You may be asking yourself, why would anyone strap on an Oculus Rift while riding an actual roller coaster — why not just enjoy the experience of riding the roller coaster? Good question. And yet these guys snuck an Oculus Rift on a a real ride anyway.
Edmond O’Driscoll and Jonathan Forder concealed the device under their clothes — the mouse was duct-taped to O’ Driscoll’s arm, and Forder recorded the entire thing. They even brought a power supply onboard for the Oculus Rift. This is to say they brought a laptop on a roller coaster ride, as well as a headset. Cripes — some folks are scared of just wearing glasses on roller coasters, nevermind expensive tech.
And, yes, the program on the Oculus Rift is an exact recreation of the ride they actually went on — I suppose you could say this is the most “realistic” Oculus Rift experience, but it feels like ridiculous cheating.
Road to VR notes that matching physical feedback with the virtual experience could allow developers to “immerse the rider in multiple experiences on the same ride” — like say, being on a virtual fighter jet, or as the background in the demo shows, being in outer space, while also physically getting the experience that would come with these locations. That makes sense, but I still have the sense that the Oculus Rift business is getting out of control (in a good way).
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