ASL?

My first days in VR have til now, delivered on its promise to surprise and delight. I have not spent much time in the hardcore shooting games just yet as I settle in slowly and adjust to the various ways of teleporting myself around a room and picking up all kinds of objects. Baby steps for now.

The social experience in VR - while it fascinates, it terrifies at the same time, as it's something completely new and you're just not sure how you're suppose to act or behave in a common space made only of pixels. Are you meant to introduce yourself? Tell everyone your age, sex and location? What is the small talk etiquette??

It's embarrassing to admit it but for a while I did not realise that the microphone came built-in with the Rift headset. I went for hours being a complete mute while wondering how I ended up spending all of that bonus money on a you-beaut-PC and not have an external mic.

Your voice is actually just as important as your hands in VR. Without it, you might as well be just a head on a stick. That feeling of presence is infinitely enhanced with the communication tools that we all take for granted.

Rec Room is such a place where you can socialise with randoms from all around the world and generally muck about in. Cnet called it VR's killer app. While that's debatable, it was certainly an eye-opening experience.

First you go through the process of setting up an avatar, then you are required to take a virtual selfie to set up an account. Then you are taken into your private 'dorm' where you dress yourself to go into the 'locker room' where other avatars are hanging out. If they're not taking a virtual video of the scene, they're most likely putting virtual buckets on their virtual heads, shooting confetti pistols, while picking a fight with a punching bag mannequin guy. And that was my first 60 seconds in Rec Room.

One can also partake in group activities like Frisbee golf, paddle ball, or what can be described as Rocket League where you are basically a teleporting car. I have not tried the other activities but the paintball game sounds like a real treat.

I captured the moment I went in for the second time for your viewing pleasure.

Adventures in VR

Not quite in 3D...

In the 15 years or so that I have played around in the digital landscape, many trends and fads have emerged that I have wanted to be a part of, and be one of the first adopters to do so. In 2016, one of those shiny new things became commercially available and somewhat affordable. I'm referring to Virtual Reality of course and late in the year, I became a proud owner of the Oculus Rift.

It wasn't until this week however that the Oculus Touch controllers arrived and my god, does it make a difference!

I have been trying to find ways to revive this blog and get writing regularly again. Chronicling my adventures in VR may just be the thing - not only for the reasons I stated earlier but to showcase what it is like to be fully immersed in a virtual world. And now that I have hands (as stated on episode 83 of the podcast), there is so much to show.

Yesterday I worked out how to 'capture' a video in VR via the Steam app - VRCapture. Here is the first demo video of me in Quill, a free bundled drawing app via Oculus Studios. (Mind the random whatsapp alerts coming via the PC!)

I eventually came up with the logo depicted in the main banner of this post. Unfortunately, you can't quite tell that it's in 3D or made in 3D. Next, I will attempt to use the sculpting app 'Medium' to showcase how one could shape a 3D object in VR space.