Set Up

This is relatively straightforward. The Oculus team has done a great job in walking you through account creation, headset fitting, and basic orientation. One thing that tripped me up: your wireless controller may not “do” anything if you already have a wired controller plugged in!

During Set Up you’ll be shown a few scenes from the Oculus Dreamdeck, which includes a scene in a clearing in the woods, and dinosaur in the museum. Look around!

Oculus Home

After you complete set up, you’re placed in your Oculus Home. This is the screen you’ll first see whenever you start up the Oculus. This is it! You’re in VR! Take some time to savor and enjoy the moment. Almost everyone who has demo’ed the Oculus at my place has exclaimed how pleasant the room is. Look around the classy establishment you’ve got going. I’m sure Oculus will let you customize it to make it feel more like home in the future, but for now you can marvel at the exquisite level of detail and comfort this evokes. Let’s get acquainted and see some more of what VR has to offer.

View some 3D worlds (Also great for demos to your friends)

Let’s start off easy — you want to really take your time and enjoy your first few moments in VR and look around, so I wouldn’t jump straight into Eve Valkyrie. Head over to the Oculus Store (The bottom left shopping cart icon in your Home), and download the following, and enjoy in the following order:

Dreamdeck to catch a few scenes you weren’t shown in the set up: choose “Play All” (Entertainment category)

to catch a few scenes you weren’t shown in the set up: choose “Play All” (Entertainment category) Showdown (It says U4, in the Concepts category) — amazing 3D demo of what could be achievable in games.

For your second session:

JauntVR (Apps category — this app is great, definitely watch the Remember short. They have films, music, etc. Really great app to get a sense of what media in the world of VR is/can be all about. I think of JauntVR as the Vimeo of VR media. JauntVR has raised a lot of money from VCs and I can see why.)

(Apps category — this app is great, definitely watch the Remember short. They have films, music, etc. Really great app to get a sense of what media in the world of VR is/can be all about. I think of JauntVR as the Vimeo of VR media. JauntVR has raised a lot of money from VCs and I can see why.) Apollo 11 (Entertainment category)

Apollo 11 is paid, but totally worth it. You’ll get to ride the rocket to the moon!

Considered but excluded: Oculus Video, 360 Photos, Henry, The Body VR (Not as good as the previously listed experiences)

Time for some games!

Not all games are created equal, and some are quite expensive for relatively shallow experiences (no pun intended). Eve Valkyrie was disappointing to me, especially given the $59 price tag. That said, it comes free with some of the bundles, and for the price of “Free”, it’s a worthwhile experience. Here’s what I’d recommend checking out, also in order (this whole post is like my Oculus mix tape):

Blazerush — a simple, but ridiculously fun top/down racer game, kind of like Micro Machines. For $9.99 (I think; they don’t show the price after I’ve made the purchase) it’s the most fun I’ve had playing a VR game, even more than any of the $59.99 blockbusters. My wife who is not a gamer put on the Oculus and was immediately able to pick it up, and was clamoring for more.

Farlands — free game with quality for a $30 game. It’s kind of like a hybrid between VR Tamagochi and Pokemon. The goal is to explore a new alien world, and document, feed, and play with its residents. Each session is about 15–30 minutes long, and you can log back on each day for new content. The world is full of personality, I definitely recommend checking it out.

For your second session:

Chronos — probably the best game AAA game on the Oculus at the moment. It’s an action RPG, where you control a character through a 3D world via 3rd person. Plays a bit like Zelda, but much darker in terms of art style. Has a novel game mechanic where each time you die you respawn, but one year older. And as you age your abilities change.

— probably the best game AAA game on the Oculus at the moment. It’s an action RPG, where you control a character through a 3D world via 3rd person. Plays a bit like Zelda, but much darker in terms of art style. Has a novel game mechanic where each time you die you respawn, but one year older. And as you age your abilities change. Eve Valkyrie — I wouldn’t recommend getting Eve Valkyrie for the full price, but definitely try it if it was included in your package.

— I wouldn’t recommend getting Eve Valkyrie for the full price, but definitely try it if it was included in your package. Considered but excluded: Eve Valkyrie (shallow gameplay, not worth purchasing but if you have it free, why not), Windlands (good, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Get Started must have),

Eve Valkyrie (shallow gameplay, not worth purchasing but if you have it free, why not), Windlands (good, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Get Started must have), On my wishlist to try: The Climb, Lucky’s Tale, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Dreadhalls, Airmech Command, Elite Arena

Winding back down for social VR

Of all the categories (media, apps, games, social), I’m the most excited about Social VR, and I’ve left the best of VR for last. Popping both of the following apps open really got my mind excited and thinking about all the possibilities:

AltspaceVR — I wandered for a good 5 minutes in the initial Welcome world before noticing the mute button. “Wait… the Oculus has a mic?” “…hello…?”. When the guy standing next to me actually returned my greeting I was completely blown away. We then went on to play some disc golf together. What an amazing experience. The world is sparsely populated (it’s not listed on the Oculus store, nor Steam — you have to download it from altvr.com for some reason. Also, it freezes on startup: you’ll just be stuck in a white world. What you have to do is alt tab out and back into the altspacevr app. Weird.), but it’s absolutely worth checking out to glimpse the future of social.

I’m in Altspace watching Twitch.tv with others in an old tavern. How cool is that?

BigScreen —(Download in Steam: Yes, Steam titles can work with the Oculus! You just need to filter the titles for those that support the Oculus. When starting up BigScreen, start it in “Other VR” mode, otherwise your screen’s going to be upside down)

—(Download in Steam: Yes, Steam titles can work with the Oculus! You just need to filter the titles for those that support the Oculus. When starting up BigScreen, start it in “Other VR” mode, otherwise your screen’s going to be upside down) I dare say this is the future of social experiences and distributed workplaces in VR. BigScreen lets you join others in a virtual apartment, or a landscape of your choosing. You’ll be dropped in with your PC’s desktop arrayed in front of you. Beside you will be your roommates’ screens (you can see their screens!) as well as an outline of their head, so you can see what they’re looking at, and “look” at each other while chatting via your built-in mics. My very first session ended up with me playing Dota 2 besides another guy I just met, while another watched on.

We eventually moved onto playing Rocket League together. It was a lot of fun, while we egged each other on and made fun of one another (I scored an own goal — sorry guys!) Besides gaming, I can easily imagine working from home in the future via BigScreen: a designer can easily show me her prototypes, or you can watch a candidate code on their screen during an interview. I’m very excited about BigScreen — the guys are thinking of monetizing through cosmetics while offering the app for free, which is absolutely the right call. The main holdback is creating a large enough community to make the service sticky. I’m the only person in my friends’ circle who currently has an Oculus — but I can imagine in the future, when VR is ubiquitous: coming home from a long day of work, popping into BigScreen and hanging out with friends: we can all do our own thing, but we’ll be in a room together and we can chat while we do it. And if we want to, we can pop Game of Thrones onto a projector in the virtual apartment and watch it together. How amazing is that?

On my wishlist to try: JanusVR (thanks wiiplay123)

Beyond the first 2 days

I’m going to be playing around with the Leap Motion once the mount ships to me. I’m excited about the prospects there, though it feels like it’s still very much in “developer ready” status, and not ready for consumers. That said, the demos are awesome and very compelling.

I challenge you to watch this and not be blown away.

Do let me know if you think I’m missing any major titles, or if you have suggestions for this guide. I’ll be writing more about VR and tech in general. Stay tuned.