Want to play Xbox One games with Oculus Rift?
More relevant article: Will Oculus Rift Work With Xbox One? Yes, BUT…
Technically, Oculus Rift and Xbox One should not be playable, BUT there is one way to make it happen… and it involves downloading some third-party programs.
Where Does Xbox One Stand in The VR World?
Currently, almost nowhere.
Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox division, has expressed his thoughts on VR, and where they stand in this new technological roller coaster. In Gamespot interview (3:24) he said:
I hope Sony has success with what they’re trying to do because I think it’s good for our industry as innovations like VR take off. But for me, and where we are with Xbox, my bet is putting the development tools in the hands of literally millions of people who can go on Windows and start building their own VR experiences is likely to lead to faster content innovation than a closed ecosystem would.”
What he basically is saying is, they are not planning to make VR hardware for it, like releasing their own VR headset as Playstation did. No, they want to focus on software. Xbox is owned by Microsoft, and Microsoft is connected to virtual reality one way or another.
For example, you can see Windows 10 getting more and more support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and that leads to comfort for application or game developers who plan to invest into virtual reality.
Another connection between them is with the game called Minecraft. People on top of the Oculus ladder truly believe that with sandbox-like game as Minecraft can truly bring a lot of people to VR world. When Minecraft was owned by Markus Persson, aka notch, it was difficult to get an official support for it, but now Microsoft got the share of the pie.
Due to partnership between Microsoft and Oculus, when Oculus Rift CV1 will start to ship, Xbox One controller is bundled with it. So now Xbox One is also connected to Oculus Rift via controller. And it’s actually quite beneficent for Microsoft. We are not really sure how big of a cut they will get from each sale, but it’s not news that Oculus Rift sells extremely well.
How to Connect Oculus Rift to Xbox One Though?
(Following guide is nowhere near perfect virtual reality experience, but it is played through HMD)
This one allows you to see your Windows desktop through Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. With that you can play games on Xbox One, as well as on Playstation consoles. Last year I released an article, mentioning all the top VR Video Players, and in my opinion, Virtual Desktop was the best of all of them. Not only can you play all the games with it, you can watch movies as if you were in a huge movie theater, and watch Youtube videos.
2. Turn on the Virtual Desktop.
When you are in settings, make sure in Screen options it says “Curved”. That way in racing games for example, you can zoom into the screen and look around with your Oculus Rift as if you are in that game. Does not simulate exact 1:1 you get in real virtual reality, but serves the same purpose.
3. Activate Windows desktop on Oculus Rift and play with screen size.
if you are playing in a racing game, screen size can be 145°, and screen distance 1,80m.
4. Turn on Xbox One application.
From here on out, you can put your Oculus Rift on, and try different games. Like I said, it works best in racing games, but if you play any other game, it is recommended if the screen distance is further away from you.
How Will it Look?
Well, it looks “meh”, since it doesn’t really mimic your head movement as it does in real VR games. It’s basically like looking at the screen in the dark, but you can decide for yourself how big of a screen you want. You should look at the video below, it explains and shows you how it will look:
It is recommended that you are running Windows 10 on your computer, instead of 7 or 8.
What other options you have?
Well, in the console world, I don’t think you have a lot to choose from. Oculus Rift is only playable through third-party program, and there seems to be no program developers who want to make Xbox One games to be playable with HMD’s.
VorpX is the only good program that lets you play regular games on Oculus Rift with good success rate, but nothing has been seen in the console area. Maybe it’s due to some difficulties in programming, or it can be due to not having enough power to keep the steady frame rate. I mean, even regular PC’s can hardly keep up with the VR requirements, and if we give that load to consoles, you better be sure that the developer knows what he is doing. Mess up the configuration, and you’ll have headaches for days to come.
FPS has to be good and it’s crucial in virtual reality. That is why MINIMUM recommended GPU for Oculus Rift is GTX 970, and not 670 or something around the area. VR is an expensive pleasure, and it will be like that for at least 2 years. I think as time goes on, bigger audience will get a chance to have their hands on it, and Microsoft will enter the hardware race. It is too big of a technological breakthrough in gaming to just let it slip through the fingers. Even though Phil said that he hopes Playstation VR, a headset designed for Playstation 4, succeeds, I am sure he already has a roadmap made to design their own head-mounted display for Xbox consoles.
We cannot be sure in anything, but as results show, almost all the big companies like Google, Sony, Apple, and so on, have made their VR platform. Quite sure Xbox won’t stop at software and controllers. I mean, Hololens is something, right? Too bad you have to sell your kidney for that though.
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