Oculus Rift's roller coaster demo proves it has still got the ability to make us nauseous/terrified/totally immersed. We just can't wait for the next generation of display its Facebook partnership is sure to bring

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Around a year ago, I tried out production company Inition's Oculus Rift demo, a terrifying take on walk-the-plank. The real world plank sat around two inches from the floor, but my stomach was around 50ft in the air, swaying in a blustering wind and readying itself for a potential fall which, it turned out, was in fact totally unavoidable and programmed in. This year, I side-stepped the revamped version of the demo at Inition's Shoreditch HQ, and headed for a VR roller coaster knocked together for the day.


One year on, the graphics -- though impressive -- did not provide the same thrill as the first time around. It's the combination of motion, carefully directed wind machines, high resolution sound and 3D imaging that make these experiences totally immersive and at times truly terrifying. But having tried Playstation's offering, Project Morpheus, a few months ago, it was immediately clear that the display on the original Oculus developer's kit were not up to scratch. It was merely my childish exuberance of trying on my first VR headset that meant these things seemed secondary to the experience. It's good news then, that Oculus has released a new iteration a few months ago with 1080p resolution, in-line with Morpheus. The graphics on Playstation's The Deep were definitely impressive enough to make my worst nightmare -- a great white coming in for the kill -- realistic enough to tempt me to pull off the headset in front of a room full of journalists and developers.

But at Inition's demo day, there was another VR headset-makers present. US-based Sensics might not have some of the 3D elements nailed, but delivered beautiful graphics at resolutions of up to 1280x1024 pixels per eye. Part of this is because its models are typically for industry. Vice President of Operations Yaron Kaufman tells us it's particularly popular with the military and car manufacturers -- any industry where minute detail is key to success -- but the company is "definitely always looking to get into new markets". They design all their displays inhouse and have special mountings for augmented reality add-ons and feature a built-in head tracker and finger tracking devices can be added on. The company demoed it using a game via Steam and is using a third party to translate the hardware automatically for use with any platform.

Of course, now that Oculus is under the multi-billion dollar umbrella that is Facebook, there is no need to worry about the display improving vastly. We just can't wait to see them.

So back to the roller coaster. During minute one to two, there was a moment where I nearly lost my lunch, proving VR game developers will always have to tread a fine line. (Apparently one individual that demoed it at Inition walked out, and last year a somewhat overenthusiastic member of the public launched themselves into a wall during the walk-the-plank demo. The results weren't great.) But as soon as I reminded myself that a member of the Inition team was manually jerking the motion chair I was sitting in around (it hadn't yet been programmed to the roller coaster demo) I could convince myself vomiting in public would not be the way forward. In fact, if I'm honest, the only way I didn't dig my nails into the chair I was sitting on was by repeatedly reminding myself I was sat in a the basement of a Shoreditch studio. It remains astonishingly effective, jerking users left and right as wind rushes past and the killer drop comes into view.

Next time, I hope they add a seatbelt. Even real-world roller coasters give you a safety bar to grip onto for reassurance and to help physically expunge all that terror from your body.