- You don't think they're going to
notice my super cool Band-Aid, right?
Hey guys, this is Austin.
This is the Oculus Rift, and huge
shout out to Oculus for sponsoring this video.
It is mostly thanks to the Rift, the VR even exists today.
But what is virtual reality?
People have been experimenting with
VR experiences dating all the way
back to the 50s, where things were,
let's just say, a little more creative than they are today.
Now you can fast forward to the 90s
where Nintendo launched the Virtual Boy.
This wonderful headset, which spectacularly
crashed and burned.
But, how does VR actually work?
As Core virtual reality is all about giving
you the most immersive experience possible.
So think the holodeck from Star Trek
and not the TV on your wall.
Now, that TV is a good example of what VR just isn't.
Sure, with both of them you can watch
video and play games,
but with a TV, you're limited by the size of that panel.
Where as with virtual reality, no matter where you look,
as long as you have that headset on,
you are completely immersed.
The Virtual Boy achieved this
with some pretty basic tech.
It uses a pair of single color displays,
and two mirrors to flip back and forth incredibly fast,
to give you a decent 3D effect.
But, being limited by 1995 technology meant
that this was not a true VR experience.
Back in 2011, the first prototype
for the Rift was completed, duct tape and all.
Now, what made this special, was that for the first time,
a head-mounted display was paired with
not only a 90 degree field of view
that was wide enough to look convincing,
but also motion tracking, to allow you to
move your head in real life
and translate it into the game.
You know, like in real life when I move my head
left and right, the world stays with me.
I remember back in 2013, where I first got to try
not only an early prototype of the Rift,
but also of EVE: Valkyrie.
I put the headset on, and I was transported
into a cockpit of a spaceship,
and a giant dog fight in the middle of space.
It was seriously one of the impressive
tech moments I have ever seen.
Right afterwards, I walked out of the demo room,
pulled my phone out, and pre-ordered
my own Oculus dev kit.
Don't get me wrong though, at this point,
the tech was still very early.
One of the biggest issues with the first dev kit
was its fairly low resolution of 1280 by 800.
It was enough to get the idea across,
but the actual level of detail was
really low at this point.
Fast forward to 2017, and VR as a whole
has seen some huge improvements.
So take the Rift, for example.
Now, it has a pair of super high resolution
1080 by 1200 displays. One per eye.
We have a faster 90 hertz refresh rate,
paired with being based on OLED,
which eliminates a lot of the earlier issues
with smoothness and persistence, which is important.
When the goal is total immersion,
even a little stutter in a game can cause you
to be totally ripped out of the experience.
There is a lot more tech inside, though.
The Rift headset is filled with infrared tracking dots,
which paired with the sensor that it comes with,
is able to track your head in full 3D space
with a lot more detail than the original dev kit.
Well there are some headsets, like PlayStation VR,
which take advantage of a console,
or things like Gear VR which actually use
a mobile device, such as your smartphone,
to be able to power them.
With the Oculus Rift, you are using a PC to power it.
There are several advantages here.
Most notably, you can have a ton of
graphics horsepower to push not only the graphics,
but also to keep that performance stable.
All of this tech is great,
but the controllers are also important.
Now, the Oculus does support the standard
Xbox One game pad, which is fine for some games,
but what really stands out,
are the Oculus touch controllers.
You can think of these as an
evolution of the original Wii remote.
Sure, they do have motion tracking,
but what's more impressive, is the fact that
these will fully positionally track
your hands, which will actually allow you to
put your hands inside the games.
This is important.
A lot of games, such as The Climb,
will use hand tracking in combination with the
buttons to simulate actually climbing a cliff.
It's a neat effect, and can do a lot
to add to the immersion.
And immersion really is the key to
making sure the VR feels right.
So, you might be okay with a little
glitch or stutter when you're playing on a PC monitor,
but when it comes to VR, you're essentially
tricking your brain into thinking
that the game world is real.
There's essentially no margin for error.
One of my favorite VR games is Job Simulator.
This is a great example of how
the touch controllers work.
So, you can see that my hands
are completely one to one in the game.
If I reach over and pick up this cartridge,
drop it in, it feels very realistic.
When you pair the Rift with the touch controllers,
it really does give you an immersive experience.
So, when I look around this office building,
it feels like I'm actually here.
I can walk around. I can move my head.
I can pick things up. And it just feels right.
Plus, it lets you do some cool stuff like say,
copy some resumes, just drop it on the copy machine,
hit that, I can start brewing some coffee,
start hitting buttons on my keyboard,
answer the phone.
I mean, this stuff is really cool.
It really does feel so natural, so simple.
I don't even have to think about it.
I can just literally just reach over,
hit something, done.
Next, we have Superhot VR.
So, I have to stand very still,
because as I move, time will actually start playing,
and have to dodge it.
Okay, here we go, and,
nope, no.
Get out of the way of that one.
And, grab it. Grab it. Boom.
Dude, this is so much fun.
It is easy to forget, that just over eight years ago,
consumer headsets like the Rift,
weren't even a thing, and this really
only went on sale a year ago.
So there is a long way to go.
But, if you have not experienced virtual reality,
you absolutely owe it to yourself
to give it a try.
So, what do you guys think about VR?
Let me know on the comments below,
and I will catch you in the next one.