Oculus Rift, the world’s first consumer grade virtual reality headset, is wrapping up its development cycle. While the device has been demonstrated in action environments, such as EVR, there’s one place that it truly belongs: MMOs.
A user on YouTube named gregorypanic has uploaded a video of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn running with the Oculus Rift headset. Since Square Enix hasn’t developed support of its own, he had to use TriDef 3D to make it work on the dev kit. That means a much weaker depth of field, and a grainy resolution, but the point is that it works. The headtracking, 3D spacing, and more really bring Eorzea to life.
See the video below:
Okay, so the video doesn’t do it justice, but you get the gist. Tanking Ifrit in first person would be a bit ridiculous, as would battling Odin in a FATE with dozens of other people.
Square Enix is busy working on patch 2.1, server transfers, and more, so it’s unlikely we’ll see first-party support for FFXIV: A Realm Reborn in the near future. But here’s to hoping.