Rift Ramblings (Part 8)

Time again for some wandering thoughts on the Rift and VR.  Let’s start off with some exciting news – my Rift arrived this past Monday!  With all the shipping issues I wasn’t really sure when it would come.  It has been almost three years since I first received the DK1 and wrote about it.  What a tumultuous ride!  Thank you again Oculus and Palmer for doing something special like this for all the Kickstarter backers.… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 7)

I am still working hard on the Lost Loot Pre-Alpha #2 release which will be landing very shortly.  This version switches the game to a miniature world third person design primarily for comfort.Check out my last blog entry on The quest for comfortable VR for more details about why I am making the change and what it looks like. I was lucky enough to get Cymatic Bruce from AltspaceVR to try out this new version at the Boston VR… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 6)

    Time for another take on Oculus, the Rift, and the new VR industry that is forming.  Everything has pretty much exploded since Facebook purchased the company.  That put Oculus on the map and brought a great deal of attention to the company and the new wave of VR technology now emerging.  We even had the first official conference for consumer virtual reality put together by SVVR. For a complete and well written account of… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 5)

Well, the last few months have been another rollercoaster ride for the VR world.  I think we are on a path to a very promising future for VR and as I have said before the next few years are going to be very exciting! Sony Legitimizes VR Things really started to heat up at GDC.  We had Sony taking center stage with the unveiling of Project Morpheus (after the god of dreams) for the PS4,… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 4)

Well, it is that time again…  There has been much happening in the VR world.  I guess we are now calling it the second coming of VR with all the new technology showcased at CES and of course the huge Valve announcements at Steam Dev Days.  Now for a little recap… Oculus showed off the Crystal Cove Prototype at CES which has a camera based positional tracking system and a low persistence display.  I won’t… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 3)

It has been a while since my last Rift Ramblings.  I was mildly burned out after pulling together Lost Loot for the VR Jam, but I have been busy developing the concepts for the successor to it. During this process I have been trying to grapple with what makes a true VR game.  VR games extend beyond simply adapting current games to use a stereoscopic HMD.  They also need to bring interaction closer to the… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 2)

I am currently in the process of prototyping the character setup for my game.  I am developing a game that has a first person perspective and allows you to look down and see the body of the main character you play.  This main character is also wearing human/alien hybrid tech that is composed of a tablet/visor system.  The tablet is used as a main control device for the related visor which acts as an augmented… Continue reading

Rift Ramblings (Part 1)

Well, it has been about two weeks since the Oculus Rift arrived.  I have spent many hours with the device glued to my face, exploring what it feels like to be inside a computer generated world instead of looking at it through a flat window.  The experience can best be described as stunning, with a sense that this is the beginning of a new paradigm for anything involving three dimensional graphics, especially games.  There is… Continue reading