1st time with the Oculus Rift CV1!

[Lewis - A2A]

Been a Vive user for a couple of weeks or so now, ill write more later but very glad I went Vive the sitting, standing and room scale experience is quite simply out of this world. oh my god, the future is now and its fricken awesome. Ive flying in virtual planes, raced virtual cars, piloted spaceships, played games that otherwise only exist in the game TRON, and felt like ive travelled so far without ever leaving the room. Ive even had a game of virtual pool with Michal in Poland, and could stand next to him see how tall he was (hes a bit taller than me) and just felt like he was right here in the room with me.

cheers,
Lewis

[Bosko]

I received my Oculus Rift on Saturday. Overall verdict is I'm really impressed with it but it still needs some work before it's something I'd recommend for mainstream gaming.

First thing, of course, was doing some flying! FlyInside is a nice piece of software. It works perfectly with P3D. Once the Comanche loaded up I felt like I was sitting inside a real one! The first thing I noticed was just how small the cockpit is. That was really cool. You get a great sense of scale. Flying around was a very immersive experience as well. I actually felt a little bit of my fear of heights for a couple moments. I'm really good at landing with the Comanche, but it was even easier while using the Rift. Something about the field of view or being "inside" the plane makes you more aware of just how high above the runway you are. It's hard to explain...

The T-6 was also really fun. It was cool being able to lean my head out the window while taxiing. Warbirds seem the best choice IMO for VR as they are today. With all the instruments right in front of you, it makes reading them easy.

The unit itself is quite comfortable. It's not too heavy that it tries to droop down in front. I could wear it for a few hours without getting uncomfortable. The frame rate was surprisingly smooth also. I was expecting some more stuttering or "slide show" moments, but they were almost non-existent. I flew around Juneau, Alaska with Orbx Southern Alaska and Active Sky Next going and had no problems. I also flew around Orbx's Southern California region, which typically is the hardest on my system and was also pleasantly surprised. It definitely had some hiccups in that region but not many.

Like I said though, it still needs some work. The field of view could be a bit bigger. The resolution is not great. I didn't have much trouble reading steam gauges but it's still a lot less clear than using a regular monitor/TV. On the T-6, you can't read the text on the switches on the right side of the seat, for example. You'd have to lean in close to read them. It's not a big issue if you're familiar with it. In the Comanche, I know all the switches so well I don't read the text on them anymore anyway. Still, the resolution is a pretty big negative. I'd guess once we're in the Nvidia 1100 or 1200 series of cards, they'll be good enough to power a VR set at high resolution.

If I move my head too quickly, I feel a little sick for a moment. Doing any aerobatics will make me a little sick also, although not as bad as when moving my head quickly.

The biggest negative so far with P3D is that glass panels are almost completely unreadable. So far I've tried the GTN650 and the little GPSMAP 295 and they are completely useless in VR. I suspect it has something to do with frame rates. If you've ever recorded a TV screen with a camcorder then you know what I'm talking about. The screen flickers so much that it's unreadable. If you could get the GPS screens frame rate in sync with the headset then I think the issue would go away. I'm hoping this may be something that can be fixed by tweaking some settings, but if not then it's a shame.

Overall, it's a very impressive experience and I'll likely use the headset more than I don't in P3D, but it's hard to recommend yet. I haven't tried any of the other games available for it so I'm not able to speak on those yet.

-Brendan

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

Been a Vive user for a couple of weeks or so now, ill write more later but very glad I went Vive the sitting, standing and room scale experience is quite simply out of this world. oh my god, the future is now and its fricken awesome. Ive flying in virtual planes, raced virtual cars, piloted spaceships, played games that otherwise only exist in the game TRON, and felt like ive travelled so far without ever leaving the room. Ive even had a game of virtual pool with Michal in Poland, and could stand next to him see how tall he was (hes a bit taller than me) and just felt like he was right here in the room with me.

cheers,
Lewis

Man I am missing out.
O.K. you have me convinced to get off my vintage 90's PC and PC games collecting binge and
save up for a new PC setup with this VR stuff.It sounds a lot like the Holodeck from Star Trek The next generation.