A lot of you (like myself) pre-ordered a DK1 or DK2 years ago, and if you remember, shipping dates were a complete fiasco. Basically you didn’t know when you were going to get your Rift until it was shipped and you received the notification that it’s on the way. Well this time Oculus has made it clear which countries Oculus is being shipped to first and when shipment begins (starting March 28.) but it is still unclear exactly when you will receive your unit so we might see a bit of the fiasco once again.

Included in the heftily priced $600 Oculus Rift is an X-Box One controller, which was announced shortly after partnering with Microsoft. That’s not it though, in the package you will also receive an Oculus Remote which I have yet to see images of, how exciting! As a bonus for pre-ordering the Rift Oculus states “you’ll also secure your place in line for Touch pre-orders later this year”. From this statement I take that folks that pre-order the Rift will get first crack at pre-ordering the Oculus touch before it is available to everyone. This might just be the selling point for me because these controllers look amazing!

Oculus is also packing a AAA game with the Rift:

“All Rift pre-orders include access to EVE: Valkyrie through the Founder’s Pack, which will include exclusive in-game content, founder status in Valkyrie, and much more. Details about everything included in the EVE: Valkyrie Founder’s Pack will be revealed soon…”

So what are you waiting for, get over to Oculus and pre-order now, the sooner you order the sooner you will receive your unit!

EDIT: Shipping dates have already went from March to “Q2” so if you want a Rift for summer, you’d better get a pre-order now! I’m not sure exactly how many they made available for the first shipment, but obviously not enough! The pre-orders are flying off the shelves. Great news for the VR community, as beginning in March we will have a whole new wave of audiences joining the party every day, and while many of the users who already own an HMD are developers, these new users demographics will surely be largely consumer-based not to mention English=speaking judging by the list of countries that are receiving first shipments.

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Windows 10 is here! Who is as psyched as me to jump right into it and give it a whirl? Heck I’ve got my windows 7 disk, so If all is bad, I can just reformat, and badda boom badda bing. But some of you might not be in the same boat. If you don’t own your Windows disk, chances are, that without some serious hacking, you are stuck with your new copy of Windows 10. Whats so bad about this?

There is NO OCULUS RIFT SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS TEN! Surely this is a joke right? The worlds most futuristic consumer gaming technology must surely have been working on this since the announcement of Windows 10 in 2014 right? Well even if they have, they have nothing to show for it. I was expecting the Windows 10 runtime in June… Especially after the announcement came that Oculus is partnering with Microsoft! Now, Windows 10 on my computer, and still nothing.
There has been talk of a method to run the DK2 on Windows 10, but from what I understand, this is only if you upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8. I have yet to test this out, but I probably will if Oculus doesn’t release something quick. If you did a clean install on 10, there is not yet a hack out there for that but I’m sure that the Redditers are on it.

https://www.reddit.com/…_working_on_oculus_runtime_0600…

This is Oculus’ official statement on the subject:

“Our software team is working as quickly as possible to complete Windows 10 compatibility with our SDK and the Oculus Runtime. As Windows 10 is not officially supported at this time, we strongly suggest that Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 owners do not upgrade from previous versions of Windows until we have the officially updated SDK and Oculus Runtime available.” -Oculus

https://support.oculus.com/…Windows-10-Compatibility…

and this from Oculus’ team member: ‘Cybereality’

“Windows 10 support has not been released yet.” -Cybereality

Voice your opinion directly to Oculus. I’m sure they have stopped reading by now as the angry hoards have ascended, but why not let them know you care!

edit:
My favorite Win10 feature:

Windows 10 makes it easy to go back!

The post Oculus Rift and Windows 10 – Compatibility… or Incompatibility? appeared first on Kevin Gulling - Game Development, VR, and more.

It’s possible to communicate with others by changing color… Be creative! For ex. BRB or Be Right Back

This game should give me a good scope of the capabilities of the multiplayer network I am using, so I know what to expect for the next multiplayer game coming out. I’m trying to get a team going for the next project, so if you do advanced C#, 3D modeling, have a Unity Pro pass to donate, or do professional voice acting/recording then drop me a line.

So what are you waiting for? Download now by

clicking a link below.

Minimum System Requirements:
4GB RAM
3Ghz CPU

Recommended System Requirements:
8GB RAM
4Ghz CPU

see article for specs on computer used for testing.

NEW! Download now for Windows, Linux and Mac

Download for Windows – Mega
Alternate Downloads

Want to see more free games from me? Well, games take time, and time takes money. I know, debt slavery is no fun, but if you would like to see more titles with better features, please consider making a small donation. Hey if a guy washed your windshield you’d give him a buck right? How about he guy that spent 100 hours on over 1000 lines of C sharp to give you 20 minutes of entertainment? All donations will go towards the development of new titles, and/or updates for the current ones. Don’t have any cash? Don’t sweat it, just give it a “like” below, or send a Tweet and consider yourself a supporter! If a specific Tweet or Facebook post, or any kind of social media you use gets us an exorbitant amount of exposure, I will gladly give you a shoutout

Controls:
Move – WASD
Look – Mouse
Jump – Space
Stick a finger in your audio listener – Delete
Turn Blue – B
Turn Red – R
Turn Pink – P
Turn Green – G
Turn Yellow – Y
Turn Purple – U
Female – F
Male – M
Exit – Jump off the edge

Pro-tip: if you lean a lot, you can eventually see the outside of your capsule, and your new shiny color!

The post Multiplayer VR! A Free Multiplayer Game for the Oculus Rift DK2 appeared first on Kevin Gulling - Game Development, VR, and more.

This list is purely based on how well the game performs on the DK2 as well as the playability, and has nothing to do with the overall game rating. Over 100 GameCube games were tested to come up with this top 10 list. Unfortunately that leaves hundreds still untested by myself, but you can find other lists out there too. If I run into more games, I’ll keep this post updated. You can see the specs for the system I’m testing these on here in this older article. If you try any of these GameCube games, let us know in the comments how it worked for you and what type of system you are using. Performance seems to vary widely depending on your system, and depending on feedback, I may update the list. Also, I did not play EVERY GameCube game, so if you believe I missed something in specific, let us know in the comments. If you don’t know what dolphin-vr is or how to use it, you should read this page.

Now as for how these games are rated: Performance will depend solely on how fast or “smooth” the game plays “out of the box” (without advanced adjustment of emulator settings), while Playability refers to how well the game adapts with the DK2 and “State” is Dolphin VRs “performance rating” and does not factor into my ranking. All systems are different, do us a favor and report your experience with Dolphin VR in the comments. If anyone gets any games working after changing setting, please note in the comments.

Key:

• Performance
  • 1 – Won’t run
  • 2 – Runs, but horribly
  • 3 – Choppy graphics and glitchy sfx
  • 4 – Choppy graphics or glitchy sfx
  • 5 – Runs Smooth
• Playability
  • 1 – You can’t get past the intro
  • 2 – Missing layers, faces, textures, unplayable
  • 3 – Able to play, but rough
  • 4 – Can be played
  • 5 – Plays like it was made for the DK2

#1  Soulcalibur II

Being able to get a closeup of Cassandras “assets” was all it took to land this gem in the number one spot. I expect to see this type of fighter flourish in VR, despite the 3rd person camera view it is a lot of fun.

performance: 5/5

playability: 5/5

state: 4/5

#2  F-Zero GX

Do it. This one put a smile on my face. Rift Coaster move over! It did get a bit choppy when I played in the Grand Prix with other racers, but not too bad. It’s worth it just to get the game started and look around! Awesome.

performance: 5/5

playability: 5/5

state: 4/5

#3  Evolution Snowboarding

It may have been a bomb a decade ago, but this snowboarding game is moving back to the top in 2015! This game runs and operates like the developers had the DK2 in mind when they built it. Aside from the 3rd person view, you can have a real ‘bash’! Pun intended.

performance: 5/5

playability: 5/5

state: 4/5

#4  Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance

Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance is almost perfect for the DK2. There are just the matters of the black bars during the games cinematic moments. It’s not enough to keep me from playing though!

performance: 5/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

#5  Pikmin

I played for about 20 minutes before I got a little nauseated. Everything is a little small in this world, and hard to squint at for too long. Other than that, this game was fun, and blended right into the Rift!

performance: 5/5

playability: 5/5

state: 4/5

#6  Mario Party 4

This game works well all around. There was a mini game that I couldn’t play, but everything else worked great. I didn’t try Mario Party 5 or 6 but I suspect they will work as well. If you try them let us know in the comments.

performance: 4/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

#7  Hobbit, The Prelude to the Lord of the Rings

I played for about 1/2 hour, so much fun! The fighting parts got kind of sluggish, so for that reason I’m rating the performance a 4. The playability is great in most parts! A few areas are a bit hard to handle, but for the most part you can make it through the whole game I would suspect. (Haven’t done it yet)

performance: 4/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

#8   Animal Crossing

This game works well with the rift!

performance: 5/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

#9 Zelda: Collectors Addition

I had a little bit of issues with the old NES games, but the other Zeldas worked pretty well!

performance:4/5

playability:4/5

state: 3/5

#10 Super Smash Bros. Melee

Glad this game works! My personal #1 as far as the GameCube was concerned. Dolphin VR has given it a max state rating of 5 stars.

performance:4/5

playability: 4/5

state: 5/5

Other Notable Games

Top 5 runner ups:

#11  Top Gun: Combat Zones

This is pretty fun! Just look straight forward, the graphics behind you don’t get rendered.

performance: 4/5

playability: 4/5

state: N/A

#12  Tony Hawks Underground

I had a bit of a glitch in the opening screen, but hit some buttons, and made it through to the game. Plays well, a bit choppy on this system, but a faster system would rock it!

performance: 3/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

#13  SSX Tricky

It was hard to give SSX tricky a 4/5 for performance, but at times, the game would run perfectly for a short time, and for that short time. it was a lot of fun! I imagine a top-end gaming machine might do alright with this, and therefor 4/5.

performance: 4/5

playability: 4/5

state: 3/5

#14  Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures

The fact that only about 130 degrees of the terrain is rendered makes the playability on this game score low.

performance: 5/5

playability: 3/5

state: 4/5

#15  Time Splitters 2

This one, like most of the fps games for GameCube that I’ve tried only works out great if you look straight ahead.

performance: 4/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

Hungry for more?

Resident Evil 4

This one is great, other than those black bars a lot of these games use to indicate a cinematic scene, and a bit of choppiness… I suspect with some tweaking of the settings this could be ran a bit cleaner and be a great play.

performance: 3/4

playability: 4/5

state: ?/5

1080 Avalanche

performance: 3/5

playability: 4/5

state: 4/5

Worst Game:

City Racer

Couldn’t even get this one to play.

performance: 1/5

playability: 1/5

state: 3/5

Even Worse Game:

Star Wars The Clone Wars

Got to the loading screen and crashed Dolphin, multiple time.

performance: 1/5

playabilty: 1/5

state: N/A

If you find any games that work great for you, or  the opposite, post your info in the comments!

The post Top 10 Gamecube Games for the DK2 via Dolphin VR Hydra appeared first on Kevin Gulling - Game Development, VR, and more.

The first DK2 compatible game on my list is “A Maze ing Rift” “A Maze ing VR”. A simple hedge maze game, great for first users. I did a bit of “nausea testing” and did my best to make this a comfortable experience, although that being said, I would still only give this a moderately comfortable experience rating. The most positive aspect however is that I designed this game specifically for use with low end systems. You should be able to get away with 1.8+Ghz CPU and 2GB RAM. If you feel like being helpful, we can get a better idea of system requirements by leaving your system info in the comments, and describing the games play-quality on your machine.

Visit the

Games Section Now!

Also, stay tuned for my next title, an FPS built for the Rift!

The post A Maze ing Rift! – DK2 Compatible Game Free appeared first on Kevin Gulling - Game Development, VR, and more.

Enjoy!

The post Oculus Rift DK2 (Developer Kit 2) Quick Unboxing appeared first on Kevin Gulling - Game Development, VR, and more.