In a moment of madness I decided to purchase a Oculus Rift DK2. The ordering process said to expect delivery to take 1 – 2 weeks however in my case it was just a few days.

The general setup was pretty simple, with just one runtime to install.  There are a lot of cables and you will need at least two USB ports spare and a Full size HDMI port.

I was running Windows 8.1 which led me to the first problem.  The runtime I was using (0.4.4) had a display driver that stopped the device from getting detected in the control panel. I found after searching that this could be “Fixed” by uninstalling just the “Oculus Display Driver” within Control Panel.

No Device Attached :(

From my basic understanding there are two modes the Oculus Rift can be run in. First is the Direct Mode which I was never able to get working on both Windows 7  and Windows 8.1. The extend mode is where Windows treats the Oculus as a secondary monitor which did work for me. However I found even the Extend mode to be very fragile with some apps working and some not.

After a lot of fiddling I managed to get the Demo Scene to work therefore giving me my first taste of VR!

The demo scene consists of a desk in front of you in a empty blue room of which you are stationary. Considering this is just a very simple demo its still enough to impress, I wouldn’t like to admit the time spent staring at a VR potted plant.

How about Steam Then

Steam has a VR mode which consists of the Big Picture Mode running in a semi circle in front of you. You can use the head tracking to look around the interface and use a keyboard to interact.

When trying to get Team Fortress 2 to run I ran out of luck. I either got the game running in a window on the wrong screen or the game just wouldn’t launch.

What’s next

I’m going to investigate into what enviroment (OS + Hardware) that others have had the best luck with. Failing that i may just wait until a new verison of the runtime comes along.

Should I get a Oculus Rift DK2?

Devs only!

I think there is very very good reason that the store asks you to agree that this is not a consumer product.  Its just not ready yet! I think its more the case that the software (Drivers etc) are just not ready for the masses.

If you really can’t wait until the end of the year when the Steam VR is due out, then go ahead and get a Oculus Rift DK2 BUT be prepared for it to not work, be prepared to spend a lot of your time trying different apps, different settings,  different operating systems to get something that works.