It truly is the most impressive application of technology that I have ever personally used.The Rift box will include the headset with built-in headphones and mic, sensor, an Xbox One controller and an Oculus Remote, a new input device that helps users navigate through the Oculus store or explore video content. Without hyperbole, the Oculus Touch has managed to invigorate me in a way that I haven’t felt since playing my first video game. Even now I find myself smiling with delight at what I experienced. I caught myself before looking really stupid and letting go of these things so that the booth runners would find me there with controllers hanging by straps from my wrist. It wasn’t there, but it just felt natural. The biggest testament I can give to the amount of immersion to be found here is this: when the demo ended, I found myself trying to politely put the controllers down on the virtual table in front of me. We shrunk each other, used sling shots and destroyed numerous breakable objects (hey, if they didn’t want to be broken, they wouldn’t be so fragile!) I shot boomerangs out of the air with a ray gun, we played with a lighter and shot off fireworks, there was even a remote controlled tank battle. After this was done, we played with numerous other toys. To prove that this wasn’t a well timed but pre-programmed trick, he handed me one of the globes and allowed me to break it at my whim, changing the physics again. I tried to do as instructed but found that the ball rocketed quickly out of reach and continued to the stars. He then told me to pick up a ping pong ball, bounce it off the table, and hit it to him. This might seem dull, but he was able to immediately change the physics that applied by selecting a globe from a podium and smashing it on the table in front of us. We played with ping pong paddles, bouncing the ball back and forth. In it, I was presented an array of toys and directed through the use of them through an Oculus employee. There are analog sticks for the thumbs that react to touch, meaning that when I lifted my thumbs from them, I gave a thumbs up in the computerized world.Īfter being given a moment to get used to the controls, I was taken through the “Toy Box” demo, made famous during the last E3. These rest in the palm of the hand, with one natural trigger groove for the index fingers and one for the rest of the fingers on each hand. This is paired set of controllers can take a minute or two of acclimation time, but quickly becomes second nature. The Oculus Touch looks to up the immersion factor even farther. There is a whole new aspect that can be paired with the Rift headset. When I took the goggles off, I felt elated from the experience. After taking down a dozen or so ships, a Death Star type object warped into the space, and the demo ended with the casual vaporization of myself and the rest of my AI teammates. It felt natural to turn to look in various directions to track a villainous fighter and then steer my ship to bear. Soon, a large amount of enemies attacked, and I found myself in the midst of the most immersive dogfight I have ever experienced. Just looking around, using my head to turn left and right was amazing. After a brief amount of time, the space fighter took off, rocketing me down a tunnel, and I found myself among the stars, surrounded by a fleet of ships. I could look to my right and left to see where the canopy sealed, and looking down revealed a body with hands holding the control sticks. When it started up, I found myself in a cockpit with an array of switches directly in front of me. My demo of Eve: Valkyrie for the Oculus Rift proved me wrong.
#EVE VALKYRIE OCULUS TOUCH FULL#
I have worn the set before, but it was for underwhelming indie offerings that were full of themselves trying to create some trance type scenario, or it was so poorly optimized that I felt it would be a long time still before this idea became viable. My time started becoming acclimated with what this virtual reality hardware can do. The demo I received for the Oculus Touch knocked me stupid. Once the attendee becomes inoculated to the sensation, it takes something special to render the veteran speechless. I know that is how I felt after my initial one. Taking in the sites and sounds of so many booths and offerings vying for the attention of the public can leave a first timer a gibbering mess. The most common description one can bestow on the feeling of going to PAX is pure sensory overload.