(Just hypothetically!) It's also great if you're taking the headset somewhere else or just to a different room. This makes it easy to change up your boundaries if, for instance, you keep accidentally smacking your hand on a table so hard your fingernail turns purple. Instead of estimating where your obstacles are in the real world (to tell the VR headset where your boundaries are), you literally just look at the room around you through the headset's cameras. The use of passthrough cameras on the headset is another big improvement.
It's well-paced and succinctly explains everything you need to know. When you first put on the headset, you'll go through an orientation that runs you through the basics. Unboxing everything takes longer than the set up. Mark out a safe space (6.5 feet x 6.5 feet is recommended for room-scale experiences you can walk around in) so you don't hit anything, tuck your hands into the controller tethers, don't drink straight out of the Slurpee machine, etc.
There are no lighthouse sensors to place you just plug it in, download the software, and watch some mandatory training videos like you just got a job at 7-Eleven. The first thing you'll notice about the Oculus Rift S is that it's a lot easier to set up than the original Oculus. So where are we in 2020? Is Oculus' latest headset worth considering, or has VR passed its prime? The answer is tricky, and the Oculus Rift S is at the heart of it. VR launched to a niche audience-out of reach for all but the most devout evangelists. It had a lack of games and practical uses, was prohibitively expensive, and required a very powerful computer to operate. Once the Oculus Rift hit store shelves, the hype train started to slow down. It was awesome.īack then, we hoped everything could be improved with VR: gaming, medicine, art, design, motion sickness, all of it. I reached out to touch it, and my stomach churned as I stared down into the murky depths of the ocean below.
I screamed when that VR whale soared by in a demo for the first HTC Vive headset. I'd seen the demo videos, and I was stoked to step into the virtual realms like a cyberpunk superheroine. Buckling on a bulky, janky developer headset, I was giggling like a schoolgirl.
Back in 2015, the hype train for VR was tearing down the tracks, full steam ahead, and I had a first-class seat.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please let me know.I used to love virtual reality. But again, as Multi-GPUs are not supported, the 980 TI is the best you can currently get regarding graphics cards from NVIDIA. I can’t comment on if it will max everything out, as that is up to the developers on how they optimize their games. Keep in mind however, that the GTX 970 is where the recommended specifications begin, so a GTX 980 TI would work just fine. There are no specific features of the 980 ti specifically, however having the power to maintain high frames per second in VR is essential, as low frames per second is very disorienting in VR. So I would definitely recommend a GPU upgrade.Īs these are not supported, and for NVIDIA the GTX 980 TI is currently their highest powered consumer card I wouldn’t expect you would need a second card. The Oculus compatibility tools searches for hardware known to work with the Oculus Rift, this includes CPU, GPU, and more.Ĭurrently Multi-GPU configurations are not supported. As a GPU-poor Rifter, Oculus recommends the following:
Due to the increased resolution of the consumer Rift, 2160×1200 resolution split over dual displays running at 90Hz, and consuming 233 million pixels per second, Oculus is recommending at very least a NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 to run the new Rift.Ĭlicking on your problem area will open a drop down link to the Oculus support page giving you a list of possible upgrade options to choose from. I was given a failure mark on my GPU, a modest AMD R9 280X which runs my DK2 just fine. The recently released ‘Rift Compatibility Check’ does a quick sweep of your system to determine where the sore spots are so that you can prepare your rig to “meet or exceed system specifications to power the full Rift experience.”Īfter download the tool and waiting a quick 5-10 seconds, you’re confronted with a list of problem areas that will need to be addressed to before that shinny new Rift carrying case finally hits your door step. Update: We recommend checking out this article for more comprehensive information on VR Ready PC specs for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Not sure if you’re computer is going to be ready in time for March when your pre-ordered Rift ships? Oculus has just published a handy tool that assesses your system and simultaneously confronts you with the stark reality that you’re already dangerously close to the poverty line.