Oculus VR – All You Need To Know Without Fluff

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Oculus has released 3 devices up to date:

  • Oculus Rift (the one released in 2016)
  • Oculus Rift S (May, 2019)
  • Oculus Quest (May, 2019)

Let’s compare them side-by-side.


Pros of Oculus Quest vs Rift (2016) and Rift S:

  • no PC required
    All processing is performed inside the headset.
  • much cheaper
    You don’t need a powerful PC.
  • no cord
    and no external sensors required for Rift 2016.
  • very user friendly
    Turn it on, put it on and play. You also need to draw the play area on the very first session or if you play in a new place. The experience is similar to VR on a PC.
  • bigger play area
    Both Rifts’ play area is limited by the headset’s cable length and external sensors in case of the Rift 2016.
  • can be used in bed   :-O
    You can watch movies on a large virtual screen hanging above your head.
  • on-board speakers
    Rift S has them as well, Rift 2016 doesn’t.
  • hardware adjustment of distance between the lenses
    Rift 2016 has it, Rift S doesn’t. Sweet spot of the lenses is large though, so lack of this feature will be problematic only when your IPD differs a lot from average 63-64 mm.
  • God Rays reduced a lot in comparison with Rift 2016
  • better glasses accommodation than Rift 2016
  • option of using the Quest as a headset for PC
    You can plug your Quest to the PC with a cable and access huge VR games library available for this platform. This doesn’t work the other way around i.e. you can’t use Rift without a PC, so the Quest delivers better value for money.
  • access to many of the Gear VR games
    and some of them were upgraded to make use of the Quest’s controllers.

To see what people who bought the Quest think about it, press here.

 


Cons of Oculus Quest vs Rift (2016) and Rift S

  • less content for the Quest as a standalone platform
    If you have a powerful PC it’s not a problem because you can plug your Quest to the PC (Oculus Link) and play all VR games available for this platform.
  • less powerful processor and graphics card than a gaming PC
    There is a trade-off: very high quality over the cable or lower without one. Quest represents the latter.
  • tracking within the play area is less accurate than for the Rift 2016
    That makes a difference mostly when playing competitively.
  • stutters and freezes more frequently

 

Pros of Oculus Rift S vs Rift (2016)

  • no Oculus Sensors required
    Tracking of the headset and controllers is performed by the 5 cameras installed in the headset.
  • better glasses accommodation
  • on-board speakers
    No need for headphones.


Cons of Oculus Rift S vs Rift (2016)

  • controllers tracking has more dead zones
    Mostly behind one’s back and close to the headset.
  • tracking less accurate
    It matters when playing competitively.
  • no manual adjustment of distance between the lenses
    Beware if your IPD differs a lot from 64 mm.

 

Oculus Rift 2016 – a detailed write-up

Oculus Rift headset (source of the image)

DISCLAIMER: Oculus Rift is going to be retired soon. A new version: Rift S is out.

Are you desperate to learn all about the Oculus Rift essentials without wasting a lot of time ?

Well, I think you’ve just found what you were looking for.

This article is focused on Oculus Rift hardware, although it contains a short overview of the VR content as well.

Let’s face it, technical specifications are meaningless for most people. That’s why instead of throwing them around, I chose to describe their benefits for you, the user, instead.

This article is not based on my personal opinions.

I have read hundreds of owners’ reviews. I’ve also ploughed through the reviews published by the leading tech web sites. The Oculus Rift rating is generally positive (excellent for their controllers and very good for their headset).

This article is a collection of all the facts I was able to extract from these reviews. I decided to structure it in the form of questions and answers, so you, the reader, can easily find the specific information that you’re looking for.

Those who have very limited time should probably jump straight to the strengths and weaknesses. Remember that buying the headset on its own is not a good idea. Happily there are bundles containing both the headset and the VR controllers.



All you need to know before pulling a plug:

What is VR ?

What Hardware Items Are A Must For Oculus VR ?
How Does The Oculus Headset Work ?
What are the technical specifications of the Oculus system ?

What Features Does The Headset have ?
What Is The Oculus Remote ?
What Are Touch Controllers ?

Does Oculus Support Room-Scale VR ?
Are there many accessories for the Oculus system ?

How Powerful Does Your Computer Need To Be For The Oculus Rift ?
Why Does VR For A PC Require An Expensive Computer ?

Is it healthy to use VR ?
What is VR motion sickness and how big a problem is it ?
Why VR induces headaches and how to avoid them ?
Why does VR cause the dry-eye syndrome and what to do about it ?
Is VR of any use for people with vision in one eye only ?

What are the limits and issues of the current generation VR ?

What Use Cases Does The System Support ?
Are There Many Games Available For Oculus Rift And How Good Are They ?
Is The Headset Useful For Anything Else Other Than VR Games ?
Is There Any Free VR Content ?

Is The Oculus Rift Suitable For Children ?
Can I Use The Oculus Headset As FPV Glasses For Droning ?

Is The Oculus Headset Comfortable ?
Can I Use The Oculus Headset With Glasses ?
Is the Oculus headset wireless ?

Is There A Lot Of Difficulty With Setting Up The Oculus Rift ?
Does Oculus Rift Have Any Annoying Issues ?
How does the Oculus Rift VR compare to the other high-end VR systems ?
What are the downsides of the low-end VR in comparison with the Oculus Rift ?

What Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Oculus Rift ?
Is The Oculus Rift For Me ?
Is The Oculus Rift Worth The Price ?
Any more questions ?

What is VR ?

What Hardware Items Are A Must For Oculus VR ?

To begin with, various combinations of the items listed below can be bought in bundles.

The bare minimum consists of:

Other Oculus essentials are:

The next few sections contain a description of how the entire system works and what the purpose of each Oculus hardware item is.

How Does The Oculus Headset Work ?

To understand how the information provided below fits into the big picture, you will need some basic knowledge about VR. If you don’t know much about it, I recommend reading this chapter first.

Oculus Rift HMD (the headset) is equipped with various movement and rotation detectors. It also emits an infrared glow which is registered by the specialized sensors. Oculus named this tracking system “Constellation”.

All the data collected by various detectors is subsequently sent to the computer and used to calculate the exact position and orientation of the headset.

The infrared glow is a type of radiation very similar to natural light. The most obvious difference is that the IR (infrared) radiation is not visible.

Your TV remote is a prime example of a device based on a similar principle. In this case however, the position and orientation of the remote is not important. All it does is send IR commands to your TV set.

Oculus Sensor (source of the image)


The glow of the headset is registered by the Oculus Sensors, which are nothing more than cameras susceptible to infrared radiation. They are also able to pick up visible light, so if you are so inclined, you could obtain a recognizable black and white images of the area in front of the sensors.

Each camera is mounted on a stand. You can tilt it or even detach it if you decide to experiment with alternative camera set-ups.

The sensor together with a stand is about 10 inches tall (25 cm).

As you have probably noticed, it is very easy to break the communication between a TV remote and a TV set. Once you put something opaque between them, it doesn’t work anymore. The same is true about the Oculus Sensors and either the headset or the Touch Controllers which are tracked by those sensors as well.

There is one other important constraint which the Oculus Sensors share with regular cameras. They only cover limited space just in front of them.

The field of view of a single Oculus Sensor is 100 degrees horizontally and 75 degrees vertically. A single sensor provides ideal tracking when the headset is between 3 feet (0.9m) and 6 feet (1.8m) away from it. A similar principle is true in the case of the Touch Controllers, however in this scenario occlusion poses a more serious problem.

The headset has IR sources all around it so in theory you could turn 360 degrees, even if you had just one sensor. In practice it is not exactly a good idea because the headset is wired.

Let’s move on from tracking to the HMD itself.

The headset has a form of goggles. The front part, the visor, contains a display and two lenses.

The visor of the Oculus HMD is fastened to the head with three straps. Two of them are wrapped around the head on both sides and the third one goes across the top of one’s dome. The straps meet together at the back. Each of them can be adjusted using a Velcro mechanism.

The headset is equipped with a built-in microphone and headphones which are attached to the straps. They can be detached and replaced with the external ones if you prefer to do so.

As you have learned earlier in this chapter, a single sensor covers quite a limited space, thus it is good enough only for a sitting or standing experience.

It is possible to extend the playable area by adding more sensors and you can improve the experience further by adding Touch Controllers to the mix. More on that in the sections about the Touch Controllers and room-scale VR.

What are the technical specifications of the Oculus
system ?

What Features Does The Headset have ?

  • the headset is tracked everywhere in a designated area
    Size of this area depends on the number of sensors (1-3).
  • integrated headphones & microphone
  • adjustable straps
  • you can adjust the headset to your IPD
  • if you buy some additional equipment (TPCAST Wireless Adaptor) you can make the headset wireless

What Is The Oculus Remote ?

It is a small remote for navigating menus and controlling the volume. It was designed to be used without looking at the buttons.

What Are Touch Controllers ?

Touch Controllers (source of the image)

Touch Controllers are two distinct, mirror-image devices, designed to be the counterparts of the left and right palm in virtual worlds.

Each controller has:

  • a trigger for the index finger
  • a trigger for the middle finger
  • 2 action buttons: X and Y for the left one, A and B for the right one
  • a thumb-stick
  • a menu button
  • touch sensors detecting whether your thumb rests on the thumb-stick, on the action buttons, on the surface of the controller or points upwards
  • touch sensors detecting whether your index finger touches the trigger or points forward
  • a vibrations mechanism as a haptic feedback

The Touch Controllers are wireless and are powered by a single AA battery each. Batteries last up to 30 hours if vibrations are disabled or 20 hours otherwise.

What differentiates them from other, similar devices are the touch sensors.

Most controllers detect only button pressing, trigger pulling and thumb-stick pushing. The touch sensors of the Oculus gamepads additionally provide the information of where the fingers are. As a result, manipulating VR objects and navigating menus is more intuitive.

The Oculus Touch controllers are also remarkably sturdy. People report incidents of punching the wall or chucking them across the room without any negative consequences.

Reviewers agree that they are currently the very best VR controllers. Buying the headset without Oculus Touch is utterly pointless.

Learning to use them takes some time, tough. For that purpose Oculus provides a free tutorial app called “First Contact”. There is also another free app, “Toy Box”, which you can use to refine your newly acquired skills.

The only problem with the touch controllers is that you cannot use them to play a game designed to be controlled with a regular gamepad. In such cases, more often than not, you are supposed to use the stick with your left hand and at the same time press one of the 4 action buttons on the right side of the gamepad with your right hand.

With the Touch Controllers it is not really possible, because 2 of the action buttons are on the left controller, so pressing them with the right hand would be very awkward. It is not a major problem though, since you can always grab a traditional gamepad.

Let’s move on to the nuts and bolts of how the Touch Controllers communicate with the VR system.

The controllers are equipped with sources of the IR glow just like the headset. That allows the Oculus Sensors to track their location and orientation.

It is possible to use just one sensor, however using two gives much better results because the optimal tracking area is much bigger.

In the situation where two sensors are placed on a desk 6 feet apart (1.8m), the tracking works very well up to 10 feet (3m) away from the desk.

This configuration is still not ideal because, once you turn more than 90 degrees, the system starts to struggle with the tracking. It happens because in this situation at least one of the controllers tend to be occluded by your body.

Solutions to this problem are discussed in the next section.

Does Oculus Support Room-Scale VR ?

Yes, it does, however it is optional.

In the case of the set-up using one or two sensors, you cannot really turn around freely because sooner or later you will end up occluding at least one of your Touch Controllers. Yes, you can rotate the counterpart of your body in VR with a thumb-stick, but it is not the same as the ability to actually turn around. To be able to do that you will need three Oculus Sensors. Reviewers agree that this is definitely worth it.

Getting the best results would require placing the sensors in the corners of the room just below the ceiling. They should all point towards the center of the play area.

Alternatively two of the sensors can be placed on a desk and a third one behind your back. The results won’t be as good though. The system will track you just fine most of the time anywhere within the play area of 8 x 9 feet (2.4 x 2.7 m). Only when you’re in the corners of this zone, will the accuracy of the tracking be lost for certain poses.

Detailed descriptions and pictures of various 3-sensor configurations can be found here.

With room-scale VR you run the risk of falling out of the area with optimal tracking, which obviously can ruin the experience. To solve this problem you set up the Oculus Guardian system. This involves mapping out an adequate play area. Once this is done, the boundaries are highlighted within the virtual world whenever you get close to them.

Are there many accessories for the Oculus system ?

There are some, unfortunately not trackers. That last term refers to guns, bats and other objects which could be tracked in VR game.

Here is a list of some accessories:

  • Oculus Touch Controllers
    Buying the system without them is pointless.
  • Oculus Rift earphones
    Those are earbuds which can be used instead of the standard on-ear headphones.
  • correction inserts (vr-lens)
    You can use them instead of glasses.
  • Facial interface & Foam replacements
  • TPCAST Wireless Adaptor
    This piece of hardware turns your headset into a wireless device. I’m not going to recommend it, because it is expensive and in my opinion not reliable enough for the price.

How Powerful Does Your Computer Need To Be For The Oculus Rift ?

Minimal hardware requirements can be found here. All the computers certified to work with the Oculus VR system are listed here – they are quite expensive. Building your own gaming PC would probably be cheaper, however you could run into compatibility issues.

If you already have a powerful PC, you can use compatibility tool to check whether it will work with the Oculus.

Why Does VR For A PC Require An Expensive Computer ?

Is it healthy to use VR ?

What is VR motion sickness and how big a problem is it ?

Why VR induces headaches and how to avoid them ?

Why does VR cause the dry-eye syndrome and what to do about it ?

Is VR of any use for people with vision in one eye only ?

What are the limits and issues of the current generation  VR ?

What Use Cases Does The System Support ?

  • The ability to play VR games for PC.
    You can play all VR games created for the Rift and also games created for Vive (the other VR system for PC). More information about that can be found in the next section.
  • The ability to play regular PC games on a large virtual screen.
    Thanks to the Virtual Desktop app you can see your computer screen in the Oculus Rift headset and it feels like sitting in a cinema.
  • The ability to play regular PC games in VR.
    More on that here
  • The ability to stream games from the Xbox One console to the Oculus Rift headset.
    That works for Windows 10 only.
  • The ability to use various VR apps.
    It is easy to imagine how various programs for your PC could benefit from the VR user interface. Imagine for example that you are designing a house. Instead of building it on the screen, you could actually be inside it – painting or moving walls, adding rooms or floors etc. The possibilities are endless. In fact, there are some painting and sculpting apps already available. More on that here.

Are There Many Games Available For Oculus Rift And How Good Are They ?

All games officially supported by Oculus are listed on the Oculus Store. Most of them can be found on Steam and some of them on Amazon as well. On Amazon you can also get Steam gift cards for topping up Steam wallet.

If you are already an owner, you access the content via Oculus Home. You can do that either using a traditional PC app or in the VR. The latter is designed as a virtual living room where you can conveniently explore the store with the Oculus Remote or a gamepad.

What is particularly useful is the level of comfort assigned to every game. Each of them is given a grade: comfortable, moderate or intense. Those grades correspond to the likelihood of motion sickness.

Other important information (tracking modes, type of experience etc.) is also included and the layout allows to quickly find what you are looking for.

Currently there are more than 2000 games available. The question is: “Are they any good ?”

A detailed analysis aimed at answering this question can be found here.

Apart from games officially supported by Oculus, owners of the Rift can also play games designed for HTC Vive and listed on Steam VR. Vive’s games are usually controlled by the Vive wands, so to play them you will need Touch controllers.

Remember that if a game was specifically designed for the wands, using Touch might not be ideal.

Games for the Vive are usually designed for the room-scale VR. This means that you can walk around, and what is more important, turn in every direction. If you happen to have just two Oculus Sensors, you can’t really turn away from them. Instead you have to use the thumb-stick to rotate the camera. That obviously breaks the immersion.

Is The Headset Useful For Anything Else Other Than VR Games ?

360-degree videos

Example:
The People’s House – a documentary about the White House

Interactive 360-degree videos

Examples:
Bear Island
VR Tour of the British Museum

Computer generated VR experiences:

Examples of documentary/educational:
The Grand Canyon VR Experience
Ocean Rift
Chernobyl VR project
Everest VR
Zero Days VR – cyber warfare,

Examples of fiction:
Henry – Emmy Award winner
Dear Angelica
Lost – this one is not related to the TV series

Some popular apps:

Virtual Desktop
This generates a large virtual screen as a counterpart of the computer’s monitor in VR. It can be either flat or curved. It can float in space or pretend to be a TV mounted on the wall in the virtual living room. You can use it to watch movies or play non VR games.

Virtual Desktop can be also used to watch YouTube’s 360-degree videos.

VorpX
is a software which allows you to play any non-VR first-person-view game in VR. VorpX uses the head-tracking of your headset to move your virtual body within the game. On top of that, if the game supports stereoscopy, you can see everything in 3d. Of course it is less comfortable in terms of motion sickness than playing games created specifically for VR.

VorpX is also useful for non first-person-view games which support stereoscopy. You can play them on a large virtual screen in 3d.

Medium
Sculpting, modelling and painting in a VR environment

Quill
Sketching and painting on a VR canvas

Tilt Brush
Painting in 3d

Bigscreen Beta, vTime
social apps

Therapy in VR
Designing video games in VR
Google Earth VR

and more.

It should be clear by now that VR has a huge potential. I’m quite sure we will see many more applications in the future.

Is There Any Free VR Content ?

Yes, some of the experiences, games and apps are free.

Is The Oculus Rift Suitable For Children ?

Oculus warns in their health and safety documentation that their system shouldn’t be used by children younger than 13 years old.

Can I Use The Oculus Headset As FPV Glasses For Droning ?

This is not officially supported and it is not clear if this is possible with the customer version (CV1) I’m writing about.

Having said that, Oculus Rift works with laptops, at least some of them. I’m pretty sure there is a way to transfer the signal from the drone’s camera to the laptop screen. Once you figure that out, you could use the Virtual Desktop app to watch it in your headset.

In the set-up described above, the Oculus Sensors are not necessary, unless you want to make use of the tracking as well. Some people reported using the headset without the sensors. For certain applications it does make sense.

It seems that you can unplug the sensors and when the system complains, you simply ignore it. It is claimed to work, however I would contact Oculus for a definitive answer.

Another challenge is the limited capacity of the laptop’s battery. I’m not sure how long it would last powering the laptop and the headset.

An article about droning with the Oculus Rift DK1 (the very first Development Kit) can be found here.

Is The Oculus Headset Comfortable ?

It is comfortable enough.

The headset has the shape of goggles, so the whole weight (1lb, 470g) is concentrated in front. As a result it puts some strain on the neck and cheeks which might turn into fatigue after a couple of hours.

The front part of the headset (the visor) is sealed around the face with foam. The fit has to be quite tight to keep the headset in place for the best quality of visuals and to prevent light from getting in.

In general, the tighter the grip, the better the VR immersion. On the other hand, a tight grip can become too uncomfortable after a while. One has to find a sweet spot between the two.

Some people reported that blocking the light around the nose is problematic. That of course depends on how well the visor fits the shape of one’s face.

Another important thing related to comfort is interpupillary distance (IPD). If the headset is not adjusted to the user’s IPD, it can generate rather awful headaches.

Adjusting IPD requires sliding a small lever on the right underside of the visor until a perfect focus is found. Even better approach is described here. Although it refers to adjusting PSVR, it can be used for the Oculus as well.

To increase the comfort further, you can buy a replacement for a facial interface with softer foam.

Can I Use The Oculus Headset With Glasses ?

It all depends on the size and shape of your glasses. Some people have no problems, others struggle. According to the official guidelines, the glasses cannot be wider than 142mm and taller than 50mm.

Sometimes even when glasses fit into the visor, they are pressed against the nose which is not ideal. To solve this problem you can either:

  • find a non-standard, bigger facial interface for the headset
  • start using contact lenses
  • buy VR prescription lenses – for example vr-lens

If there is a VR Arcade in your area, and if they have Oculus Rift, you could go there and take it for a spin before buying.

Is the Oculus headset wireless ?

No.

You can make it wireless using the TPCAST Wireless Adaptor. In my opinion it’s not reliable enough for the hefty price.

Is There A Lot Of Difficulty With Setting Up The Oculus Rift ?

Below you will find a brief description of the process. Depending on the items involved, some steps can be skipped or additional ones may be necessary. The outlined set-up requires the headset, the Oculus Remote, an Xbox One gamepad, the Touch Controllers and two Oculus Sensors.

Setting everything up takes between 30 and 60 minutes. The user is guided through the whole process step-by-step with clear instructions. The goal of this chapter is to give you a rough idea of what it involves.

  • Download and install the Oculus App
  • Register your account with Oculus
  • Update your graphics card driver to the latest version
  • Connect the headset and the sensors to your computer
  • Update the firmware of the Oculus Rift to the latest version
  • Pair the Oculus Rift Remote with the headset
  • Connect the Xbox One gamepad to your PC
  • Set up the Oculus Sensors
    These should be placed on a desk 3 ft (0.9m) to 6 ft (1.8m) apart, just in front of the play area and point forward.
  • Pair the headset with the sensors.
  • Pair the Touch Controllers with the sensors.
  • Set up the Guardian system
    This involves mapping out the play area so the system can warn you when you get close to the boundaries outlined.

Personal computers are in general less user-friendly than consoles. Sooner or later you will run into some problems and troubleshooting will be required. It is annoying and takes some time, however it is usually possible to find a solution online. The next chapter is about some of the problems various users encountered.

Does Oculus Rift Have Any Annoying Issues ?

This chapter contains a compilation of the most frequent issues people reported on various forums. The list starts with the most serious problems and ends with mere annoyances. Bear in mind though, that my judgement of their importance/severity is subjective.

  • Customer service is not responsive enough
    Communities of users at Oculus and reddit are very vibrant and helpful though.
  • Compatibility issues with USB 3.0
    The Oculus Sensors send large amounts of data to your PC. Some of the motherboards, even though they support USB 3.0, cannot handle the load required by Oculus. In such cases you can, for example, buy a USB 3.0 expansion card.

If you have to upgrade or buy a new PC, here you can find a list of PCs with the official “Oculus Ready” stamp of approval.

  • For some users the headset and sensors lose connection all the time
    There are a lot of reasons why this may happen. In what follows I provide a short overview of the most common issues.

First of all, your PC may struggle with accommodating a massive load of data flowing from the sensors and the headset.

To address this problem you should plug your headset into a USB 2.0 port and use the USB 3.0 port only for the sensors. If you have an optional third sensor, it will work fine with the USB 2.0 port. A detailed description of this set-up can be found here.

Some people tried using USB 2.0 exclusively. It works, tracking is not that great though. The more sensors you can plug to USB 3.0, the better.

If the problem persist irrespectively, you should consider changing the “Power Management” settings in the properties of the “USB Root Hubs” in “Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus Controllers”. By default this is in power saving mode. Disabling it may help.

Other than that you could disable the “USB selective suspend setting”. This can be found in a window activated by clicking on “Change advanced power settings” in “Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings\”

Losing HDMI connection with the headset is also quite frequent. This may be caused, for example, by a loose HDMI port of your PC or a loose connection between the cable and the internal circuit of the headset.

Of course there is always a possibility that the equipment is simply faulty.

  • Possibility of conflicts between Oculus software and other apps and drivers
    Some people run into problems with installing Oculus software. In most cases, an anti-virus or some other security software prevents Oculus from making changes.

Sometimes the conflicts are so serious that they can destabilize the operating system and lead to a crash.

That may sound scary, however, you have to remember that running into problems like this on a PC is not unusual. Every PC user knows the pain.

  • Some people reported the right earphone randomly losing connection and eventually breaking
  • Some people reported the trigger of the Touch Controller getting stuck in the pressed state
  • Putting the headset on is cumbersome for people who use glasses.
    You have to take your glasses off, place them inside the visor of the headset and then put it on. Taking it off is equally tricky – the glasses tend to stay within the visor. You have to be careful to avoid dropping them on the floor.
  • Hidden costs
    For the room-scale VR a third sensor is required. You will have to buy it separately.

Also if you run into compatibility issues on your PC, you may be forced to buy some additional pieces of hardware.

  • Problems with tracking
    You have to make sure that at least one sensor can see the headset and the controllers at all times. Various set-up configurations are discussed here. Finding a perfect set-up can take some time.
  • Some titles require you to take off the headset to complete the installation.
    That’s quite annoying, isn’t it 🙂

How does the Oculus Rift VR compare to the other high-end VR systems ?

What are the downsides of the low-end VR in comparison with the Oculus Rift ?

What Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Oculus
Rift ?

This chapter is meant to be a short recap. A detailed comparison between various high-end systems can be found here.

Strengths:

Good enough:

Weaknesses:

If you are still not sure if it’s for you, please read on.

Is The Oculus Rift For Me ?

Is The Oculus Rift Worth The Price ?

I will assume here that you already have a gaming PC and that you plan to buy Oculus Rift with the Touch Controllers and a third Oculus Sensor as well.

Your PC will almost certainly require some changes or upgrades, which will bump the price up.
To check your PC meets the requirements you should run the Oculus compatibility check tool.

I will assume the total cost to be 700 USD. Depending on your personal situation you will obviously get a different number. I recommend repeating the calculations described below using the total which is more adequate for your situation.

Gaming PCs are ageing rapidly. I will assume that once your PC is suitable for the Rift, you won’t need any further upgrades for the next two years.

Let’s further assume that you use your Oculus for 4 hours per week on average. Under these conditions you would end up with a total of 4*52*2=416 hours in two years, so the price to pay for the hardware alone would be 700/416=1.68$ for one hour of playing.

Obviously, we have to add the cost of games as well. The average price for one hour of gameplay is  6 USD approximately, so the final price is around 8 USD per hour.

Let’s recap: Oculus Rift together with VR games doesn’t cost more than 8 USD for one hour of playing (if assumptions described above hold)

To figure out how expensive this is, let’s find a reference.

A ticket for IMAX 3D in New York costs roughly 14.72 USD for one hour of the experience.

Bottom line: Oculus Rift is cheaper than IMAX 3D in New York in terms of one hour of the experience (under the circumstances described above).

Instead of IMAX I recommend using some other reference, which makes more sense to you.

Any more questions ?

The Oculus online community is very vibrant. That’s probably the best place for asking any questions or for assistance in troubleshooting. Reddit is not bad either.


This article is a summary of various materials published at:

https://www.cnet.com
https://www.techradar.com/
https://www.pcmag.com/review/
https://newatlas.com/
https://www.gamespot.com/
https://bgr.com/
http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/
http://www.pocket-lint.com/
http://www.alphr.com/
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/
https://www.popsci.com/oculus-rift-how-it-works
https://product-guides.oculus.com/en-us/documentation/rift/latest/
https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/

and owners’ reviews and opinions posted on online shops and forums.

Cyber Headgear is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

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