Virtualize Everything

Working in IT, the trend to virtualize everything can not be ignored. For example, all Google has is a single Raspberry Pi dangling from the wall outlet in some californian office building - everything else you see are virtual machines running on that bugger, and we all really hope they have a spare SD-Card somewhere.

Following this trend I decided to virtualize my reality. Last week I got my Oculus Rift S delivered and started testing it for example for playing Elite: Dangerous. Sure, there are other uses, but honestly: Who cares?

The setup started with some anger management requirements on my side, as my f...riendly USB port just wouldn't work with the headset. I sure have a USB 3.0 controller and why the f...rag does the headset always complain about the port not being usb threeish enough for it to run. That makes no sense. Well it didn't at first, until I learned that some of my ports are obviously on another controller, that is USB 2.0, of which I did not even know I owned it. Put it into a port marked as actually being USB 3.0 and it workes like a charm.

After some setup (log in to facebook! Aye! --- Measure your room for your safety! Aye, it's facebook, nobody has privacy concerns there --- Look, what the cameras are always seeing, when you are playing! Wait, what? this device is connected to my Facebook account; ah, whatever. --- and so on) it worked. The setup, though somewhat concerning for the IT-savvy, was excellently guided and easy to do.

And then it began: Find out how to start the game in VR. I expected this to be very hard, so put on my headset, ready to wrangle Steam and watch growing blue bars for hours. Okay, Steam, how do we go. And steam said: "Oh, you are wearing a VR headset. Should we start your game in VR mode?". Ah, yes. That's it, it worked. Instantly.

And then, the game is in 3D, you can look around and it feels as if you are in the hangar. For the first time I got a sense of scale in the game. And my Spaceships are huge. Not big, literally huge - I was blown away and just had to stare at my ship for a few minutes in awe before entering the cockpit.

And since then I spent all the time of rather dull flight looking around and it is so much better. I start noticing the details of my spaceships, and the level at which these are done in game is amazing. For example the "Krait Mk2" I own, is from now on and forever the "Hobo Ship" in my mind. Cables are just fixed to the ceiling with Ducttape or lying around openly.

This red cable going into that vent opening there? Why? I mean this is a space ship and this kind of cable management raises questions about the quality of the ship that is supposed to keep me alive at multiple times the speed of light in space.

But VR does more: It tricks your brain. Looking down, I got to see myself in game and my first thought was: Hey, you've lost some weight, this is great. Only a few seconds later I noticed, I am not looking at real-me, but some digital dude. 

I have a joystick and a thruster on a table - and these in game move precisely the way I move the real things. So the brain totally believes what it sees.

You may notice on that last picture, that the zipper of the jacket is a bit of to the left at the bottom. You won't be believe how often I already tried to shift it into the middle by pulling my real-world sweater sideways. 

As a summary: VR is fascinating, though expensive. And I feel a followup purchase of a new and better graphics card approaching - My GTX1060 can handle it, but in some situations reaches it's limits.