Oculus Rift - Holodeck or Hype?

[nullity]

After a lunch trip to a Chinese buffet, I returned to my place of work to find that our lead developer had set up his Oculus Rift for everyone to check out.

I knew he was bringing it... that's why I ate buffet.  I wanted to see if, with the Oculus Rift, it would look like the chunks were coming right at YOU.

All in all, it is pretty cool.  The head tracking was super responsive, and the sense of depth/immersion was quite striking at times... though the latter depended heavily on the content being viewed.  The 720p resolution was notably insufficient for the task.  Imaging looking at a stock Turbo Express screen from a few inches away (except pretend that the screen filled your field of view for the most part)... not just pixellated, but TE pixellated.

Reading the above makes it sound like I wasn't impressed.  Not the case!  My expectations were just too high.  I'll definitely consider getting one when the 1080p retail version is released.  But, IMO, don't believe all of the over-the-top reactions on youtube.  I can't imaging anyone really screaming or shitting themselves or ralphing Chinese buffet on their coworkers.

What's your take?

[turboswimbz]

One of my friends was working on artwork with someone who is developing.  He had a very similar reaction to you about it.   Cool but not super amazing OMG just yet.  But the thought was that it will be really really cool at some point.

I hope to try one of these out one of these days for myself.

[Nando]

We've all been so spoiled by awesome screens of late. Anyone remember what the GBA screen looked like? I think, it wasn't until the PSP that displays for portables started looking way better and even then. Nowadays the avg smart phone has some crazy pixel dense screen that blows just about anything away.

Anyway, would like to try the head piece one day.