Oculus Rift Review - Tom's Hardware

Tom's Hardware: If the next chapter in PC gaming is about to be written, that future begins in earnest today with the first commercial shipment of the Oculus Rift arriving in homes starting now. Four years of investment, tinkering, development kits, showcases and hype have trampled a path to the moment of truth, and while there is surely much more work to be done, it's time to see where we are, and whether it was worth the wait.

[Cdn_Seahawks_Fan]

If only I had a PC that could run the games. Oh well, console gaming continues for me.

[MasterCornholio]

I'm sure PSVR will work just fine.

:)

Its the experience that counts.

[Skattman]

Unless that is, it's the Xbox One you speak of... SMH

[Wallstreet37]

I like Toms Hardware reviews and previews. This sounds great, now cant wait for my PSVR which Tom also spoke highly of :)

[GameBoyColor]

TH is a great website

[MasterCornholio]

They are very professional in my opinion and a great help with PC building.

[GrontB]

Couldn't agree more. I always get my solid PC information here. I just can't waiy to try Vive or psvr or Oculus with the touch controllers. The motion controls will make the experience that much more immersive.

[wakeNbake]

Tom from Myspace?

[Timesplitter14]

"One of the first things you'll want to try in VR is first-person combat. It seems like a great idea. But shooters don't translate well to virtual reality, unfortunately. Running around in a VR environment when your body isn't actually moving tends to be unsettling."

Finally someone said it. The N4G population kept getting all angry every time I mentioned this in the past. Nobody wanted to believe that seated VR had some important game design limitations. Actually, even room-scale VR kinda has this limitation too. Your room will never be as big as a regular game level

[Wallstreet37]

Yes this isnt the first time this has been talked about well maybe on n4g but on sites like neogaf it has. Yet and still we have hope because "Rigs" for PSVR is an FPS and works great and is being highly touted. It may not be a traditional FPS shooter but it shows that fps games can be done and done well. Kudos to Guerilla for taking that step!!!!!

[Timesplitter14]

What makes Rigs work is that you clearly see that you are actually sitting in a cockpit, so your brain understands that it's not actually you who is moving, but the robot you are sitting into.

Start looking at all professionally-made VR games in which you can move around and you'll start noticing that they all do that. They all have some static visual reference point on screen that informs you that you are just on a thing that moves, but your character's view/head itself isn't moving.

The ones that are purely FPS and don't have those visual cues (Bullet Train, Budget Cuts, etc...) never let you walk around, unless it's with the Vive's room-tracking. They make you move by teleporting instead.

[Wallstreet37]

Ok and they have to work with their limitations, if thats what it takes thats fine by me but im sure they can make something worthwhile like Rigs is.

[WeAreLegion]

In my experience, it hasn't been unsettling. I'm sure some will have motion issues, but I think a great majority will not.

[Timesplitter14]

It's not necessarily about motion sickness. In my 1-2 years of developing for VR, I have never really had motion sickness.

But even if I'm not sick, some things in VR just "don't feel right". First person movement in VR just feels kinda off and awkward from a game design perspective.

[WeAreLegion]

I guess I need to spend more time with it.

[starchild]

I think there could be an adaptation that takes place in people. The human mind is amazingly adaptable.

[nitus10]

There wont be that much of a difference between playing a normal game (ie. on a fixed screen) and a VR game where the screen sifts in relationship to where you are moving you head.

Basically all games that require movement of your avatar require the player to be seated or standing and if player movement is allowed it would be fairly limited. After-all bumping into walls, coffee table, pets and other humans would not be an overall pleasant experience. 😉

All VR is doing is adding the feature of being able to look up, down, left, right and within reason to turn around virtually but not physically which is not that different to a normal First Person Perspective game except that VR is much more immersive.

[Psychotica]

I wonder how long until CV2, it would really piss me off if the next one came out next year.

[maybelovehate]

Not me, I want it to iterate fast and often. Sooner we get to 4k per eye the better.

[Lamboomington]

You're not looking at the rate at which new phones come out, that's for sure.

I don't think every year, I think it's going to be about 2 years before the CV2

[maybelovehate]

I just wish they would update the shipping estimations.. I ordered the minute it was available but I still have no shipping date.

[Majister-Ludi]

I love Tom!!!