so real that the blurriness takes second place to the many other sensory inputs that  quickly overload your system.

 

You see, it isn't just an emotionally detached, academic, non-corporeal flying experience. No, no it isn't. It is a strong, physical, pervasive, overwhelming and somewhat scary experience of hanging in a flimsy craft, suspended over a massive, foreboding rock-solid landscape. Gone is the TrackIR ease of swiftly turning to check six with just a flick of your head. Here you have to twist your whole body and fight your reclining chair as you struggle to get your rudder into view. And you better do it while flying straight and level, because if you do it in a steep bank it is highly disorienting and nausea-inducing. This is not just an intellectual exercise, this is stomach-churning reality, reminding me of when I've gone up in a real-world glider and chased thermals in gut-wrenching spirals.

 

The Hawaiian landscape is supremely impressive and gradually I overcome the bodily discomfort that first kept me looking straight forward, not taking in the view at all, but just trying to keep control of my bowels. I manage to look around and take in the vertical cliff-faces, clouds clinging to mountain ridges, sunlit uplands and dark canyons. It is a fabulous playground to explore in three dimensions and I gradually engage in evermore daring maneuvers. The feeling of flight remains as visceral and physical as before but now I can begin to enjoy it. Climbing over a ridge, half-rolling and zooming downwards, inverted, in a vertiginous screaming dive is almost too much, but only almost. Popping over the edge, flipping on your back and seeing the deep chasm falling away below is terrifying, but the rush of following the mountain wall down and pulling out just above the palm fronds in the valley below is something I've never experienced in flight simming before.

 

How can it be so intensely physical, yet based on a mere visual input? I just sit in my office chair and yet I am getting clammy hands, cold sweat on my forehead and tension that tires my back and shoulder muscles? I think it must be because the illusion of being in a real space is totally convincing. All the little neurons, embedded in our brains since a distant caveman past, are firing like crazy and telling us that "HEY, you are in a highly dangerous situation here!" Booming and zooming around a jagged mountainscape is NOT a normal thing to do! Get down! So, based on pure visual stimuli, the body thinks it is falling, gyrating, accelerating, in a most unnatural manner. Flying, in short. And let me tell you: it is a level of excitement not seen in flight simming until now. The excitement, almost too much, almost unbearable, of actually, really hurtling through space. Welcome to the future of flight simming. It is stunningly intense and it will only get better."

Edited January 7, 2016 by Freycinet

[ST_Pirato]

You still would need to look at the device to hit the correct Button I think. VR will propably be the next big thing, in the next few years.

[JG27_Chivas]

PC VR would have died for another quite a few years,  if Oculus and Vive stuck to 200 to 400 HMD.  The four hundred dollar DK2 simply isn't good enough, especially for flight sims.   Like most other things the price will come down later.   It still remains to be seen if the custom optic lenses, and custom OLED displays with custom made VR features will be good enough. 

 

This certainly dispelled many peoples contention that Facebook was going to kill VR gaming.  The facebook deal allowed Oculus to build all the custom parts they required for the best possible gaming experience with its first consumer version.   It did price many people out of the market.

 

Its the same old routine from the fan base.   With the you promised scenarios.   There were no promises, first they hoped to keep it down to the two to four hundred range, when that wasn't possible they said it would be over 399, when they realized that for VR to decent they would need more custom parts, and they now had the monies to do it.

 

Don't expect the Vive to be cheaper.  I ordered the Rift right away, and will cancel the order if it appears the Vive headset will have specs better suited to flight sims.  I don't expect that to happen, but I don't care who makes the better gpu, or VR headset, and buy the one that best suits my needs, even if it is more expensive.

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Have any brave souls tried these, uh, field mods? Nothing sounds particularly promising but I suppose the precedent is there for the budget user, and with some optimisation... http://m.instructables.com/id/Stream-PC-Desktop-to-Phone-for-Virtual-Reality-Now/