

Top Rift Experiences Right Now - thenomad
http://www.oculusriftinfo.com/top-5-rift-experiences-right-now-august-2013-edition/

======
Sephr
I strongly disagree with placing Minecraft as the #1 Rift experience. In Half-
Life 2, aiming and looking are entirely discrete but in Minecrift (Rift
extension for Minecraft), looking and aiming are bound together and you can't
even aim upwards (mouse/hydra control is limited to horizontal movement only)
to mine tree blocks directly above you without looking 90° straight up and
having your headphones fall off.

It's not game-breakingly-bad, but it surely is bad enough that I wouldn't even
mention Minecraft in the top 5.

~~~
mscottmcbee
I've tried several demos, and Minecrift has been the only one I've gone back
to several times. When I tried HL2, there were perspective and latency issues
to the point that I couldn't play for more than 15 minutes.

~~~
OWaz
What do you mean by perspective issues?

~~~
simcop2387
I'm not sure either (don't have one to play with), but I'd suspect the FOV
being wrong could cause what some people would call perspective issues.

------
Andrenid
I'm surprised War Thunder isn't on the list. Has native Rift support already
built in, multiple views to choose from (pilot's eyes, virtual cockpit, etc),
and is ridiculously immersive.

It's one of the main demos all my friends flip out about, and has them talking
about for days after coming to my place and playing it.

~~~
thenomad
I put it in as an honourable mention. It's a spectacular demo, but the actual
gameplay I've found is pretty hard to get into, not helped by the "it's online
so you're terrified of the League of Legends effect" problem.

------
tessica
At Greylock HackFest two weeks ago, someone built the Oculus Drone
([https://github.com/feross/oculus-drone](https://github.com/feross/oculus-
drone)) which was a quadcopter-drone that could be controlled by the Rift. The
Rift would see what the camera mounted on the drone could see. I think that
made for an awesome experience!

------
netcraft
We got two rifts this last week. They really are incredibly immersive. First
law is definitely on my list to play - we just didn't have an extra controller
around the office. Some other good ones are the Unreal Dev Kit (seems it needs
a special build though) and another called Titans of Space.

~~~
rje
First Law dev here - I'll have a new build coming out soon that has better
support for more controllers and keyboards. Hope you enjoy it!

~~~
netcraft
That will be amazing - I was just reading your blog earlier - I like how
you're going about things and it really seems you're on a great track. Let me
know if you need a beta-tester! Keep up the good work.

------
reustle
> “what? I’ve been in here for an hour?”

I think the "in here" is key. As everyone has been saying, this is a whole new
way to think about HMI.

~~~
thenomad
Definitely.

It's very telling that my girlfriend and I have both started to refer to Rift
time as time "in the Rift".

------
momerath
Show HN?: [http://www.vendetta-
online.com/h/news_27833.html](http://www.vendetta-
online.com/h/news_27833.html)

~~~
thenomad
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out for next month's column.

------
Fuzzwah
My good friend Teddy (who I co-project managed the HL2 mod Dystopia with) is
the guy behind the Cover Shooter demo.

[https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2915](https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2915)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSoj9EU7pWs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSoj9EU7pWs)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CaUoAVck6g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CaUoAVck6g)

I'm definitely eager to see what the specs are for the initial mass market
release of the Rift is.

~~~
thenomad
Cool - it's a spectacularly cool idea and a great proof of concept.

------
StavrosK
Isn't the Rift not out yet? I mean, not even close to out? Why are people
worried about the experiences?

~~~
anjc
Because lots of people (e.g. me) have the dev kit and want to get a grasp and
what new experiences it can offer.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh, the dev kits are out? How is it?

~~~
incision
Yeah, kits shipped in March. The hardware is incredibly polished for something
that popped up on Kickstarter 7 months prior.

It's comfortable, tracking works wonderfully. The only downside is the
relatively low resolution - which it's said will change significantly by the
time a consumer version ships.

Still, I place it on a very short list of truly remarkable experiences
involving technology.

The impact of the experience is hard to compare, this video [0] might give you
an idea how convincing it is to put it on for first the time.

I'm very excited about what will come about as we move out of the stage of
cool tech demos and existing games + head tracking to experiences fully
conceived with the rift in mind.

0:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oqazo3ZEnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oqazo3ZEnY)

~~~
xelfer
Is the poor resolution just the first generation devkits or does it still seem
low on the updated 1080p versions?

~~~
incision
As I understand it the 1080p Rift is a prototype for demo purposes only [0].

Also, I wouldn't say the resolution is "poor". Again, it's hard to describe,
but it 800x640 presented through the Rift is a lot nicer than it looks on
paper.

0:
[https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3...](https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3259)

------
mp3geek
I would've thought TF2 would be on that list..

~~~
thenomad
I like playing TF2 on the Rift - the "I AM SHOOTING WITH MY FACE" aspect is
fun - but it's just too vomit-inducing for me, and most people we've tested it
on.

Great fun if you don't get motion sick at all, otherwise... not ideal.

As the comment below indicates, it's also very similar on and off the Rift -
no real "wow, VR" moment.

