In a wide-ranging new interview with Fortune, Oculus VR CTO John Carmack says trying the Oculus Rift virtual reality experience "like getting religion on contact." Asked what separates the VR tech of today from VR tech of the past, Carmack says his company's innovations are pushing VR forward in a significant way.

"In the past there were smaller niche companies, research companies, or military projects, and none of them got it right," Carmack said. "Everybody was doing small incremental improvements on the previous formfactor and design, which just wasn't right. And they didn't notice that you can make it something that the mass market could enjoy."

"Oculus really started popularizing a new approach using cellphone screen technology, a wide field of view, and super-low-latency sensor tracking," he went on to say. "It's not crappy stuff that doesn't work and makes everybody sick. When you experience Oculus technology, it's like getting religion on contact. People that try it walk out a believer."

Oculus VR was acquired by social networking giant Facebook earlier this year in a blockbuster deal worth $2 billion. In addition to Oculus Rift for PC, Oculus has teamed with Samsung for a mobile version called Gear VR, which is available now for $200.

You can read the full Fortune interview here.