RIFT Testing Support For Oculus Rift

In some surprising news posted up on the forums by Dev Pithos, Trion has announced that they are experimenting with support for Oculus Rift dev kits, for RIFT. Yes, it’s that ill-fangled device that shares the hashtag #rift on Twitter with our beloved RIFT.

What is Oculus Rift?

Oculus Rift Display (Front & Back). Img Src: Wiki

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display that can provide a ‘true 3D’ experience for supported applications, sporting a 960x1080p resolution per eye with an 100 degree field of view. More information can be accessed on their website here.

Can I Use Oculus Rift for RIFT Now?

Yes you can! Testing is now available on the Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) and will be made available on Live shards with this week’s hotfix!

Note that this functionality is highly experimental at the moment. Frame rates are halved when using the Oculus, UI support is very minimal and existing lighting/shadows bugs become more apparent.

Akylios – Third Person. Img Src: Trion

Regulos – First Person. Img Src: Trion

How to Get Started:

1. Make sure your Oculus headset is configured in Extend Desktop mode, not Direct mode.
2. Start Rift normally and login to the game.
3. Adjust your Rift game window to be the same resolution as your Oculus headset. (1920 x 1080 for the DK2, 1280 x 800 for the DK1)
4. Activate Oculus mode with the following slash command: /oculus 1
5. Position your Rift window so that it is on extended desktop of the Oculus device.
6. Enjoy!

To turn Oculus mode off, type /oculus 0. Oculus mode will also turn off whenever you bring up a loading screen (remember, experimental, so this is not intended for the final version).

[Source: Pithos]

There’s a whole bunch of details and limitations you should check out in Pithos’ thread. All feedback can be placed in that thread as well:

• RIFT Forums: Experimental Oculus Support Thread

Hope all you owners of an Oculus Rift headset have fun, and don’t forget to post feedback in the thread above so Trion can make improvements or decide whether to continue support for this feature.