VR kit

There's an Occulus Rift CV1 VR kit in the main room for use by the curious. It belongs to Alex and, although a bit flaky and superseded by newer models, it works pretty well. Take care of the cable as it cannot be replaced.

To use, turn on the AlienWare computer under the desk (the alien motif is the button) and the giant monitor on the table (click the knob at the back of the behind the lower right hand corner).

Make sure an HDMI cable runs from the PC Rankje dongle to the monitor (it sometimes gets robbed). Log in to "doesuser" with the usual password. Click on the occulus program.

Make sure the two IR cameras (black cylinders on sticks) are pointed into the room. Take the two hand controllers in the correct hands (they fit like handguns), put on the headset. The picture should come on. You can shift the goggles up or down on your face to get the focus right.

It's okay to sit on a chair when you are first feeling your way round the options in the program. If you stand and walk you will see a guardrail flash up in your way before you go too far and trip over something.

If you are new to VR, try the tutorials. There is a home room. Lots of expensive games to buy. And there are some free stuff like Google Earth and Altspace-VR (which you can also run on a computer screen) to check out.

Some productive objectives are:

• Find ways to import real world designs and architectural into VR to play with. (This is possible in TiltBrush using the GLFS format, but is not satisfactory.)

• Work out how to meet people in VR, particularly if they are in other hack-spaces that also lucky enough to have VR kit.

Glitches: Every so often the headset will blank out. Normally this is fixed by unplugging and plugging back in the headset HDMI cable at the PC.

For more help ask Julian or Alex.