The Oculus Rift was probably the most eagerly awaited piece of new tech hardware of 2016, beating out even smartwatches and fitness trackers when it comes to coveted wearables. Nowadays, it is incredibly common. The number of people buying an Oculus Rift is constantly growing and businessmen like Louis Hernandez Jr say that this will not change in the future. If you have finally got your hands on one, you are no doubt itching to get it up and running so you can immerse yourself in the virtual worlds software for the Rift makes available. Here is a step by step guide to setting up an Oculus Rift on your PC out of the box.
Set Up Your Space and Take Out Your New Hardware
The Oculus Rift is, from a hardware point of view, presented in the simplest possible way when you open the box. There is just one sensor, the headset itself, a ‘simple input device’ (which is a kind of very basic remote), and a standard Xbox One controller. The various cables you need are stashed away underneath the more interesting pieces inside the box.
Clear a decent sized space on your desk or table to set up your Rift on. It is worth noting that the remote and Xbox One controller will not be tracked visibly on your display, so you need to be able to find them easily when you have the headset on and can’t actually see them!
Install the Setup Software From Oculus and Get Everything Connected
Now, on your Windows PC, head over to the Oculus site to download the setup software. This will guide you through the process of plugging everything in, by plugging in the HDMI cable from the Rift to your computer’s GPU, the sensor and the headset into USB 3.0 ports, and then the receiver for the Xbox One controller into any other available USB slot. This will leave you with everything properly connected and ready to run.
Calibrate the Sensor
Some people find the process of setting up the sensor a little strange, because it will ask you how tall you are. While this makes sense if you are standing up, a lot of people expect to be spending a lot of their time playing on the Rift sitting down. Don’t worry, however, and set your Rift up standing as instructed – it normally will be able to detect when you are seated, and if it doesn’t, you can recalibrate quickly and easily at any time. As long as there is nothing blocking the sensor, you can calibrate it quickly and easily and should find it is quite forgiving about your position.
Set Up the Headset
Now you just need to get the fit right on your headset to get the best possible view. The setup tool uses a calibration mode with a green crosshair to help you do this, but you’ll also want to adjust the straps on the device to make sure it fits snugly.
Once you have followed all these steps, you are basically ready to start installing games, and playing VR games on your new favourite toy!
