Hello all! Casby here with a blog on (epic voice) VIRTUAL REALITY DEVICES! (*Echo* Devices, devices, devices.)

Wednesday the class had an assignment of posting up a blog post on experiences with different types of virtual reality materials. This is what I found:

Google Cardboard: Of course this being my first experience with virtual reality, it was awesome. I felt uh...kind of stupid though when I pulled the cardboard goggles away from my face to see that  I spun around in my chair and moved far away from the table I sat at.

But whatever!

If I felt like I was actually in the presence of a live-cartoon mouse chasing a leaf, the device did it's job. Yes, I noticed some flaws: the sides were blurry, and I can't free my hands from holding the machine up to my face.

(Otherwise it'll drop. And I'd be looking like "uh oh." And my classmates would be looking at me like "ooooOOOHHH!" So yeah. Wouldn't want that.) But the opportunity to sit and look through the device was awesome.

Samsung Gear VR: (...Crap, I hope I'm giving the right names for all of these things. Anyway) For (what I think was) the Samsung Gear VR, I was very skeptical in trying it out at first. It wasn't because I was afraid of the new technology. I was just told there would be clowns in this virtual reality story.

I do not LIKE clowns.

"Aw, no: it's not going to be scary!" comments didn't help me look. "It's a GOOD scary" comments only made everything worse. But I eventually looked through the lens, and it wasn't that bad. I don't know if I'm just saying this because I was on the edge of my seat thinking the clowns at any moment were going to beat me up, but that was the best virtual reality experience I've had for the class that day.

It was amazing to not have to hold anything up with my hands. And whoever designed the game (movie?) did a great job with making sure that if I took a 360 in my chair in reality, with the glasses on, there would be a scene of the theatre setting there.

It also definitely felt like the clowns were there in front of me. I failed at covering my eyes (VR was in the way) when they ran toward me in the beginning.

Epic. Epic fail.

And the whole time, while those clowns were looking at me and pointing toward the stage, trying to get me to watch some circus show, I was nervously smiling, nodding and moving away from their reach like, 'heh heh, yeah, stay over there, please don't touch me.' Because they were getting pretty close.

Oculus Rift 1: NOPE I didn't like it.

I felt sick when playing it. If I wanted to move around, I needed to use the buttons on a keyboard in front of me. And with the glasses on my face, I don't want to have to go on and guess with my fingers where I want to go. I also have this habit of- I don't know if... anyone...else has this, but I have the habit of where if I have a computer mouse in my hand and I click on something, I expect that click to take me toward something. NOT SPIN ME AROUND IN THE GAME.

Huh. Dog'on game. Trying to make me throw up and crap.

Oculus Rift 2: Just some things to point out for this one: 1) My Lord of the Rings clothes were on fleek. I had no idea an Oculus Rift could dress you up! 2) The row didn't touch the water: it hit more like... right above the water. Was that just a game problem though? 3) The statues that came up later in the game were also blurry to look at. 4) The last device also made me dizzy, but that may have been just from the interaction with (insert evil background music here) Oculus Rift ONE.

So, yeah, that was my experience in virtual reality! Everything had its share of pros and cons, but the class was full of technology that was by far way more advanced than anything else in today's society.

If I had the opportunity, I would try an educational game or video through Oculus Rift. I have an interest on mixing social justice, animation and education together, so I feel that looking at how a virtual reality game is formed around curriculum would definitely be up my alley. The http://share.oculus.com site may need to "step up their game" with some more "game" choices (see what I did there), though. Other than the Evolution! app, nothing really struck interest within me. But hey, that just might mean that I need to create my own!

Maybe, anyway. Depends on what else we'll be doing in class.

It would also be cool if I played a horror game through Oculus Rift. Just because sometimes I really do like scaring the crap out of myself. Not really. Maybe. Heh heh.