Table of Contents


Specs & Performance

Tech Specs


Officially, Oculus offers up the following specs for the consumer Rift:

  • Resolution: 1200×1080 (per eye)
  • Field of View (FoV): 100 Degrees
  • Display refresh rate: 90Hz
  • Lens spacing adjustment (IPD): 58-72mm
  • Weight: 360 grams (0.8 pounds)
  • Headset cable: 4 meters
  • Sensor cable: 2.5 meters

Field of View


oculus rift review (6)

Although Oculus said that the Rift DK2 also had a 100 degree field of view, the consumer Rift’s field of view certainly feels larger. FoV measurements can be tricky to nail down because it can vary greatly depending upon how close you can get the lenses to your eyes (which is informed by your facial structure). Even without a lens-to-eye distance adjustment (like the DK2 had), for me, the field of view still feels largest on the consumer Rift, but it certainly isn’t a huge increase.

Display & Screen Door Effect


The consumer Rift’s display is a huge step up over the company’s prior headsets. It isn’t yet retinal quality (it’ll be a long time before we achieve that), but it’s more than adequate. The infamous ‘screen door effect’ is very minimal and fades greatly from notice once you are focusing on content inside the Rift.

In the days of the DK1, almost every person who I’ve ever seen try the headset for the first time made some comment about the resolution being too low. With the DK2, the percentage of people who said something about resolution on their first try dropped, but it was still a significant number. With the consumer Rift, I’ve yet to hear any new user specifically call out the resolution as being inadequate. We’ll definitely want to continue to drive resolution up from here, but 1200×1080 per eye is a very solid starting point for consumer VR.

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Light Ray Artifact

What I’ve been calling the ‘light ray artifact’ is a glaring fault in an otherwise impressive display and optics system. This artifact can be seen obnoxiously wherever there are high contrast elements in the scene (especially white text on a black background). When you move your head, the light rays move with you, like a lens flare on a panning camera, calling even more attention to them.

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An exaggerated approximation of what the Light Ray Artifact looks like inside the Rift

To my knowledge, the light ray artifact is caused by the Rift’s Fresnel lenses, which causes light to scatter because of the ridges. For the record, this artifact is an issue for all headsets that I’ve seen using Fresnel lenses (which includes the HTC Vive), and is not unique to the Rift.

Curiously enough, the light ray artifact can be avoided quite effectively if developers do their best to avoid high contrast scene elements. In fact, where there isn’t high contrast happening in the scene, you are unlikely to see or notice the light rays at all. And yet for some reason I continue to see lots of developers putting white text on black backgrounds, drawing full attention to this flaw.

Having said that, I think that the elimination of this artifact will be one of the top pieces of customer feedback, on par with the desire for higher resolution.

Tracking


consumer rift review (2)

The ‘Constellation’ tracking works flawlessly, and feels even better at 90Hz compared to the 75Hz of the Rift DK2. The consumer Rift now also features tracking points on the back of the headset which allows for 360 degree tracking which worked seamlessly for me throughout my testing, even when explicitly attempting to foil the sensor by having my head turned 90 degrees to it where the tracking system should be most prone to failure.

SEE ALSO
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consumer rift review (1)We will soon be further testing of the bounds of the Sensor, but, anecdotally, it feels like the field of view is much wider than the DK2 Sensor (which was already pretty wide). Roughly I would guess the Sensor’s field of view to be 120 degrees.

Continue Reading on Page 3 (Software & Experience)

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • towblerone

    Flagged as spam.

  • Mike

    I don’t know if you guys have a Vive yet or not, but any news on the Oculus Store working with the Vive? Or is it exclusive to Oculus? For the sake of all VR I hope it’s compatible for both, like Steam vr.

    • Metrogenic

      Just the Rift for now. I wouldn’t hold your breath.

    • benz145

      Right now the Oculus Store only supports the Rift. I will see about trying the Rift with Steam though.

    • Most of it will be Steam focused, since that seems to be the general consensus on pc gaming market anyways. Most of the Oculus games will port to steam hopefully.

  • George Vieira IV

    Can’t wait to get mine. I hope the white on black light ray issue isn’t too distracting for me.

    Maybe a typo on the first page : “…feel a like they are resting…”

    • benz145

      This wasn’t a typo actually but I adjusted the wording a bit to try to make it more clear. Thanks for the feedback : )

      • Sven Viking

        I’ve never actually heard the expression “feel a like” before. It’s definitely not meant to be just “…feel like…”?

  • Dwayne Johnson

    How come no one ever lists their system specs? I want to know how well the headset performed on the system they were using.

    • PianoMan

      They have, the last page of the article states that they used this system to test it: http://www.avadirect.com/Exemplar-Road-to-VR-Custom-Gaming-PC

      • Dobba

        They also say this:

        Disclosure: Oculus provided Road to VR with a loaner Rift and PC to facilitate this review.

        So if they lent them a PC, why do they also say it was tested on their own Exemplar Rift PC.

        Confused as to what it is as I’m guessing Oculus didn’t provide them with an Exemplar to test on.

        • benz145

          We tested with our Exemplar PC, but it’s still important to us to disclose that Oculus sent a loaner PC to us even if we didn’t use it as the basis for our review.

  • DonGateley

    With no diopter adjustment on the device the virtual focal plane distance will be fixed and those requiring glasses at that distance will need to use them with this.

    I’d like to know what the distance is to that virtual focal plane because my eye’s focal distance is fixed at infinity from plastic lenses due to cataract surgery.

    • DAB

      You only need glasses in VR if you’re nearsighted. VR focuses at infinity for comfort.

      • DonGateley

        Excellent news, thanks.

  • Joe

    Any word on the audio experience?

  • How well does it work with Windows 7? I *REALLY* want to avoid Windows 10. I know, if you work hard enough at it, you can gut all of M$ spyware, but I’d rather avoid the hassle, if possible.

    • benz145

      Haven’t had a chance to try with Windows 7 yet unfortunately, but according to Oculus, Windows 7/8/10 are all supported.

  • Leo Richard Comerford

    Here are some bits and pieces which would be worth looking into in the weeks ahead: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4cffhu/reviewers_and_early_cv1_rift_owners_here_are_some/

  • Christopher Conley

    I was
    talking with a student the other day (I’m a philosophy professor) who was
    apologizing for having to check his phone while expressing his amazement/shock/pity
    that I don’t own a cell-phone. While his thumbs were-a-twiddling and his face
    was pointed at his hands, he said, “I can’t imagine being so disconnected
    from the world.” I didn’t say anything. I was too busy looking at the odd
    triple V formation of the geese flying over our heads.

    I am not a Luddite. I like my computers. But I like my mind a whole lot more. I
    try to avoid the instant memory machine that is google. E-mail has made life
    hell because now it seems I’m never not “at” my job. Twitter, Facebook,
    Instagram – unimaginable to me. To my mind, internet should not be between
    water and bread as it is for most young people see the details of recent
    research:

    http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2012/10/3qs-the-social-impact-of-social-networks/

    http://technologyessays.org/effects-of-technology/.

    But I totally understand the fascination with wireless communication and the
    technology that surrounds it. I was an amateur radio operator when I was a kid,
    and I was playing with flight simulators and writing code on the Commodore 64
    and the old 386 series when most of the country was still struggling with the
    difficult transition from rotary dials to push-buttons.

    When the Times sent out the Google cardboard VR thingy, I made it, wrapped it
    in a lot of duct-tape (a ham radio habit), and made my son download some VR
    content on his phone so I could check it out.

    It was fun. For a while. I marveled at the technological advance. And it would
    be awesome for flight simulators and driving games. I just can’t imagine
    it replacing a classroom…

    • Sven Viking

      All reasonable, just also keep in mind that a $600 PC-powered headset provides a rather different experience from a phone in a piece of cardboard with $2 lenses.

  • Bog Nakamura

    I’m feeling like the actual software is really polished and user friendly. After the DK’s I was put off and opted to wait the PSVR, but looks like the Oculus might be even better at plug and play experience. Waiting for some serious games to be suported.

  • Scott Krueger

    Anyone Have any Experience using Both on the Same System? I have pre-ordered both the Oculus Rift & HTC Vive and Plan to get the PS VR on order soon. I’m a All of the Above type of guy… So as far as the Rift & Vive I am wondering how well they will play together on the Same System? Can I leave both Plugged in and Choose in the Game which Headset I want to use? Will I have to Plug in one or the Other Exclusively to switch, etc…

  • VRDRUMMER

    My Oculus Rift is shipping they took payment and are about to issue tracking, so very happy about that! There are games I want to experience with the Rift!
    Excited!
    The VIVE is Awesome too! Room Scale VR is a great immersion into the VIVE VR World! Motion controllers are very accurate.

  • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

    A year later and what have we learned about Oculus? Well, they aren’t a nice company.

    The founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, has financed an alt-right pro-Trump group. Google Oculus Trump for more info on that.

    ZeniMax employees left to work at Oculus and took ZeniMax property with them to help make the Oculus hmd what it is today.

    Oculus has had to drop the price of their headsets and touch controllers due to their poor sales and their founders financing of an alt-right group that included Milo Yiannopoulos. John Carmack stealing ZeniMax property hasn’t helped Oculus either.

  • Willem Goosen

    How do i get one ?

  • Willem Goosen

    Hi how do i get one

  • Alfredo Villar

    I do not recommend buying anything in this company anymore.I bought the new rift oculus from your website two weeks ago and they came with white spots on the screen and the solution they give me is to buy new ones. They have the worst technical support I ever saw. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b9ae5d03066f906ae20db24e9e25cd658170502ff07ac9fc93783158e71634cd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d5ad505384b244c9ecf1985a181a407a391090216f5a49eef4d9ed2857addfa.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2bcada26b0851be5250cc2eb0d07594aafb7ebf42ce2c84264a0fb01c91a4231.jpg