The Best Oculus Rift Experiences You Can Enjoy Right Now

Technical Demos

There are seemingly hundred of tech demos available for Oculus Rift, offering a range of unique experiences that are unlike any game or demo you’ve ever played. These are my go-to bits of software for testing out the DK2, or at least those experiences short enough for showing off the hardware to your friends and family.

Sightline The Chair

This one is pretty surreal. You’re sat in a chair as the world around you changes, often quite dramatically. You look forward through the trees, perhaps you glance at your feet and look back up, suddenly you realise you’re in a towering city scape. The transitions are pretty seamless and it’s a very relaxing experience overall. It makes me think of the scene from The Time Machine where the world is just passing him by.

Download (free)

Chilling Space

Ever wondered what it would be like to float above the earth, surrounded by asteroids and nothing to keep you safe beyond your spacesuit and a laser pistol? Of course you haven’t, but the experience is far more relaxing than you might think. The Earth offers a grand sense of scale and distance as it spins below you and the ambient music helps you relax while you casually blast away at rocks; very cool.

Download (free)

Cyber Space

Ever wanted to get intense motion sickness while sitting at your desk? If the answer is yes, then you’ll want to download and play Cyberspace. This is a real monster of a fairground ride that fires you hundreds of feet above a city and spins you like hell. While that doesn’t sound like fun, the feelings this demo can induce are an amazing introduction to how effective VR can be. It’s also great for torturing friends and family, it’ll certainly catch them off-guard.

Download (free)

Welcome to Oculus 2 Beta

If you need to ease your way into VR, then this is where you want to start. It plays out like a guided tour that takes you through the history of the technology, as well as offering you a few demonstrations of various scenes, technical demos and more. The bonus is that the whole thing has been given slick presentation, backing music and narration throughout. If you want to show off VR, this is where you should start.

Download (free)

Faceted Flight VR

VR is a great tool for flight sims, as the first person perspective works wonders from the cockpit view. Of course, that doesn’t always have to mean hardcore flight-sim and Faceted Flight is a lot of fun. The game has a slick low-poly design and involves flying tight courses laid out by floating gold rings. The first time you bank the plane onto its side, you may very well feel your stomach turn with it, but it’s still very entertaining to play.

Download (free)

Titans of Space

The video above doesn’t do this demo justice. In fact, it’s even unfair to call it a demo because this is a fully realised experience with the added bonus of being incredibly educational at the same time. You’re taken on a guided tour of our solar system and of some of our nearest stars. You get to enjoy the scale of our sun in relation to the planets and it’s all set to some incredibly relaxing music. It’s hard not to watch the planets, moons and stars roll by without your jaw hanging open; the sense of depth and scale is simply mind boggling.

Download (free)

Pixel Rift

Pixel Rift sets the bar pretty high for VR experiences. You play through the eyes of Nicola as she grows up playing her favourite games. From the classic GameBoy style games while sitting in school, to playing arcade machines and more right through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. This is an incredibly trip down memory lane and a clever use of VR technology.

Download (free demo)

Atlantis Coaster

There’s no shortage of virtual rollercoasters on Oculus Rift, it’s easily one of the quickest ways to create a VR experience and many of them are well worth checking out. However, this one stands out from the crowd for me as it was easy to setup, changes every time you play it and offers some stunning views of its procedurally generated cityscape. For added effect, get someone to move your chair in timing with the video output and your mind will be blown.

Download (free)