PCGamer’s Owen Hill met with Palmer Luckey and some folks from Oculus to try out the Rift at Gamescom. After using it, he opines “The Oculus Rift is the most exciting peripheral I’ve ever used. This is the virtual reality headset I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little boy; true future tech that will redefine what it means to play games.”
Hill’s experience is similar to many accounts of people trying the Rift. People are blown away by this. Here’s the video:
The biggest complaint I’ve heard from hands-on accounts with the Rift is that the resolution is sub-optimal. Oculus has not made this a secret — the 800×640 resolution is definitely low compared to the HD panels many are playing games on today. Still, many people have tried the Oculus Rift and said that it remains an incredible experience despite the resolution. Oculus has also been clear to point out that this is the prototype/developer unit which is intended to get the hardware into the hands of developers as quickly as possible to get game support rolling. The consumer version, what I’ve been calling the Oculus Rift 2.0, is expected to up the ante across all of the units specifications, especially in the resolution department where an HD resolution is expected. Palmer has previously teased with some possibilities of the consumer version which is expected to launch in 2013:
I hate to succumb to hype, but in an attempt to keep people from being to upset about the delay: Imagine an HMD with a massive field of view and more pixels than 1080p per eye, wireless PC link, built in absolute head and hand/weapon/wand positioning, and native integration with some (if not all) of the major game engines, all for less than $1,000 USD. That can happen in 2013!
I hope he’s right!
