I Found My Canvas - The Oculus Rift
About two weeks ago, on my way home from a particularly hard day at work, I found out a package had arrived for me. My chest was tingling. I was finally about to experience something that so far, not many people had. Time seemed to slow down in the car on the way home. Thoughts were racing. I could feel an excitement I hadn't felt since childhood.
Rewind back to March 23rd. I had just received my paycheck. I thought for a few moments holding my credit card in my hand, telling myself: "Come on. Don't wait. This is it. You know it is."
Subsequently, I made the best financial decision of my entire life. I entered my credit card number and I was soon to be one of the few lucky owners of an Oculus Rift Development Kit 2.
The following day, the big breaking news online was: "FACEBOOK AQUIRES OCULUS VR". As many I was not entirely sure what it meant and many questions arose. Would I get my Oculus Rift? Is it going to be delayed? Cancelled? What are facebook's plans for Oculus Rift?
I did not understand the overwhelmingly negative reaction from the community. Mostly repeated comments and caps lock filled blog posts about how facebook were going to make facebook games only for the Oculus. I saw no truth in that. When I saw how much(2 Billion Dollars) the aquisition was worth, I came to the conclusion that this could only mean good things for the future of OculusVR. Their hardware problems were instantly solved. They now have the possibility of hiring new talents that are experienced and motivated to create a VR headset that won't disappear as a enthusiast fad. But instead become something truly remarkable. And reading the official statements from both Palmer Luckey(creator of Oculus Rift) and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg I had no doubt in my mind everything was going to be alright.
Two weeks ago: Came home, cleaned some space. Then I unboxed the Rift once I'd felt I had glared at the box enough. Setting it up was no big issue, as there was a nice little instruction manual that took me through it step by step, as well as the great reddit page http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/ which I had been reading over the last few weeks, that guided me with troubleshooting and great tips on how to improve the experience, by users who had already gotten their DK2's and played around with it.
Everything was ready, and I downloaded a DK2 ready game called "Sightline". This game is designed to play with your senses, changing objects and your surroundings the moment you look away. The sensation is incredibly weird. It's one of the most relaxing and surreal interactive experiences I've ever had. And the truth is that what you see is too good to spoil, since there is no way I could come even close to describing it. Though I didn't notice it at first, I experienced the now well-known "judder" which occurs from time to time, depending on different reasons. "Judder" can produce motion sickness and eye strain, but it wasn't too bad the first time for a first demo.
The second game I fired up was "Titans of Space." Oh my god. I sat completely speechless for nearly the entire demo. Not only did the game run perfectly smooth, but I felt totally immersed. Sitting on a chair, in space. In front of me, a giant yellow fireball, our sun. I have never seen something so huge, and the sense of scale is ridiculous. In this game, relevant information about suns and planets are displayed on a screen in front of you, and the size of each object is displayed above them. There is a part in this demo that is beyond mind blowing. It's the part where you get to see earth compared to our sun. But then, the next sun that is even bigger than ours next to that one. And then another, and then HOLY SHIT! My mind had problems to even comprehend the size of what I saw. To see the horizon of the biggest sun, I had to look straight up, and straight down in the other direction. It's so fantastic and anyone owe it to themselves to try it at least once.
Later I learned that all the objects I had seen were all scaled to 1:100000. So whatever I saw in there, was actually one million times smaller than what it is in reality. I can't seem to get my head around that quite yet. Which is why I love it.
And here we are today. After dozens of demos that I've played and seen, including not only games, but also new ways if viewing media and movies I am convinced this is where the future of media will take place.
I even got my close friends and family members to try it, and seeing their reactions that were much stronger than mine, made me feel a lot better about my decision to buy a DK2. Because I didn't buy it to just play games in a new way, as a VR enthusiast, though I have no problem identifying as one at this stage. I was looking for a new canvas. Something I could use my skills in writing. illustration, editing and 3D animation to it's full potential and convey my ideas to others, in the most immersive way possible in a visual format.
Let's go to work.
Rewind back to March 23rd. I had just received my paycheck. I thought for a few moments holding my credit card in my hand, telling myself: "Come on. Don't wait. This is it. You know it is."
Subsequently, I made the best financial decision of my entire life. I entered my credit card number and I was soon to be one of the few lucky owners of an Oculus Rift Development Kit 2.
The following day, the big breaking news online was: "FACEBOOK AQUIRES OCULUS VR". As many I was not entirely sure what it meant and many questions arose. Would I get my Oculus Rift? Is it going to be delayed? Cancelled? What are facebook's plans for Oculus Rift?
I did not understand the overwhelmingly negative reaction from the community. Mostly repeated comments and caps lock filled blog posts about how facebook were going to make facebook games only for the Oculus. I saw no truth in that. When I saw how much(2 Billion Dollars) the aquisition was worth, I came to the conclusion that this could only mean good things for the future of OculusVR. Their hardware problems were instantly solved. They now have the possibility of hiring new talents that are experienced and motivated to create a VR headset that won't disappear as a enthusiast fad. But instead become something truly remarkable. And reading the official statements from both Palmer Luckey(creator of Oculus Rift) and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg I had no doubt in my mind everything was going to be alright.
The second game I fired up was "Titans of Space." Oh my god. I sat completely speechless for nearly the entire demo. Not only did the game run perfectly smooth, but I felt totally immersed. Sitting on a chair, in space. In front of me, a giant yellow fireball, our sun. I have never seen something so huge, and the sense of scale is ridiculous. In this game, relevant information about suns and planets are displayed on a screen in front of you, and the size of each object is displayed above them. There is a part in this demo that is beyond mind blowing. It's the part where you get to see earth compared to our sun. But then, the next sun that is even bigger than ours next to that one. And then another, and then HOLY SHIT! My mind had problems to even comprehend the size of what I saw. To see the horizon of the biggest sun, I had to look straight up, and straight down in the other direction. It's so fantastic and anyone owe it to themselves to try it at least once.
Later I learned that all the objects I had seen were all scaled to 1:100000. So whatever I saw in there, was actually one million times smaller than what it is in reality. I can't seem to get my head around that quite yet. Which is why I love it.
And here we are today. After dozens of demos that I've played and seen, including not only games, but also new ways if viewing media and movies I am convinced this is where the future of media will take place.
I even got my close friends and family members to try it, and seeing their reactions that were much stronger than mine, made me feel a lot better about my decision to buy a DK2. Because I didn't buy it to just play games in a new way, as a VR enthusiast, though I have no problem identifying as one at this stage. I was looking for a new canvas. Something I could use my skills in writing. illustration, editing and 3D animation to it's full potential and convey my ideas to others, in the most immersive way possible in a visual format.
Let's go to work.
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