I was surprised to see the Oculus Rift DK2 being used as an entertainment device in popular touristic destinations. The two demo stations I saw were located near the seaside and offered demos for pay.
The first one was in Odessa, Ukraine (at Arkadia). Participants would go on a virtual roller coaster ride while being moved around, by hand, in real life. Price was about €2, and the view was mirrored on a secondary display.
Last Thursday was a big day for Oculus VR. At their pre-E3 event the organization announced the consumer version of the Oculus Rift and talked about its features. A new (and quite surprising) reveal was the fact that the Xbox gamepad will be bundled with the Oculus Rift at release. The Oculus Touch controllers, which track hand movement, will only be available later (first half of 2016) and will have to be ordered separately.
In short, I think bundling a gamepad is a bad move, and it may push VR development in the wrong direction. Most notably, Palmer Luckey himself has always stressed that gamepad controllers are not suited at all for virtual reality experiences.
Traditional gamepads are not a good virtual reality input device. You really need something better. — Palmer Luckey, 2014
The Apollo 11 Virtual Reality Experience places you in the position of the astronauts who were the first to set foot on the Moon. The user gets to experience—in first person—how it feels to sit in the cockpit of the Apollo rocket at launch. In addition, video and audio fragments provide more information and contribute to the educational aspect of the application. The program is still in the development phase and has just reached the necessary funding on Kickstarter. Nevertheless, a prototype demo is already made available and I found it a very positive and promising experience !
Flight, once the dream of mankind, now an everyday reality. Judging by the number of white trails in the sky, thousands of people are whizzing over our heads as we speak. Still, airplanes and aviation never seize to amaze and excite (at least they do in my case…). For this reason flight simulation is one of the key virtual reality applications that catch my interest.
Virtual reality can uncover bugs that no one would have cared about in the peaceful world of 2D computing, such as game objects being off scale, clouds being “flat”, or bump maps looking “fake”. Today I noticed that the BMW Z4 in Assetto Corsa has the numbers of its gear indicator floating roughly five centimeters in front of the LCD screen. Without the ability to move your head around in the cockpit, this bug would simply not be visible.
A more important observation is that the BMW Z4 is a great ride in VR. The car is relatively stable and has a cockpit that completely surrounds the driver. This really enhances the comfort while driving in the Oculus Rift.
As indicated on the creators’ website Senza Peso is a “mini Opera” that guides you through a magical world, accompanied by music. It’s a short experience that positions the player in a boat which moves through several scenes. In certain scenes the player is floating in the sky moving away or to the boat.
The demo is nicely made and the atmosphere is compelling. The modeling is nice as well, although the DK2 probably doesn’t do it justice.
Racing in general is one of the main applications that I think are highly suited for the Rift. More specifically, I’ve been anxiously looking forward to the first version of Assetto Corsa that supports the Rift.
Assetto Corsa is a racing simulator by Kunos Simulazioni which is in Early Access stage and can be downloaded from Steam. Its focus is on realistic physics, and it has already implemented an impressive number of real-life cars and tracks that have been laser scanned to get all the details right (Silverstone, Monza, Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps, to name a few).
Today was a day without VR —or so I thought. Turned out that innovative developers and entrepreneurs have embraced the concept of the virtual reality headset and are using it in conjunction with their products. IMinds (the Flemish research center for innovative research and entrepreneurship) is celebrating it’s 10th birthday today, and I’m present at their event.
My settings for eye relief and IPD have been turned up and down in the past days, so I decide to check them and set them right. Again, the IPD measurement tool (the one with the green lines) does a good job. Measured IPD is 7.08cm, which is not too far off my own measurement using a mirror and a ruler (6.9cm). The eye relief is set “three steps away” from the middle position, which is also indicated in the Config Tool. A quick check in the demo room shows that all works out as expected, though not any different from how it was before.
Life for Speed is my stop for today —again— but in another car and on a different track this time. I pick the LX4, which as basically a Caterham Super 7. I love this car. It’s a pretty “raw” racing car: lightweight, rear wheel drive, and snappy in the corners. The open configuration (without the roof) is most fun.
The high visibility of the environment in this open car adds to the enjoyment.
For the record, I tried Life for Speed again today. There appears to be some “barrel” distortion when looking through the Rift, which is particularly noticeable in the menu screen. It becomes less obvious when pressing the goggles closer to the eyes (this is uncomfortable though). Strangely enough, adjusting the eye relief in the Config Utility has no impact on the barrel distortion.
Driving a couple of laps in the Formula XR (aka the “Banana”) and the BMW Sauber formula 1 feels OK, and the effect after driving has attenuated.
The Windows shutdown problem is really bothersome. Need to look into that…
Dionos VR 
