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Wed, 28 Dec 2016So having tried out the HTC Vive two weeks ago, I decided to go to Best Buy and give the Oculus Rift a try. The Microsoft Store had more of an area set out for the Gear demo, the Rift area was smaller and not partitioned off. The demo guy worked for neither Best Buy nor Facebook/Oculus, but for a third party - but was more connected to Facebook/Oculus than Best Buy. The setup had the Rift, a sensor, Rift headphones, and the new Oculus Touch controls. I put on the headset and then the touch controls. Like the Vive, you can see your virtual hands in front of you. You begin in something like a hotel lobby which is a waiting area of sorts. Then you're put on the edge of a skyscraper, and can look over the edge. I definitely had some visceral feeling of vertigo doing that. You're also put in a museum with a rampaging dinosaur, which looked real enough. You also get to watch two little towns operate. You also meet an alien. I believe this is the "dreamdeck" demo, although I don't recall seeing robots. Then you're in an empty VR room and you learn how to use the touch controllers. Then you can choose what app to use - I chose Medium, a sculpting app. It's cool, you choose if you're left or right handed. Then the left hand does things like undo the last thing you did with your right hand. You get to sculpt a 3d tree. Your right hand keeps transforming from one tool to another - first you place your tree upright, then add branches, then add more bulk to the trunk, then sculpt down the branches, then add leaves etc. 3D sculpting. Your right hand transforms from one tool to another depending on the job. In my experience, the Vive felt more like 3d, the Rift felt a little more like I was looking at two screens. Although as I adjusted the headset it felt less like that - I'm not sure if that was the Rift or me just not tightening it properly. One nice thing about the Vive demo was some of it was a little less guided - I could move around and manipulate what I wanted. The Oculus demo was guided each step. Still it was pretty awesome. This is just the first generation, they'll get better and cheaper as time goes on. VR is obviously already here for early adopters, with killer apps and cheaper and better hardware it will take over the video game market. |
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