8am PST on 6 January …
Today, we’re excited to announce that pre-orders for Rift will open on Oculus.com at 8am Pacific Time on January 6! We’ll be sharing everything you need to know to order your Rift on Wednesday when pre-orders go live.
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I had the opportunity to try the DK2 in DCS World (around the 1.2 patch) and it was … magical? Yeah. I’m gonna go with magical.
Yes, there were issues. The resolution/screen-door effect lead to the inability to read any gauges in the A-10C or UH-1. The screen-door effect was noticeable, very noticeable, when looking anywhere.
But … taxiing around Batumi and flying the pattern was the closest I have felt to flying outside of actually flying. I was a little giddy as I taxied to the runway with the canopy open and a real sense of being in the confined space of the cockpit. Everything was in arms reach and it felt like I had strapped the A-10C on, instead of sitting in a spacious cockpit, which describes how I feel when flying it with a monitor.
The sense of depth was amazing. I was able to take the Huey up and fly around a static pick-up truck I had placed next to the Batumi and I was able to fly circles around it keeping the nose a couple of feet from the truck. I was able to put a skid on the engine of the truck with little to no problem. Landing on a frigate was also easier, as judging the depth between you and the hanger was as natural as looking out your car when parking.
There is one option and one drawback that is making me hesitate: Valve and the keyboard.
Option: I am very curious what Valve’s VR resolution is going to be compared to what the Oculus CV1 will be releasing with. Obviously, I want the higher resolution system as I believe that these are two close competitors, Valve’s offering being slightly more useful (?) as it can be used from a chair or you can walk around a room with it.
Drawback: In flight sims the largest drawback is going to be the barrier between you and your keyboard and checklist. Not being able to see either with a DK1 strapped to my head was a little limiting. Granted, if you learn the checklist from memory, as I was able to with the A-10C, that’s not too much of a problem but if you need to reference it, well that’s a little tougher. Also, flying something like the F-15C, with it’s lack of a clickable cockpit, is also a PITA as you need to poke at the keyboard from time to time.
Tough decision to make.
Also… no date has been released (that I know of) yet.