Attendees to one of the longest running VR meetups around, the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality event, had an extra special treat in store for them this thanksgiving as Oculus dropped by with their latest feature prototype, the Crescent Bay. This video captures some of the demo recipient’s reactions.

SVVR was one of the first such community gathering of its kind to spring up in the wake of renewed interest in virtual reality. Its founder, Karl Krantz along with ‘Cymatic’ Bruce Wooden have hosted the event through 15 gatherings thus far with the movement’s popularity culminating in the first SVVR Conference, held at the Computer History Museum earlier in the year.

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The physical reactions created by the Crescent Bay prototype can be extreme.

Oculus have been supporters of the event since the very beginning with Nate Mitchell, VP of Product at the company, turning up to the first event. For the ‘Holiday Party’, Oculus again attended, this time bringing with them their new feature prototype, Crescent Bay, which debuted recently at Oculus’ Inaugural Connect conference. The device wowed those who got their hands on it, with many claiming moments of ‘presence’ (the field research term for deep Psychological Immersion in VR) and others the hardware’s transparency, that is they completely forgot they were wearing a box on their face, losing themselves in the virtual experience.

See Also: First Hands-on – Oculus Rift Crescent Bay is Incredible

A shot form the spectacular 'Showdown' demo, part of the Crescent Bay experience
A shot form the spectacular ‘Showdown’ demo, part of the Crescent Bay experience

Although SVVR attendees didn’t get the full suite of demos shown at Connect, they were treated to the spectacular Unreal Engine 4 powered Showdown demo, and as you can see from the video the power of the experience delivered by the new prototype is in clear evidence. Ben Lang wrote of his time with the device straight after his first demo, in particular of the Showdown demo:

The 10 minute session was capped off with Showdown, made by Epic Games in UE4, which put me in the middle of a city street with a slow motion action scene unfolding around me. Futuristic-looking troops were running alongside me firing their weapons. Rockets were flowing by with detailed trails of fire and smoke. The soldiers were firing at a huge robot that looked to be composed of alien technology. Debris flew by my face as bullets struck the ground. The whole time I’m flying slowly forward through the scene toward the robot. As I get nearer, a rocket blasts a car to my left and sends it flying over my head. Eventually the robot leans in and growls at my face (or whatever the robot equivalent of a growl is). This demo didn’t give me a feeling of presence—of truly being there—but it was fucking cool. And I think that’s the first time I’ve written that word on this site. I can’t wait to see experiences like this turned into rich narratives.

See Also: Epic Games Share Insights – Optimizing ‘Showdown’ for 90 FPS on Oculus Rift Crescent Bay Prototype

This SVVR demo was one of the first times Crescent Bay has been demo’d outside of an Oculus convention or their premises. It’s hoped that we’ll get to see more of the unit at next year’s CES in Las Vegas, the first major industry event since Oculus’ Connect. Road to VR will be there to find out more.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Paulo Cunha

    Please!! Tell me the FoV has improved! I desperately wanna feel the so called “immersion” or “presence” inside the Rift…but until now, I only get a claustrophobic skimask/binocular sensation :(…I hope this is one of the team’s primary concerns.

    • Fernando

      FoV of CB is comparable to DK1 (higher than DK2)

    • Jacob Pederson

      Yea, you can see the edges of the screen a bit in DK2, but I’m hoping that the primary concern for the team on CV1 is Nausea. Joe and Jane average aren’t going to care a wit for 10 more degrees of FOV; however, if there is even a hint of motion sickness CV1 will be gathering dust right next to the Wii-U.

  • JohnWANG

    Is there more experience writing ?
    would Oculus focus on haptic in the near future ?

    • Fernando

      They may be doing internal research. But for the near future, it is clear that optical tracking is the road they´ll take