Cloud Party, the web-based virtual world, now officially supports the Oculus Rift via a plug-in -- read about it here on the company blog, and if you have a dev kit, follow the instructions for connecting Cloud Party to your Rift headset.

As such, Cloud Party becomes the first virtual world to officially support the Oculus Rift. Second Life developer Linden Lab was expected to unveil its support for the Rift last Summer, but so far, only this unofficial third party viewer for SL is currently available. However, Cloud Party is backed and advised by SL co-creator Cory Ondrejka, and ex-Linden Lab VP Cyn Skyberg now heads up Cloud Party's community management.

Speaking of which, here's what Cyn Skyberg says about the experience of using Cloud Party through the Rift (that's her pictured above):

"My personal description is 'Crap! That is way more impressive than I ever thought it would be!' The level of detail is amazing." Some users may experience a feeling of seasickness at times -- a sensation common to every platform running the Rift -- but even then, she goes on, "It is very, very compelling."

For her, Rift integration with Cloud Party gets us closer to virtual reality as we originally conceived it -- and platforms like Second Life were originally built for: