Seated experiences

The demo room is my first stop to check if everything is working as it should. The tracking works and the perspective feels about the same as the day before. Like before, the view does tend to “zoom” in or sometimes move in the same direction after a quick head movement, which doesn’t feel entirely right.

Sightline: The Chair

For a more compelling experience, I have Sightline: The Chair installed. Starting the experience in “direct to rift” mode works just fine. The in-game menu is an example of how it can be done right: the menu is presented in front of you in the shape of a large disk. All the menu options are listed on this disk, and items can be highlighted with the up/down cursors (as in a traditional game).

Sightline: The Chair utilizes the Rift’s abilities well and encourages you to look around

When selecting the “normal” game mode, Sightline places you in a chair (who would have guessed :p ) at a wooden desk. That way, it somewhat resembles the demo scene, although in this case only the desk itself is lighted. The surrounding room is all pitch black. Head tracking works, although it’s just a tad less refined compared to the demo scene in the sense that it doesn’t feel as natural (maybe it is still less optimized?). Sightline is based on an relatively simple principle: when turning your head, the objects and surroundings outside of your view can change. I find this an interesting game mechanic that utilizes the Rift’s abilities well and encourages you to look around.

 

While I feel a bit queasy when looking at objects that are near, far-away buildings and structures were more pleasant to watch. Perhaps head movements have a stronger effect on the perspective of nearly objects compared to far-away structures. The first may be more discomforting when the perspective is a bit off—just taking a guess here. Running the scene for the first time I also got some judder when the environment became clouded in. In later sessions this didn’t occur anymore, so I can’t pinpoint the cause.

 

The space scene is truly amazing

Sightline is a great experience and is really “made for the Rift”. For demo purposes this is ideal, because it focuses on looking around and puts you in a seated position. I feel a bit light-headed after trying Sightline, but it’s not bad at all. The more prevailing feeling is: weee, I actually did something in VR!

Live for Speed

Life for Speed (LFS) used to be my favorite racing simulator in the last 10 years or so. In terms of graphics and sound it’s already surpassed by newer simulators, such as iRacing or Assetto Corsa. The physics of LFS are still great though, and it has recently received an update making it compatible with the DK2.

Configuring LFS for the Rift is relatively easy: set the Rift top extended mode, change an option in the menu and restart LFS. I’m trying the XR GTR racing car at Blackwood GP (those familiar with LFS will know the track by heart).

LFS has configured the F8 key to reset your view in-game.* This does show the need for the consumer version the Rift to have a button on the headset that all games can use that to reset the view. After being seated comfortably behind the wheel (real life and virtual) I am amazed by the view. My god, I am actually IN the car. It’s incredibly cool to look around, seeing that there are actual (left, right and center) mirrors to watch. The car also feels very tangible and the scale feels right. In fact, I find I am surprised of the low ceiling that the car has, it feels as if you can touch it in real live. Very surreal, yet very cool, and the car hasn’t even moved yet.

There’ are a couple of downsides as well: the perspective doesn’t feel exactly right when moving around in the cockpit (not that much of an issue), and the image stutters quite heavily during head movements. [Later I will find that this is due to the fact that v-sync was off, turning it on fixes the judder]. Additionally, the Rift’s cable is a bit awkward because it’s often in the way.

Actually driving the car is interesting. I’m going at a snale’s pace towards the first corner. Turning the wheel to the right… wow, cornering does feel a bit weird. Looking into the corner is still a bit disorienting and cornering in general sometimes gives a “feeling” in the stomach. Driving straight is no problem at all though. After a couple of laps I take a short break. Live for Speed is definitely worth visiting when you have a DK2!

Afterwards, I can’t resist to try Sightline one more time (the city scene is truly impressive), and to take out some cars during two LFS sessions. Both experiences are definitely worth it. Also I feel OK afterwards, with only a small hint of queasiness.

See you next time!

Again Windows refuses to shut down properly.

*Having to remember a different key to reset the view in each application is a nuisance. On the consumer version of the Rift it would really be useful to have a hardware “reset view” button on the headset that works in all applications.