So i just got the Oculus Rift that i back on kickstarter like 8 months ago. The packaging was pretty epic, so much so that I almost did an unboxing video, but then realized those are super lame so I did not.

So i started up the demo it comes with and TF2 and here are my initial thoughts.

1) The head tracking is INCREDIBLE. When the world first loads, it is hard not to say "oh wow". Then when you move your head it feels so natural. Very very impressive

2) There is a lot of motion blur. I am sure this is just because it is a dev kit and maybe the refresh rate is a little bit low. But when you move, everything gets a little blurry but as soon as you stop moving, it gets back into focus. Not really a big deal.

3) It feels fairly comfortable. Very light and you really forget you are wearing a piece of head gear very quickly.

4) Text and HUDs are going to have to be completely re-invented. Problem is that where we currently expect HUDs to be (top, bottom sides) are now in the users peripheral vision. Humans are not able to make out thinks like text or fine details in our peripheral vision so nothing in a HUD can really be there. Problem is that unless you know where the users pupils are every frame, it is going to be impossible to know where a HUD needs to be.

However, there is one MAJOR FLAW. The motion sickness is unbelievable. Everything is fine until you move your character, that is when you feel a terrible wave of nausea almost instantly. To be fair, i do easily get motion sickness on boats, but that is about it. Never in a video game. Some people's brains are simply not equipped to handle this sort of interaction. The developer website has a very interesting article about it, i have quoted the overview below (it is pretty long and behind a log-in wall i think. PM me if you are interested in the whole thing).

I tried to force my way through but after less than 10 minutes, i could not take it any more. I had to lie down for the last 2 hours to recover and even now i still feel like i have a mild hang over. I am not alone in this either. As more people are getting their dev kits, we are seeing more reports of the exact same feeling.

Also, developing for it must be much more tricky then people are thinking. Valve has a great wiki on their experience and has put together a LONG list of tips. If programmers are going to have to customize all these crazy parameters to calibrate it for each person, there is going to be trouble. http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Oculus...User_Guide

I am a little disappointed as I had this whole vision in my head of sending my dev kit over to Esenthel and begging him to add support for the Rift as it is the future. Now sadly, I see we are not there in a Matrix/Ready Player One world ..... yet. Hopefully soon.

Oculus Developer Site Wrote:Apparent dissonance between the senses can lead the body to believe that something is wrong. One possibility for this is that we have been poisoned, therefore the brain causes feelings of nausea, and when extreme this leads to vomiting. Most commonly experienced when on moving vehicles, such as boats or the top floor of buses, this is called motion sickness. Normally this occurs when one set of senses (e.g. sight) is taking input from one reference frame (e.g. the inside of a vehicle, which appears stationary), whilst another (e.g. the inner ear - an inertial reference) is referring to another frame (e.g. if the vehicle is, in fact, moving/rocking).
Within VR these issues are inverted - from an inertial perspective you are relatively stationary, however from a visual perspective the body is moving. Nausea from such disparity could prove to be a major barrier to adoption of VR technologies. Some guidelines have been identified by trial and error, to minimise this nausea, and further investigations are needed. This page summarises both

Thanks for the first impressions. The motion sickness unfortunately sounds like a real showstopper for people sensitive to that sort of thing! Interesting your comments on the HUD positioning too, I hadn't considered that.

Early days yet so I'm hoping improvements can be made as game devs start to target these types of devices.

That's sweet!!!
The motion blur *could* be a TTF setting?

I too get motion sickness, even in non VR games sometimes. Overtime I have discovered that that secret is to avoiding it is to adjust the aspect ratio of the renderer to exactly match the physical aspect ratio of your monitor. This may be the same for O.R.?


Also try and minimise motion blur if its a setting/


Good luck with you motion sickness.

He says the included demo at 7.20 on the video is better then TF2

That tech demo does come compiled into and exe so I was able to try the same thing. My comments above were from trying both TF2 and that same demo. The tech demo was way better that TF2 but I still had that bad motion sickness.

Just a quick update, my friend came over and tried and felt no discomfort while he was in control of the keyboard so it does seem different for each person. I am going to try and "train" my brain to see if that helps. For those interested, I will update this post as I find things worth mentioning.

Thanks for the info on the device
It indeed looks cool, but yeah motion sickness can be a deal braker for many. I can get motion sickness too after many hours of car drive, or after boat ride which has lots of "swinging", so probably it's not for me either.

Motion sickNess can be relieved by looking at the horizon.

Motion sickness is caused by the disconnect that comes from either perceiving movement while not moving(such is the case with the OR), or moving while perceiving no movement (riding in a car/boat and looking at things that are also in the car/boat).
The only way to eliminate the motion sickness would be to emulate at least some of the movements represented in the game in a physical manner. I'd be willing to bet that hooking that up to a D-Box system would create an absolutely incredible and motion sickness-free experience.

Can't wait to be able to play with Google Goggles

Be interested to see if any of the Esenthel devs get this plugged into their games

Thanks for the impression.
An interesting fact what you wrote about the HUD. Maybe they could use a see-trough HUD that can be hidden by the player, closer to the center of the screen.

If you need a HUD that works with OR, I would think that Dead Space already nailed it.

The Hud problem sounds great. Personally I say screw HUD it ruins immersion. I agree with Rubeus, Dead Space definately did nail HUD down to the 'T'.

Luckily for me I don't suffer from motion sickness at all. In fact I can't remember being motion sick before. I can read for hours in a car an play portable games in a car without getting sick at all. Boats don't do it either. I have a suspicion that The VR might get me there but I think I can get used to it

X| really want one of these now.. If only I knew about it before OUYA I would have invested in it instead. lol oh well.

They are still taking orders for their dev kits, it's 300USD +postage.

Check this out, would go well with the oculus rift!





They should have a kickstarter soon.