On Wednesday, I tried the Oculus Rift VR headset. I thought it was amazing. I’m not used to virtual reality, so I was dumbstruck by it. The film I saw was “Invasion.” “Invasion” is a short animated VR film where you are one of a pair of bunnies have to prevent an alien invasion. As an animated comedy, the film works. It’s funny, and is able to hold your attention. The film also works as a virtual reality experience.

What I liked the most about “Invasion” was how immersive it was. I felt like I was right there. The other characters—the aliens and the other bunny—acknowledge your presence. It’s like you’re right there seeing it happen. Furthermore, in the segment where the aliens are about to shoot at you, you’re shrinking back from them.

Another aspect of the film that I liked was the animation. It looked like what you’d see in a feature film. As a result, there was no uncanny valley. The animation’s quality, combined with the VR experience, made me feel like I was in an animated film. I was completely immersed in the film, and it was an amazing experience.

The one problem with the film is that the characters are placed in a way that if you’re looking straight ahead, you can’t see all of the characters. The aliens are right in front of you, but the bunny is to your left. You have to swing your head back and forth to see all of the characters’ reactions. I didn’t like this. I’m used to looking straight ahead and having the characters shown to me. This may not be a flaw, but instead be an aspect of VR that I need to get used to.

I think the other students had similar experiences. It seems like a lot of the students weren't used to virtual reality. For example, one student who was using the Oculus Rift hand controllers had a bit of trouble in terms of hand-eye coordination. It looks like developers need to work on how the controllers are mapped to the in-game world. Overall, it appears there's still a lot of work ahead in developing virtual reality technology.