"I've had my Rift for five days now, and I've not posted anything of substance regarding my experience so far, mainly due to not really knowing what I could add to what has already been said.
However, just in case you do want to read yet another opinion on the Rift, here goes.
I backed the Kickstarter for the Rift in it's final few hours. The videos with John Carmack finally tipped me over the edge and persuaded me to pony up the cash. I've rabidly followed every bit of news for it since, and my obssession with it probably started getting on the nerves of some people I know. So yes, you could certainly say I was hyped for the Rift without even seeing it, and that's something that doesn't happen easily for me these days. However, with each new video, I was getting more excited, and more than anything, was probably setting myself up for a massive amount of disappointment if I wasn't impressed when I finally got my Rift.
Anyway, the first demo upon arrival of my new toy was the Tuscany villa. Frankly, I was gobsmacked. I'd read so much about the massive size of the pixels, in my mind I'd overinflated how big they would be. Now, that's not to say they are small (more in on the screen in a bit) but the first impression was that I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd played quite a lot of 4 player Legend Quest in the 90's in Nottingham (I still have the leaflets[1] from there) and this suddenly evoked strong memories of that, except that this time, well, it worked. Properly. This was life sized VR. I was genuinely stunned.
After wandering around the villa for a few minutes, I started to notice the pixels. Actually, it fairer to say I got over my shock of the scale of what I was seeing which allowed me to take things in. Some people say the resolution isn't too bad, some that the screen door isn't an issue and that you'll mentally block it out once you immerse yourself in an experience (and yes, experience is the correct word).
I was expecting the low resolution, and given that, it didn't bother me to any great extent. However, what is a problem in my view is the screendoor effect - the gaps between the pixels. I simply can't ignore the effect - it's extremely obvious, and I cannot grasp how people say they can ignore it as it's too pronounced. Motion blur is apparent, but it's lower down the list of issues for me, certainly below the resolution or screendoor effect. However, the sense of immersion outweighs the current flaws of the dev-kit. It also seems to for eveyone I've demoed my Rift to.
I've shown it to 10 people so far, 7 of who are gamers, and I've not had one person say they weren't impressed. You can tell by their very verbal reactions, their mouth simply hanging open, and the genuinely amazed look when they take it off.
However, I hadn't had anything approaching the over the top reactions that I'd seen in many of the videos, but given I'd been showing everyone who came round all the various YouTube clips from the past several months, I think that may have softened the impact. That changed yesterday however when I decided to pop round to my neighbour (who I know to chat to, but not socially). He has a young lad, so I guessed that there was at least one gamer in their family, and they promptly came round to try my new "games device" (I didn't tell them exactly what it was, just that I had something new that they might be interested in seeing).
While his son really enjoyed the Rift, it was his dad that finally gave me the reaction I'd seen in the videos. I had him put it on when it was still displaying the Windows desktop to make sure he could clearly see the pixels that made up the image, even though you can't make out the desktop correctly.
Then I loaded up Tuscany, and he jumped back in his chair. He was blown away, saying he couldn't believe what he was seeing. After a couple of minutes, I loaded up the Riftcoaster, and he was leaning all over the place and laughing his head off. If you have a Rift, and haven't had an extreme reaction yet, I strongly recommend trying to find someone who you haven't told about the Rift, and who has never heard of it. It's better than giving someone a christmas present - you're showing them something utterly new, giving them an experience they've never had. As good as it is, it really is even better to share.
As mentioned near the start of this post though, there is a bit of a way to go. After using it for five days now and playing some actual games (namely HL2 and TF2), the shortcoming of the Rift are apparent. It needs a bigger screen (Oculus have repeated said it will have one on release), and the screendoor effect needs to be massively diminished. Will a 1080p be enough? I'm not sure, but the other thing to bear in mind is that the release version will in all likelyhood be a 5.5inch screen like the original prototype. That means that the effective PPI will be increased before you take the increase in actual screen resolution into account. I have a feeling it will be enough for a first consumer release, but saying that, we'll only know when it actually launches (or maybe if there's actually a dev-kit 2)."
