CARRERA SLOT CAR TRACK
The learning curve is pretty steep on this VR stuff I'm trying to set up. The goggles aren't here yet but I've been trying to prepare everything I can so we're ready. It seems as if I'm constantly running into a new roadblock each day. My best computer wasn't quick enough so I have upgraded to a faster assembly. - New motherboard to accept an 8 core processor, larger hard drive, much better video card, etc, etc...
The new motherboard didn't come with wifi so I first tried plugging in a Netgear USB adapter. It worked but was really wonky. - kept dropping connections. I ended up taking my Linksys card out of my garage computer and installing it so I wouldn't have reliability problems.
Even though my new setup has enough USB 2.0 & 3.0 ports I found out that this Oculus system is picky and wouldn't I be able to use them. I ended up having to order a new PCI-e 4 port USB card that's supposed to work. I hope it gets here before Christmas.
To save time I already set up an Oculus account and installed their software. As I was trying to download games I realized that my C drive (where I'd installed their software) wasn't large enough and I didn't have enough space for any games. The way they've got their system designed you have to have the games installed on the same drive as their software or it won't run. I wish I'd known that before I spent 2 days getting it set up. I ended up having to delete everything I'd installed and started over with a new drive destination.
Some of those VR games are really big! - Around 50Gb! My internet isn't exactly blazing fast so I figure it'll take me 2 or 3 days to complete putting them on the computer. Researching which games to get keeps me busy between downloads. I don't want to waste $$ or hard drive space on stuff that is crappy. This VR stuff is still in it's infancy so there aren't a lot of good software titles out there yet. With any luck I'll find about a half dozen different ones that everyone will enjoy over the holidays. There will definitely be a couple of driving sims in the list. Teresa likes scary stuff so I'll have to get a few of those also. - Add in a couple of kid games and we'll be set.
I modified the table that I made for my force feedback steering wheel so that the top is large enough to place the tracking sensors that I'll need to set up.
I had to research how long the cables are that the system has to have hooked into the computer so that I'd know where to locate everything. At first I thought I'd just extend them if they were too short but I found out that most people doing that experience problems if they go beyond a few extra feet.
They say that this Oculus VR system is easy to set up but unless you've got everything ready you're likely to spend weeks waiting for whatever parts you may need if they're not compatible.
