Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen plenty of demos showcasing the Oculus Rift, but actual gameplay experience with the VR headset has been tough to come by. We first heard about a spaceship dogfighting game called EVR being built for the Oculus Rift by game studio CCP a couple months ago. And, today at E3 we finally got to put a dev unit to its intended use playing the game.

As we noted before, it’s a Wing Commander-style game featuring 3v3 gameplay in open space and amongst asteroid field. Upon donning the Oculus Rift and a pair of Razer Kraken headphones, we found ourselves sitting in the cockpit of our very own starfighter. Looking around, we could see the sides of the launch tube, our digital hands manning the flight controls, and looking down revealed our legs and even the popped collar of our flight jacket. In previous Rift demos, we couldn’t see our digital avatar, but being able to do so in EVR really added to the immersiveness of the experience.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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We’ve been impressed with Oculus Rift from the start, and have been following the VR headset closely ever since. The developer edition has been in the hands of devs for a couple months now, and while Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell have certainly received rave reviews of the headset from many, they’ve also heard lots of feedback about ways to improve it. The number one request from users and devs? A higher-resolution screen than the 1,280 x 800 panel in the dev device. Well, after months of research and tinkering to find the right hardware combination, team Oculus is finally ready to show off a Rift with a 1,080 x 1920 display, and we got to demo the thing.

Before heading into the land of 1080p, we got to explore a demo built with Unreal Engine 4 in the existing dev headset. After looking around a snowy mountain stronghold inhabited by a fire lord in low res, we switched to the exact same demo running at 60 fps on the HD prototype device — and the difference was immediately apparent. Surface textures could be seen in much higher fidelity, colors were brighter and less muddied and the general detail of the entire environment was greatly improved.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

If the unison of Virtuix’s Omni Treadmill and Oculus Rift got your left thumb hungry for a well deserved retirement, then it’ll also want to push you in the direction of the game controller’s official Kickstarter. Yup, for just $249 (if you get in there quick enough), you can snag yourself an Omni in DIY kit form plus on set of shoes (additional pairs costing $49). Those with deeper pockets can opt to get the full kit (including belt, tracking hardware and software) from $399, or go all out and get the Omni Rack (for holding your Rift control box, favorite beverage etc) and some exclusive merch on top for $539. Really dig this thing? Then why not lay down $7,999 for a custom design made from wood and steel? Those of you who are still undecided can delve into the project a little further (at the source), but it seems likely that the final retail price could be somewhat higher than that offered to Kickstarter backers so, you know, you might not want to hang around too long.

Filed under: Gaming

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Via: Road to VR

Source: Kickstarter

Gordon Freeman, in your head. Well, that’s the plan, with Oculus now offering official beta support for a headset-based Half-Life 2. There’s a few known issues to iron out already, including an overly-dim UI and issues with the zoom. But even at this early stage, it appears to lack any gameplay deal-breakers we’ve seen elsewhere. As mentioned by Valve’s Joe Ludwig on the Oculus developer forums, however, the current build is a bit rougher around the edges compared to the Team Fortress 2 beta that launched earlier this year. Developers with the necessary Rift hardware can pick up the files on Steam or follow the developments on Oculus’ own forums — but no comments about headcrab hats and wearables, okay?

Filed under: Gaming, Wearables

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Via: Ubergizmo, Oculus3D (Twitter)

Source: Oculus VR developer forums

If you’re looking for more virtual worlds to explore using the Oculus Rift, MTBS3D forum user StellaArtois has developed something that might strike your fancy: a Minecraft mod dubbed Minecrift that bakes in support for the virtual reality headset. The modification still needs refining, but it already incorporates head tracking and warping. Not only did the intrepid forum goer grapple with the OpenGL API to devise the solution, but they also created the altered software before their own Rift dev kit arrived, relying on others to provide feedback for tweaking.

Mojang has has expressed interest in the VR headset and already has one in house, but official support for the Rift doesn’t seem close at hand for Minecraft.”Would take a lot of work to get it working for Minecraft, but not impossible – especially with the new launcher,” Mojang dev Nathan Adams tweeted yesterday regarding the Rift. Click the first source link below to give the mod a shot or head past the break to see it in action.

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Via: Road To VR

Source: MTBS3D, @Dinnerbone (Twitter)