The Oculus Rift Review
A Dream Becomes An
Impressive (Virtual) Reality
I first saw Oculus Rift in June 2012, when John Carmack showed
me a primitive version of Palmer Luckey's hardware running Doom 3 - and I do
mean primitive.
I first saw Oculus Rift in June 2012, when John Carmack showed
me a primitive version of Palmer Luckey's hardware running Doom 3 - and I do
mean primitive. Carmack warned of all the problems with head-tracking, latency,
and low resolution, but he also noted with a bit of glee that it was the best
demonstration of what was possible in virtual reality to date, and he noted
that many of the problems would be solved quickly considering the speed at
which VR innovation was happening.
I wasn't
sold at that exact moment, but I remember saying to myself that while it was
flawed, there was something there. It provided a glimmer of what we would come
to call "presence" - that feeling of physically being in a virtual place and
time.
All those problems Carmack listed were solved rather quickly. In August 2012, Luckey launched
the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign. It quickly raised $2.4 million and
ignited the imagination of gamers and game developers everywhere. The next big step
for Oculus was Facebook's purchase of the company on March 25, 2014, for $2
billion in cash and stock, which immediately put VR in the world spotlight.
A lot has
changed from that original Rift prototype. The rush of investment dollars has
fueled innovation and pushed the hardware forward at a breakneck pace, and the
excitement from the development community is unlike anything I have ever seen.
The Oculus
Rift is the first consumer unit in this new age of VR, and we finally get to
examine the product in the wild. I have been playing games in VR in bits and
pieces for the last few years, but for this review I played with the final Rift
daily for several weeks and I'm thrilled to share my verdict.
The Hardware
It isn't cheap. For $599 you get the Oculus headset with
appropriate support pieces, including an Xbox One controller, the Oculus
remote, and the sensor that reads the location of the head-mounted display (the
unit that you strap on your face). And that's not factoring in the cost of a
high-end computer necessary for running the headset. The unit is tethered to
the PC, so it is limited to standing and sitting experiences, and the sensor
must have a clear line to the head-mounted display.
These are the
basics needed to make VR work without making you unsettled. The camera tracks
the headset (working in concert with the gyroscope and accelerometer built into
the unit), so when you move your head in VR, the world reacts accordingly. Your
brain is not easily fooled; it expects the world to behave within certain
rules, and when "what you see" doesn't match up to "what you expect" your body
lets you know it.
Setting up
the Oculus is surprisingly easy. Its software walks you through installation,
and anyone who has plugged a keyboard into a computer before and knows the
difference between USB and HDMI should be able to complete the process. After
you set up the hardware and create an account, all you need to do is download
some software and install it. This process is painless.
The unit
has two AMOLED displays that deliver resolution at 1200x1080 per eye and
refreshes at 90Hz. The refresh rate of 90 frames-per-second is basically the low-end
threshold for VR games, as they must run at 90 frames per second or the user
experience suffers. Early versions of the Rift suffered from a "screen-door
effect" that made it look like you were viewing the world through a bug screen,
but the final hardware seems to have solved this issue. That's not to say that
the worlds are crystal clear; you occasionally see a flicker, or the world might
appear like you are looking through a lens - because you are.
That said,
the performance of the head-mounted display is impressive. The Oculus delivers
a believable virtual-reality world. I wouldn't go as far as to say my mind
was completely fooled into thinking I was there, but playing games this way takes
immersion to another level. The current screen resolution is more than enough
to deliver a fantastic experience,
the refresh rate is acceptable, and the head tracking feels precise.
The Oculus
hardware is surprisingly elegant considering that it makes users look a little
silly with the thing strapped onto their heads. Function is clearly valued over
form, but kudos to Oculus for creating headgear light enough to be comfortable. Wrapped in fabric to give it a warm, inviting feeling more akin to a piece
of clothing rather than a hunk of plastic technology.
The unit
uses a series of adjustable Velcro straps to customize the fit, but the harness
is spring-loaded so it can stretch as you place it on your head for an easy
transition from reality to VR. That is, unless you have glasses - but I'll get to
that later.
The trick
to wearing the Rift is to let the tracking triangle at the back of the main
strap take the bulk of the weight. Think of it like putting on a baseball cap -
you want to nestle it to the back of your skull then let that work in concert
with the straps to hold it up. While you still have to put a bit of pressure on
your face, preventing it from crushing your skull makes the whole
experience much more pleasant.
After you
have the unit on your head, there is a built-in mic for chat and it's easy to
align the integrated headphones (though you can remove them with an included
tool if you have other headphones you prefer to use). The integration gives you
one less thing to fumble with, and the headphones deliver a more-than-adequate
audio experience. I picked up audio cues from all around me, and while the
headphones don't completely cover the ears, they drown out outside noise
surprisingly well. They also make it easy to free one ear by simply sliding one
of the ear pieces back to interact with anyone that walks up (though talking to
people while wearing a VR headset feels just as silly for you as it does to the
people you are interacting with).
Overall, I
can't complain about what Oculus is delivering for the price, since it includes
a lot of impressive technology. However, people who wear glasses will have a
harder time appreciating it. If you have small frames you may be all right, but I
needed to wear my contacts to enjoy the Rift. The image was clearer since I
didn't have the headset sitting in odd positions to accommodate my glasses.
Wearing contacts also made it bearable to take the headset on and off. Otherwise,
I had to take my glasses off, insert them into the unit, and then place the
whole contraption onto my head. As I mentioned before, it didn't fit quite
right even then, and the pressure it put on my frames resulted in headaches,
creating an uncomfortable vice effect that made me worry about the damage it
may be causing to my glasses.
The one
knock I have on the Rift is Oculus didn't include a pass-through camera so the
user can see the real world through the head-mounted display. This decision was
probably made to keep costs down, but the inability to see the world around
you can be frustrating. I'd place the unit on my head, then realize I hadn't
put the controller in my lap, and because I wouldn't want to deal with seating
the thing on my face again I would feel around like I was wearing a blindfold
to find the controller or remote. I would cross my legs and put my knee into
the underside of my desk on a fairly frequent basis. People snuck up on me
numerous times as well, but I guess that is the price for presence.
You can't talk about the Oculus
Rift without bringing up the PC that you need to run it. The minimum spec requirements
aren't low.
or greater Processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater Memory: 8GB+ RAM Output: HDMI-compatible 1.3 video output Inputs: 3x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 2.0 Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or newer
Oculus offers an app that you can
download to test your hardware to see what you need to upgrade to run the Rift, but this isn't average PC hardware; unless you purchased your hardware
recently, most will need to upgrade or buy a new computer altogether. Oculus is
working with Alienware, Asus, and Dell to offer Oculus-ready PCs to purchase
that start at $949 with the purchase of a Rift, but that puts minimal entry-level costs of entering the Rift north of $1,600 if you get all the discounts.
Without them, I put the entry price at about $2,000 if you don't already have a
rig.
All told,
the Rift comes at a cost. But is the experience worth it?
The Experience
When you first put the Rift on, you are greeted by Oculus Home,
a giant modern room with three panels for managing friends, recent software, and
a center screen that can be toggled between featured items, the store, and your
entertainment library. It's intuitive, as you can use a controller to select
things or you can navigate with a small dot (essentially a "mouse" pointer that
you move with your head). Conversely, you could download and install games from
the app on a standard PC monitor, then just fire the entertainment from inside
the Rift. Finding entertainment is functional, but the storefront doesn't have
all the bells and whistles, like parental controls, wishlists, or patch notes.
A number of movies are available to
watch, as well as a few demos to play with that show some interesting things
that can be done in VR, but the real attraction for the Rift at this point is
the games.
The overall
launch line-up offers an impressive degree of variety. One of the great things
in VR is that simple things are once again amazing. I've looked at tons of
computer monitors and read plenty of notes in games, but this mundane activity
is a fresh experience in VR. You lean over books in Chronos, and can flip the
pages. It's not exactly groundbreaking, but the way VR draws you in is what
makes it special.
Take VR Tennis Online, for example.
Playing tennis with the gamepad has been done before, but the ability to read
the ball in virtual space makes it more interesting. When you are serving and you
toss the ball over your head, you instinctively look up to get a read on the
ball. Is this game better than other tennis games? Probably not, but the
immersion of VR makes it a singular experience. Normally, I wouldn't play a
modern tennis game for 10 minutes, but I'll play for hours in VR.
The range
of game experiences is more impressive than just reading pages and tossing
tennis balls. Scale goes hand-in-hand with how presence works. Think of the way
you play games now as watching the fishbowl from the outside. In VR, you
stick your face in the fishbowl, so everything takes on a completely different
scale. It's the reason no screenshot can do VR justice; it simply doesn't give
you the correct scale of how you see the space.
At times you
see games like they are toys, with the world spread out before you like you're
surveying a tabletop board game. In these examples, you usually control the
action from third-person, but you feel like you are sitting in first-person at
the table, effectively manipulating the world.
1. Chronos
2. Adr1ft
3. Radial-G
4. Lucky's Tale
5. Darknet
6. BlazeRush
7. AirMech: Commander
8. Pinball FX2 VR
9. EVE Gunjack
10. Henry
Great examples of this in the
launch line-up are the real-time strategy game AirMech: Command, the
platformer Lucky's Tale, and the racer BlazeRush, all of which are charming and
fun, as well as surprisingly immersive. We instinctively think VR means
experiences have to be in first-person to deliver presence, but these games
show that different perspectives still deliver a powerful effect.
Other titles forgo the included
Xbox One controller as your main input and use your gaze as the primary
targeting device. A couple of my favorite examples of this are EVE Gunjack, a
shooter that puts you in turrets fighting waves of enemies that attack in
various formations (think VR Galaga), and Darknet, a puzzle game that challenges
you to hack various defense nets in cyberspace. Using your gaze to target is easy,
particularly in Gunjack. Normally in a turret game, you see the threat and then
react - but in VR, you're already there.
All entertainment
for the Oculus Rift comes with a comfort rating: Comfortable, Moderate, or
Intense. When you turn, twist, or rotate in cyberspace, the intensity ratchets up,
which is why Adr1ft and EVE Valkyrie are two of the most talked-about games for
the Oculus (though I think Chronosis the best game in the launch lineup). Both take place in space and are well-produced VR
experiences, and both give you a real taste of how VR can produce a sense of presence.
In Valkyrie,
you pilot spaceships in a short campaign mode and in multiplayer matches, and
while the experience is limited, the sensation of flight is the main
attraction. You have a virtual body and cockpit, and since you can use a
controller or a flight stick to pilot the craft, it leaves you free to look
around, which gives you that feeling of "being there." That ability to control
the camera and move at the same time is how you drive a car or ride a bike. Virtual reality brings that intuitive experience to piloting crafts, and Valkyrie
delivers that experience.
Adr1fttakes another approach to space, as it puts you in the role of an astronaut
coming to just as your space station is torn to bits. Your job: Get home. You piece together the story and solve various puzzles as you work your way
through the tatters of your off-planet home, but everything takes on another
level of intensity in VR. Your helmet is rendered, so it gives this eerie and
claustrophobic feeling of being helpless in the emptiness of space. Your heart
pounds in your ears, and you even the slightest nudge sends you tumbling. It's
easily the most intense experience on the Rift, and might even be too much for
some. But when you come out of an airlock, with debris bouncing off your
helmet, your heart pounding in your ears, and suddenly your stomach sinks as
the vastness of space finds you floating thousands of miles above earth -
that's a testament to the power of VR. It's both beautiful and terrifying all
at once.
Adr1ft was
one of the few games to give me the queasy feeling that is so often mentioned
when talking about VR, but the game wants to make you uncomfortable. Think of
VR as an amusement park; some people crave bigger and better roller coasters
that push the boundaries of what we can take physically, and others skip those
experiences and choose to ride the teacups.
The Oculus lineup does a good job
of bringing lots of options so everyone can find something that fits the
parameters of their VR sea legs. A couple of experiences got to me, but usually
I found that bad software led to poor experiences. For example, Radial-G might
be the most intense ride of the launch line-up, but it never hiccups and the
world feels believable, so it never made me uncomfortable. Others might not
find it as inviting, and this variance from one user to another is why making
blanket recommendations is difficult. However, user experience will inform the
software community, and that I think things will only get better in the future,
both in the experiences built in VR and the way we communicate discomfort so
people can find the rides that suit them.
All told,
the Oculus software lineup offers a lot of variety, especially at launch. That
said, there is no system-seller level piece of software yet. While I expect
there to be a lot of software over the coming years, it is unlikely that VR's
smaller install base in these early years will allow major software investment at
the triple-A level anytime soon.
The Conclusion
Virtual reality is an amazing new dimension to gaming and
entertainment as a whole, but it's hard not to talk about virtual reality, and
specifically the Oculus Rift, right now without bringing up the price.
If cost is a major concern for you,
you will likely be disappointed; even though the current offering is
impressive, no gaming entertainment can live up to VR's current price tag in
the PC space, be it Rift or Vive. But if you have the means, or you are an
enthusiast who can overlook the price for the power of the experience, the
purchase is worthwhile. Oculus is impressive on so many levels, and after
spending endless hours with the unit, I'm drawn to VR like a moth to flame,
and I find the hardware execution of the Rift's head-mounted display to be
second to none.
The games aren't as advanced
as current console triple-A titles, but they are different experiences and
bring a different type of fun and wonderment to gaming and entertainment.
Watching movies, using a virtual desktop, looking at VR images - it all brings
with it a certain sense of awe. Could this luster of novelty wear off? I can't
answer that question with certainty. I believe that as the technology advances,
and as developers learn to take advantage of it, we will see VR as the ultimate
way to experience entertainment. I feel Oculus is at the cutting edge of
this form of entertainment, but we aren't there quite yet.
Oculus shipped without the Touch motion
controllers, which still don't have a price point, but controllers created for
interacting in cyberspace are essential to the future of any VR platform. We
will see a lot of innovation in that space and in the technology that fuels VR
over the coming years. Oculus Rift is something you buy to be in on the ground
floor and experience the amazing beginnings of this technology, as this time
it isn't some undercooked 1990s VR experience, Oculus Rift is proof that VR is
the real deal. Even though its Touch hardware is coming out at a later date, the
Rift offers the best package for VR. The unit is sleek, the software offerings
are varied, and the overall package feels more tailored like a console launch
than a PC testing ground.
The Final Grade: B
Virtual Reality still has a way to go before it will be in
every household, but Oculus Rift is a strong first step. The Oculus launch lineup
is solid, with more than a few bright spots. It's a shame Touch wasn't
available out of the gate, as adding controllers that interact in virtual space
is something that makes VR shine, however I can't help but be impressed with
the Oculus Rift, despite its steep cost and minor standard-of-living issues
like comfort for people who wear glasses and the lack of a pass-through camera.
If you can afford the Rift, I don't
think you will be disappointed. You will find experiences that are indeed
singular and spectacular, but this really is only the beginning. If the price
is too steep for you right now, not only will the technology improve in future
versions, but the software will be more mature, and the cost will come down to
a more consumer-friendly price point over time. But definitely get out there
and try out the Rift if you do nothing else.
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