Virtual Reality for Beginners Setting Up Your VR Headset and Exploring Virtual Worlds

Virtual reality for beginners: Everything you need to know to wrap your head around VR

Two years and five iterations of the Oculus Rift later, its finally time to start writing about virtual reality as a thing thats happening, not something that will happen. Less than six months from now the first of the heavy hitter consumer-grade virtual reality sets will hit marketValve and HTCs Vive headsetand a few months after that well see the Rift finally do the same.

With that in mind, we thought it was high-time to get back to basics. What is virtual reality? What can you realistically do with it? And for that matter, whats the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality? What kind of PC will you need to partake? Do you even need a PC at all?

And the most important question: How much is this going to cost?

Youll find answers to all that and more in this, our beginners crash course in virtual reality.

Seriously, what is virtual reality?

There are a couple ways we can tackle this question. If we go the pie-in-the-sky route, virtual realitys akin to Star Treks Holodeck or the Matrixa.k.a. a completely virtual environment that you can nevertheless walk around in and interact with.

In the modern era? Well, were not quite to the point of transforming energy into matter at will. Current virtual reality (VR) technology is more like strapping a screen to your face. The image is then rendered in stereoscopic 3D and viewed through fancy lenses, tricking you into believing youre looking at a real environment and not a screen mere inches from your eyes.

The effect is aided by a number of sensors in and/or around the devicegyroscopes, infrared dots, et cetera. These are tracked, allowing what youre looking at to react when you turn your head, nod, or even lean forward.

Combine photorealistic graphics (or 3D video) with this ability to move around in the virtual space and youre already pretty damn close to achieving what VR experts term Presencea feeling that youre actually in the virtual world instead of standing awkwardly in the living room with a headset on. How powerful can the effect be? During an Oculus demo last year an alien waved its hand at me and I instinctively waved my hand back, even though that made absolutely no sense and the alien couldnt see it, nor care.

Right now the primary players in VR hardware are Oculus and Valve/HTC, though there are a number of other independents likeRazer and Starbreeze making a stab at the market.

Augmented Reality versus Virtual Reality

Okay, so now we know a bit about virtual reality. What, then, is augmented reality? Is that like a parallel universe?

Not quite. Augmented reality is a bit more complex than virtual reality in that it melds computer graphics with the real world. In other words, your view of the world isnt so much obstructed by an AR headset as it is enhanced.

For an early (and very simplistic) example, lets talk Google Glass. All Glass did was stick a miniature display in the top-right corner of your field of view. You could walk around like normal, glance up, and see the time or a picture or whatever floating in the air above you.

Of course it wasnt actually floating thereyour eye just perceives Glasss display that way.

And Glass wasnt even a great rendition of AR, because it was made to hide out in the corner of your vision. Newer AR headsets are focused more on immersion, sitting smack in the middle of your field of view.

Now, the potential for AR is incredibly highespecially for day-to-day life. For instance, my favorite demo so far came by way of Microsofts HoloLens kit and was essentially a step-by-step walkthrough on how to change out a lightswitch without electrocuting yourself. You can easily envision a world where people are taught to play an instrument, change their oil, brew beer, or any number of skilled tasks by using AR.

On the other hand, Ive also written extensively about how I dont think AR is particularly interesting for traditional linear-storyline gaming purposesa viewpoint I stand by. Ive now played games on three different AR headsets and while its fun messing around in a sandbox, its not the type of game I tend to enjoy best. But for something like Minecraft? It works fine.

The other problem is the technology itself. AR headsets are nowhere near as mature as VR headsets, and were probably looking at another five to ten years before they get to the point where the tech is slim and powerful enough to enter mainstream use.

But were getting there! The main players in the AR field are Microsofts HoloLens set (which I played with at E3) and CastAR, which was made by some ex-Valve employees.

Press my buttons

Back to VR. There are basically four main categories of input devices, listed here from worst to best: Mouse and keyboard, gamepad, specialist controls (i.e. flight sticks), and motion controls.

Continue to the next page for information on VR control options and much, much more.

Mouse and keyboard: I know it hurts, PC faithful. It hurts to rank the controller above the mouse and keyboard. I promise this will be the only time.

But its for good reason. Heres an experiment you can try at home: Put on a blindfold and try to use your mouse and keyboard. And if you think thats not too badmaybe you touch-type 100+ words per minutetry sitting back in your chair, reciting the alphabet, then reaching your hands out again to grab your mouse and keyboard.

Congrats, you now sort of understand what its like to use the Oculus Rift with a mouse and keyboardto say nothing of the fact that having your hands on your desk at all times limits your movement and thus limits your interaction with a VR environment.

Gamepad: The compromise most people use is the ol Xbox 360 gamepad. At this point its safe to assume a hefty portion of PC gaming enthusiasts own one, and for VR, its a bit easier to use than a mouse and keyboard. There are fewer buttons to worry about, the buttons are more distinctive, and you can sit back from your desk with the controller in your lap.

This solution is so common in modern VR that Oculus partnered with Microsoftwhen the Consumer Rift launches next year, it will come with an Xbox One controller.

Its a half-measure though. Its still not real on the same level as some other control schemes.

Specialist controls: Which brings us to this category, encompassing everything from racing wheels to flight sticks to that model spaceship cockpit you built in your garage.

Flight sticks, et al arent perfect but they do bring you a measure closer to real controls. Playing Elite: Dangerous on the PC for instance, the best way to fly in VR is to pick up a HOTAS (hand on throttle and stick) system because it sort of mimics the controls youll see in the virtual cockpit.

Mace Ojala/Creative Commons

The drawback? Specialist controls are pretty much only useful in cockpit games. There are quite a few of those because the Rift is a stationary (and, until recently, seated) platform, but eventually youll probably want to do something with your VR headset outside of Drive a car or Pilot a mech or Fly a plane/spaceship.

Motion controls: The last, and most complicated, category is motion controls. This is a catch-all categorysome of the options here are essentially retooled controllers, while others are full-body tracking.

At the lower end are wands. Both Oculus and Valve have wand solutions (as well as Sonys console-only Project Morpheus). This is basically a glorified controller, but retrofitted for VR. If youve ever played the Nintendo Wii, youll understand the basic conceptyoure holding a controller in each hand.

These controllers are then tracked, providing one-to-one motion in a VR environment. Put simply, you can use your hands in VR. Sort of. Valves wands, as of GDC, had only a single button governing whether your hands were opened or closed. Oculuss version, dubbed Touch, is a bit more sophisticatedbut not by much.

Its enough, though. This is by far the best commercially-viable option at the moment. The major problem is that it seems only Valve will include wands in the basic kitOculus is content with people using an Xbox controller for now. Thats a shame because adding hand-tracking into VR is enough to tip you close to the fabled Presence, even though the ultimate goal is full-body tracking.

For the latter, we turn to the longstanding love/hate relationship with Microsofts Kinect. Yes, the Kinect is janky. Yes, even the second generation. Its just not a great piece of hardware, especially in the ways Microsoft originally intended.

It is, however, a fantastic hobbyist tool. Plenty of VR enthusiasts have hacked together Kinect games for the Rift, allowing the device to see the player and track not just hands but every part of the body. This lets you jump, duck, kick, elbow, and all sorts of other verbs that cant be accomplished solely with hand- and head-tracking.

Theres also a niche push for omnidirectional treadmills. One of the big problems in VR is youre confined to a single space. The omnidirectional treadmill (such as the $700 Virtuix Omni) allows you to walk in virtual reality. Theres plenty of potential here, but its hard to know whether these devices will take offbecause they take up quite a bit of space, because theyre expensive, and because people are lazy.

For now, all you really need to know is this: Gamepads work, but hand-tracking is your best bet. Thats the only one youre likely to buy anyway, so theres no need to worry yourself with the Kinect or an omnidirectional treadmill.

If you havent figured it out by now, the primary use for virtual reality at the moment is gaming. Thats not too surprisingmost games are already built from entirely virtual environments, so its relatively easy to translate the experience to a VR headset (though games built solely to take advantage of VRs unique capabilities are obviously best).

That being said, there are quite a few practical non-gaming uses for VR. Oculus has seen Rifts used in healthcare, in architecture, in prototyping, in film, et cetera.

Film is a particularly hot-button subject. The first film for VR, Zero Point, released on Steam last year, and its just the first of many. Samsungs mobile GearVR platform has multiple 360-degree video apps allowing you to experience a helicopter tour of Iceland, follow snowboarders down a mountain, and much (much) more. Google even dedicated time to showing off its new 360-degree camera system during Google I/O this year.

This is a potentially huge industryone that could rival games on VR headsets.

I heard something about Facebook

Theres also the Facebook question. Last yearFacebook bought Oculusa move that waswell, controversial to say the least. For now it seems like Facebooks been an ideal partner, providing money and support without tampering with Oculuss hardware or software.

However, theres always the possibility something will happen down the lineMark Zuckerbergs made it clear he thinks the Rift and virtual reality have huge potential in terms of social connectivity. And hes not wrong. Anyone whos read Neuromancer knows theres potentially something interesting to be garnered from people living in virtual spaces.

But thats for future generations of VR. For now, Facebook seems content to let the Rift be the multimedia device it was originally planned to be.

Be prepared

Okay, so maybe (hopefully) youve read all this and youre like, Wow this virtual reality thing sounds really cool and Id like to get in on this. Or at least try it.

Continue to the final page for information about technical requirements and expected pricing for virtual reality headsets and the gear needed to run them.

If you already own a high-end gaming PC, the good news is youre probably ready to go. The recommended specs for the Rift are as follows:

• Nvidia GTX 970/Radeon R9 290
• Intel i5-4590
• 8GB of RAM

Thats actually surprisingly reasonable, considering what the Rift is doing. Most people (not necessarily you, but most) are still playing games on a 19201080 (a.k.a. 1080p) monitor at 60 frames per second. The Rift/Vives screens run at a total resolution of 21601200 at 90 frames per second.

And this time, the PC crowds obsession with framerate is actually for a very good reason: So you dont get sick. One of the big complaints about early Rift models was motion sickness. However, this is a problem that mostly goes away when you raise the refresh rate. Oculuss John Carmack has said hed like to hit 120Hz in the future, but 90Hz was a baseline.

As for the Vive, we dont know what the recommended PC specs are yetbut Id expect them to be close (if not totally in line) with Oculuss.

Do I even need a PC?

A quick tangent: You could go the mobile VR route. Last year Samsung and Oculus partnered to release the GearVR, which uses the Galaxy Note 4 for processing power and its display. Then they released an updated version this year for the Galaxy S6.

Oculus VR

There are pros and cons to this approach though. The major pro is that there are no wires attached. You can spin around in a chair for hours and never get tangled. And GearVR runs quite wellbetter than youd probably expect, considering its phone hardware.

The downside: Its expensive. Both the Note 4 and S6 run about $600 on their own, and then you need to pay another $200 for the GearVR headset itself. And theres no guarantee how long your particular GearVR model will stay relevantphone hardware iterates so quickly, the device could be outdated next year (or six months down the line, even). With a computer, you can always upgrade the internals.

Okay, heres my wallet

Theres no getting around it: Virtual reality is an expensive hobbyeven more so if youre trying to get your computer up to snuff.

The main issue is we still dont know actual prices on a lot of this stuff. Valve and Oculus are playing the positioning game, waiting to see who flinches first. But we can maybe make some estimates based on past statements and comparable hardware.

Thus, we can expect the Rift headset to cost about $350 to 400. Thats both in line with the cost of the first two development kits and Oculuss past spitballing. That figure would include the headset itself, an Xbox One controller, and the position-tracking sensor.

Oculus Touch is a bit more difficult to pin down, but we can make an estimate based on the price of the since-discontinued Razer Hydra motion controller, which ran for $140. Id expect Touch to come in around the same price point (or less, if Oculus hopes to sell more units and incentivize development).

So were up to about $500-550 for the full Rift experience, sans PC itself. The Vive is pretty similar, although you have to factor in the two Lighthouse base stations Valve uses for position tracking (instead of the Oculuss single sensor). Lets say $600 for the HTC Vive?

Yeah, its expensive. And those are just my own estimated figureswe could be looking at $700 or even $800 entry pricing on release, though the higher the price goes the fewer units will sell, and Oculus desperately needs units to sell in order to convince the public that VR is a viable field this time around.

And that doesnt include the cost of a gaming PC, as I mentioned. For the Oculuss recommended specs youre probably looking at a machine in the $800-900 range (depending on whether you already have a Windows license, a monitor, et cetera).

Bottom line

Oculus Story Studio

Even with that pricing hurdle, Ill be damned if virtual reality isnt exhilarating. Ive been playing games for pretty much my entire life, and I dont think theres been a technology this exciting since we made the 2D/3D switch in the 90s. Virtual reality has the potential to revolutionize the way we play, especially as it gets more sophisticated.

And virtual reality could revolutionize not just the way we play, but the way we chat with friends, the way we experience films, the way we hold business meetings and conceptualize the office. Virtual reality could be the next big thing.

The question is whether everyday peoplepeople like you and mewill be interested in trying it.

Read our entire guide and still have questions? Feel free to leave a comment or hit me on Twitter and Id be happy to answer whatever youre wondering.