Just ordered an Oculus Rift...first thing to do?

Headbust

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2003
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Hey, just got a OR CV1 in mint condition for $380 shipped.

Been following the rift for at least 3 years now and was really considering spending g upwards of $100 on a smart phone headset. Starting thinking though if I could find a OR for under $400 it would be better to go that route, which I ultimately did. ;)

What are the first things I need to do? Any good guides? Best games? Movies etc? System specs are fine and meet the requirements.


I know it's still in its infancy so I'm not expecting the world. I just like to have the latest abs greatest tech and will watch it unfold over the years.
 
Get the touch controllers with the extra sensor. The free games/entertainment stuff is pretty good. I have bought a few things but still looking for a good full movement game.
I would love to get 2 extra sensors and hang them from the ceiling for full room.
 
Get the free games, and check out the winter sale going on now in Oculus Home. Chronos is a great game, as is Damaged Core.

Since you got the Rift HMD so cheap you owe it to yourself to complete the kit and pick up Touch controllers. They really are worth the price.
 
Got a joystick? Go nab DCS World and take a few flights in the free Su-25T and TF-51D. It's like you're right inside the cockpit, and you'll quickly understand why DCS and Elite: Dangerous users who've tried them in VR have a hard time going back.

The Touch controllers are highly recommended if you can afford 'em, but I should mention up front that attempting to use just two sensor cameras in opposite corners has been very disappointing in terms of tracking reliability, to say the least. If you really want a reliable 360-degree experience, consider tacking on another $80 for an additional sensor camera.
 
If you have a driving game that already supports VR (project cars, euro/american truck sim) boot it up and just look around the car interior. That was a serious trip for me, i also ended up crashing while playing getting distracted by car interior detail.
 
Got a joystick? Go nab DCS World and take a few flights in the free Su-25T and TF-51D. It's like you're right inside the cockpit, and you'll quickly understand why DCS and Elite: Dangerous users who've tried them in VR have a hard time going back.

The Touch controllers are highly recommended if you can afford 'em, but I should mention up front that attempting to use just two sensor cameras in opposite corners has been very disappointing in terms of tracking reliability, to say the least. If you really want a reliable 360-degree experience, consider tacking on another $80 for an additional sensor camera.
I started playing a 360 game and the 3rd sensor is a must.
Let's see what the wife says when i hang a sensor from the ceiling fan.......
 
Ya, with Touch, if you are into any sort of room scale game/experience, I'd recommend the 3rd sensor as well. 2 sensors work, but tracking can really suffer if you do complete turns. It's been rock solid for me with 3 sensors though. I mounted both my cameras directly under my HTC Vive's lighthouse sensors, and then the 3rd perpendicular to the line formed by the other two. Works great!
 
Yes, 3 work very well. I accidentally ordered another controller set so I used the camera from it for my 3rd. I will keep the extra controllers in case I break the others.
I have the 2 mounted on the wall and the 3rd on the wall diagonal from the back. I looked up the best setting for 3 and that was it.
I crashed a controller on top of my monitor which good thing nothing broke. Only almost fell once, so not too bad.
 
For all of you with three sensors, how well does it hold up in the corner without a camera, and how big are your spaces?

I'm hoping to get a good portion of this 12'x12' room covered once this table's outta here, although I'll only have about 7'x7' free in the middle due to surrounding computer desks, maybe 8'x9.5' after some clever rearrangement. I just need that space tracked reliably, down to being able to pick objects right up off the floor.

I've even seriously considered four cameras in total just to ensure that my tracking doesn't go haywire at the worst possible moment no matter where in the play area I am.
 
I would position the 3rd camera directly opposite the other two to minimise large blind spots.
The chance of you going to the furthest reach of a corner is slim.
And even then, you can set it up so the cameras are not so close to you that they cannot track.

My best setup was achieved at my parents house where they have a bit more floor space and the 2 cameras were mounted lower.
(my setup -the camera sensors are about nose height, at my parents they were about chest height - a little better - but that might only apply to 2 cameras)
The area was a bit larger than 2m x2m.
The only problem tracking area was when turned directly away from both cameras which was a rare event.
And... when playing "The Climb", shaking hands to chalk them, our left hand would lose track during the shake.
I initially thought it wasnt fast enough but we found that it was because our left hands were always turning the sensors on the controller away from the camera when shaking.
Rotating our body or hand slightly inward fixed the problem entirely.
A 3rd camera directly behind would prevent it ever happening. I know I'm going to get one at some point, waiting for an offer :)
 
Raw Data is not for Oculus ... yet.
It works with Oculus Touch; I can confirm it myself. Thank goodness for that accidental $0.50 Amazon sale!

However, while it already uses the native Oculus API (it does the same thing Serious Sam VR: TFE does, launches SteamVR first for some reason despite skipping straight to the Oculus API), the inputs are still mapped with the Vive in mind. You see Vive controllers on startup, and the scrolling that would normally work for trackpads breaks with the analog sticks because of how they spring back to center.

Good thing I can set the grip control to advanced mode, which fits with every other Touch game. Not every Vive-first SteamVR game takes that into account.

The only catch right now is that there's no rotation control, so front-facing users won't be able to play properly. Gotta get additional cameras for room-scale, since two-camera 360-degree tracking just isn't reliable enough.
 
Got it yesterdays and all I can say is wow... better than I thought it would be. Played around with a few free games and videos and most were really good.

That free game, Jacks Tale or whatever it's called is the future style of gaming, or at least going to be a big part of it. While playing it was extremely cool because of the immersive visual effects. I found my self almost falling off my chair in certain transitions throughout some areas, I didn't even realize I was moving my body lol, that sealed the deal for me, this is awesome.

The Dreamdeck free app was pretty cool and the T-Rex is probably the coolest thing I have seen in 20 years of PC gaming/ usage. I have one question though....WTF are the rest of the dinosaur apps/games!!? Is there anything else out there other than that small snippet of a T-Rex? I saw a raptor game but didn't bother downloading it because the screenshots looked petty meh, the discovery I channel had a small scene with a brachiosaurus that lasted maybe 5-7 seconds. Need a dinosaur safari STAT! The next Jurassic Park movie could make a KILLING With this if they made it. Set these things up in Best Buy like back in 2005 when King Kong was everywhere in retail stores displaying how good HD was. JPark could do the same to promote VR as everyone loves dino's lol.

How does streaming from the Xbox One work/look? Worth it?

Any 3rd party app / game stores to look at other than what's in the Oculus store?


Only issues I see with the system...(no particular order)

1. To Many Wires, bandwidth is huge probably but it needs to go wireless all around.

2. Screen Resolution - screen door effect is obvious and not something I expected, but apparently this is normal with the rift and the vive at this point. Once this clears up it will be unbelievable visuals. When's the next version due out a couple years it sounds like?

3. Headset placement is very touchy. Need to get it just in the right spot to not be blurry. Wont go into details on my solution as I'm on my phone typing this novel out..

4. Content is lacking but I understand that, we are the first gen of a new gen.

5. Back and forth between headset and PC I didn't really like to much to install apps/games or whatnot. I believe there are are VR desktop apps already that would solve this though but the screen shots of those didn't impress me. Any opinions?

6. PC requirements will be the biggest thing prevent these from selling. No one I know will buy a $200-$300 graphics card let alone know how to install it themselves to play VR. I think Oculus and Vive need to include a set top box/console option that will include a graphics card that can be incorporated into someone's PC maybe through USB-C? Or just be completely standalone systems. I imagine it's going this way already since PS4 has there system, Oculus came with with a Xbox controller so the next versions of these systems may have the software and hardware requirements built in. The Rift headset would be just a option like the Kinect was.

Best Oculus forums in IYO?
 
My new favorite VR title is Tabletop simulator. If you like board games, cards ect playing it witht he touch controllers are pretty cool. I had my longest VR session ever playing blackjack. (3hrs)
 
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