Oculus Rift

20170717:
I finally got to try out my Oculus Rift today!!!

-- Two sensors in front - far apart (~ 6 ft) & angled in --

Touch Tutorial Complete
: Awesome

Echo Arena Open Beta (ends July 17)
: Played through tutorial.
: Went into a quick match.
: Tough to control, but friendly competitors. One player, in particular, gave me some tips (speaking via microphone). One tip he gave was to push off other players for movement instead of directly going after the puck.
: As I played, I wished the Oculus Rift had feet sensors. It felt weird being restricted to just my head and hands.
: After the quick match, while the players were friendly and it would have been a chance to learn how to play, I decided to leave the game and explore other apps.

-- Two sensors diagonally separated --

Spider-Man: Homecoming - Virtual Reality Experience
: There's a tutorial and then it ends just before anything interesting happens.
Rating: 3 stars

-- Two sensors in front - on sides of desk (~ 4 ft) & straight forward

~~ Decide to stop using glasses for now ~~

SPACE
: Try to get it working.
: Apparently the way it works is to move the mouse and click to open the menu. From the menu, click on browser to open a browser.
: Tried running Netflix but an error about the Chrome version popped up.

-- Moved the sensors back a little so I can be closer to my desk --

360 Photos
: Pretty cool.

Bigscreen Beta
: This was available on both Steam and the Oculus Store.
: I try to get the Steam version to work. Apparently I have to do a little bit of setup.
: 1. Enable Unknown Sources (in Oculus app)
: 2. Install SteamVR and launch it.

~~ Went to sleep ~~
~~ Woke up some time in the AM hours ~~

Bigscreen Beta (Continued)
: 3. Launched Bigscreen Beta
: Started playing around with it while watching Pirates of the Caribbean.
: It was hard to read text, so I would mainly recommend the app for watching media.
: Explored Option: Reset head view via settings.
: With Touch controller: Enlarged monitor, pushed it back.
: With Touch controller: Moved the monitor around. Moved the settings panel around.
: Explored Option: Opened tools for screenshot capture. Tried all the different views.
: Explored Option: Opened virtual keyboard. I moved it close so I could imitate finger typing quickly. It helps since I know where all the letters are but any need for the shift key or symbols was a major slow down because it required accessing side menus.
: Explored Option: Markers
: Explored Option: Customize avatars.
: Explored Option: Customize screen. Very useful. It should have been the first setting to adjust. In particular, there's a setting to use the back wall of the virtual room as the space for monitor projection. [At the time I didn't know what SBS was for. It means Side-By-Side and it's meant for viewing SBS media in 3D. Simply load up the desired SBS picture or video in fullscreen and switch the monitor setting to SBS. The media will then appear in 3D.]

~~ Found this reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/6no4l1/freebies_for_noobies/ ~~
~~ Started at around 6AM to download essentially everything mentioned ~~
~~ Went to sleep at 7:15AM ~~

20170718:
-- Two sensors in front. Far away again. I took advantage of their scope and put them further than recommended, maybe eight feet apart, and angled towards the center. Ignored Oculus Home warning. --

Left 4 Dead 2
: I tried to set up L4D2 with Vireio but I eventually found out that Vireio 4.0 is still a work in progress and will only partially work with Direct X 11 games (and with full support for Fallout 4). Furthermore, the game reportedly works with Vireio 2.1, but Vireio 2.1 was built around Oculus Rift DK2 (the development kit version 2) and what I have is CV1 (the consumer version 1), which changed the way media is displayed (the displays in the DK2 are essentially treated as an external monitor).
: After more reading, I downloaded tridef, loaded it up, and then opened Bigscreen and used the SBS setting.
: Next I connected the Xbox controller* and launched L4D2.
: Played for about 20 minutes before the full nausea kicked in

Touch Tutorial Complete
: I had my fiancee Ada play.
: It seemed as if the grasping mechanism was less intuitive to her compared to me. Of course I've had more experience with video games than her as well.
: She nonchalantly said "Thank you, that was cool." Since she's not the type of person who plays video games, I'd say thqt was a reasonable response.

Robo Recall
: Separate Blog Post

*It's funny considering I believe I also have a Steam controller somewhere nearby.

20170719:
I ordered some extension cables yesterday and today some of them arrived; I used them to extend the reach of the Oculus Rift and set up the sensors for experimental 360.

-- Two sensors diagonal from each other --

Robo Recall
: Separate Blog Post
: The graphics didn't seem to degrade as result of the HDMI & USB* extension cables. The extra length definitely gave me wiggle room but there were two or three moments where I wasn't sure if I was wrapping the cord around myself. There were also a couple of moments where I was afraid I'd trip on the cable.

*The USB extension cable being used at the moment is a 10 meter (16 feet) active USB 3.0 cable. This will actually be used to place the sensor far away for a large space. The 2-pack of shorter 5 feet passive USB extension cables won't be arriving until tomorrow.

20170720:
Today I received the 2-pack of five feet passive USB extension cables. As such, I detached the sixteen feet active USB cable from the Oculus Rift and attached it to the far sensor (formerly the left sensor). Then I detached the Xbox receiver extension from the right sensor and made it the close sensor (placed where the left sensor was formerly placed). The Xbox receiver extension is now attached to the Xbox receiver. Finally, one of the two five feet USB extension cables got attached to the Oculus Rift.

-- Two sensors diagonal from each other and far away --

I played around with the set-up. First I moved the sensors a little closer. Then, I moved them a little further apart.

Henry
: Separate Blog Post

20170721:
Robo Recall
: Separate Blog Post

20170722:
At this point I've pretty much settled in with the hardware and I'll mostly be making posts for available apps. With that being said, I put an order in for some badge holders* today, because yesterday there were moments where the cable was being unwieldy as I played Robo Recall. As I played I also realized it's better if I turned 90 degrees during sensor setup making what was previously my right side the front. This would give me more lateral area and put the cable behind me (in my setup). This of course would be semi-temporary until I get the badge holders.

An exaggerated depiction of turning 90 degrees during sensor setup:
____________ ____________
|SC        | |SC        |
|/ ^^^^^^^ | |/ >>>>>>> |
|| ^^^^^^^ | || >>>>>>> |
|| ^^^o^^^ | || >/-o>>> |
|| ^^^|^^^ | |\-/>>>>>> |
|| ^^/^^^^ | |  >>>>>>> |
|_\-/____S_| |_________S|
Legend: "C" = Computer | "S" = Sensor | "o" = Player
"^" = Playspace, orientation "North" | ">" = Playspace, orientation "East"
"/", "|", "\", "-" = Cable from Computer to Oculus Rift

*There were cable management systems being sold on Amazon but they were a system of ceiling/wall mounts paired with what essentially amounts to badge holders - retractable pulleys that will extend when the cable pulls on it and retracts when the cable releases.

20170727:
I think my USB hub died today. Thankfully I don't depend on it. But it'll be a pain to return it.

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