Your first day in VR (for Oculus)
Oculus Quest has quickly become the go-to virtual reality headset. It’s an all-in-one wireless headset priced at just £399/$399.
With next gen consoles on the horizon estimated to be priced highly and equal to that of a budget gaming PC, it’s more than likely that many will continue to seek other alternatives outside of the Xbox / Playstation bubble.
Both Oculus Quest and Nintendo Switch are great options for an alternative gaming experience, and ironically both have been sold out for months.
We’ve put together a guide to your first week in virtual reality if you’ve bought an Oculus Quest — and how to make the most of it.
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Once you’ve unboxed the headset and advanced through the setup steps like setting a barrier (so you don’t bump into objects), and gotten familiar with fitting the headset onto your face, you’ll be greeted with First Steps — a friendly tutorial level come game that familiarises you with the controllers and how virtual reality works.
Fun fact: Before First Steps, Oculus devices loaded a Ready Player One style tutorial level called First Contact and it was great, here’s why:
Installing the classics
Once you complete the tutorial, you’ll be greeted with the Oculus Home screen, your gateway to explore games and videos in VR.
Open up the Oculus Store and sort by charts, the most popular games considered the classics are:
- Beats Saber — a rhythm based game where you hit blocks to the beat using lightsabers.
- Pistol Whip — an arcade-style shooter where you kill enemies to the beat of music. It’s nostalgic and reminiscent of a game like Time Crisis.
- Superhot VR — a shooter that changed pace dependent on the speed at which you move your body. It’s a great example of how immersive virtual reality can be!
Exploring media (YouTube, Netflix etc)
At the top of the charts you’ll see some familiar apps like that of YouTube VR and Netflix. These media apps allow you to view both 2D and 360 video.
One perk of using these apps over watching on your TV is obviously the immersion, even when watching a 2D video you can increase and alter the screen size to make it feel like you are in a cinema.
The downside is your battery capacity only allows for 2–3 hours of use, so you’re limited to just 1 or 2 movies.
Entering social VR
Now social VR is something you need to try, but make sure you’re ready. There’s a few apps such as VR Chat or Rec Room (Facebook is even working on their official social VR community — Horizons).
Social VR is a large multiplayer experience where users can chat, play games and mess around. It was practical uses such as conferences and events, but the majority of lobbies you load up are full of strangers from around the world having fun and messing around.
Whether you manage to stick around in social VR is a different matter, but it’s a great introduction to what is possible with multiplayer and making friends — similarly to that of Xbox or Playstation.
VR Fitness
For some users, virtual reality offers a fun and unique opportunity to exercise without necessarily feeling like you’re putting in the work. Through immersive gaming users move around, building up a sweat and shedding pounds.
If this is something you’re interested in, some great suggestions outside of the classics like Beats Saber and Pistol Whip (which definately have you working out), are:
- BoxVR — a boxing fitness app that combines boxing and dance (sort of) to create routines from leading PT and fitness instructers.
- Supernatural — a virtual gym experience that is similar to BeatSaber, but hires world class fitness instructors to create routines to chart-topping music. This is a subscription services which will have you paying $19 per month though!
Accessories
The Oculus Quest headset is great, but there are definitely ways of improving it. If you find yourself being a more hardcore user and have the budget to purchase accessories, consider:
Headset Cover — The default headset comes with a foam cover that presses against your face. It works, however it’s not exactly comfortable for long uses, and it absorbs sweat leading to a smelly and unhygienic cover that is difficult to clean. Investing in a faux leather cover is recommended, especially if sharing your headset with friends and family.
Battery pack — Although not advised from Oculus, if you are looking for a way to increase your battery capacity, you can attached a portable power pack to the device with it either strapped to the back of the head strap or in your pocket.
Chances are, if you’re reading this it’s because you have either purchased an Oculus Quest, or are thinking about it. Enjoy your first time in virtual reality and leave your tips as a comment. Thanks!
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