When a friend posted online that he had bought one of those, I was surprised - I thought these were expensive? Didn't they require a high-end PC? After doing some research, including using Oculus's own compatibility check tool on their website, I found my 5-year old PC was plenty capable of handling VR (though I did upgrade the video card a couple of years ago to an NVIDIA GTX 1070).
I'll just get this out of the way: it's hard to describe what it's like to use one of these. I've used other VR stuff, like Google Cardboard, and this is something completely different. This can trigger things like motion sickness and fear of heights. I've nearly leaned on VR surfaces for balance. Some games place you on top of mountains, which can just be overwhelming. Not everything looks 100% real, but most of it is "good enough" to trick my brain.
There are a lot of free games and demos, as well as high-quality paid apps, so there's no shortage of software available. It even comes with a few games, though Robo Recall is definitely the standout title (First Contact is also awesome!). Most of what's available on Steam is compatible, too. I'm having a lot of fun with the Oculus Rift, and I'm really glad I bought this.
Other things I should mention:
- Although the price was half of what I thought it'd be, it was still significant - from the packaging, it seems like they're trying to pitch this as a game console, which makes sense to me.
- The setup process was difficult, and I've had to go through it a few times as I've adjusted the sensors. Installing the drivers was non-obvious, and I ended up searching online for a solution - which involved digging through the application directories and running .exe files directly from Windows Explorer. There's a lot of room for improvement here.
- The lenses inside of the headset get dirty easily - my hair sometimes drags on the lenses when removing the headset. It doesn't help that the setup process has you alternate between using a mouse/keyboard on the computer screen, and putting on the headset and using the controllers. I've tried using the included cleaning cloth, but it hasn't really helped.
- The controllers use AA batteries, which are included. After about 3 weeks, they died - despite not receiving a lot of usage within the past two weeks (due to travel and a work project demanding my time). I might switch to rechargeable batteries.
- The battery doors on the controllers are held in by magnets, which was a really neat touch! However, they could use a an arrow (or something) to indicate how to remove the batteries. I had to search online for the exact place you need to press to remove the battery door.
- I know it's not designed to be usable while wearing glasses, but it's tough to use while wearing glasses. My girlfriend is nearly blind without hers, so she hasn't been able to play very much.
Additional things you should consider buying to accompany the Oculus Rift:
- A third Oculus Sensor. I bought mine as a bundle on Amazon, which really helped.
- HDMI and USB extension cables for the headset. Otherwise, you risk damaging your computer and/or the headset if you stray too far from your PC.
- Does your video card have two HDMI ports? This wasn't obvious to me before purchasing the headset, but some games won't function properly unless your headset and your monitor are plugged into the same video card (using your motherboard's onboard video card in conjunction won't work). Since my NVIDIA GTX 1070 only had one HDMI port, which I had to use for the headset, I bought a DisplayPort to HDMI cable to connect my TV to the video card as well. It's not possible to know which games require this setup until you actually try to launch them, so I'd recommend looking into this before buying an Oculus Rift for yourself.
Overall, totally worth it. This feels like the future!
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