Yeah, kits shipped in March. The hardware is incredibly polished for something that popped up on Kickstarter 7 months prior.
It's comfortable, tracking works wonderfully. The only downside is the relatively low resolution - which it's said will change significantly by the time a consumer version ships.
Still, I place it on a very short list of truly remarkable experiences involving technology.
The impact of the experience is hard to compare, this video [0] might give you an idea how convincing it is to put it on for first the time.
I'm very excited about what will come about as we move out of the stage of cool tech demos and existing games + head tracking to experiences fully conceived with the rift in mind.
I've had my kit since March the novelty has yet to wear off.
Off the top of my head, I'd think that comes from two main things
1.) Developers are still exploring how to take advantage of the hardware - figuring out what works best or how things like binaural audio, a kinect sensor or a wiimote to add to the experience.
2.) It's a necessarily focused experience. The fact the people refer to being "in" a Rift demonstrates this. This is unlike other games or technologies that might be played alongside an IRC session or a with a movie on in the background.
As I understand it the 1080p Rift is a prototype for demo purposes only [0].
Also, I wouldn't say the resolution is "poor". Again, it's hard to describe, but it 800x640 presented through the Rift is a lot nicer than it looks on paper.
It's comfortable, tracking works wonderfully. The only downside is the relatively low resolution - which it's said will change significantly by the time a consumer version ships.
Still, I place it on a very short list of truly remarkable experiences involving technology.
The impact of the experience is hard to compare, this video [0] might give you an idea how convincing it is to put it on for first the time.
I'm very excited about what will come about as we move out of the stage of cool tech demos and existing games + head tracking to experiences fully conceived with the rift in mind.
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oqazo3ZEnY