Not long ago, I bought an Oculus Quest and have been diving into the world of virtual reality. Doing everything from establishing a boxing practice routine with Thrill of the Fight, to exploring different maps in VRChat, there’s been a ton of things to see and do!
There are a few things I’d like to show you, though, just to bring home the point of how lovely and how immersive virtual reality can be.
These photos were taken with a camera you can spawn in VRChat. You hold the camera with your hands, and snap a picture just like you would with your smartphone. If you want, you can also have the camera spawn a selfie stick. If you’re streaming on a website like Twitch, you can turn on a “streamer camera”, position the camera at a fixed point, and have that move around with you while you explore the game.
I used that camera to take a picture of this particular map, Sketchu Silver Forest. Barely ringing in at 12 megabytes for downloading, it’s a forest world that’s beautifully landscaped. You walk along a path to discover a tiny forest village, play with a gacha candy machine, and optionally eat different colored candies to turn into a small forest spirit. Shrinking down to size will let you walk in the small houses. A normal-size avatar won’t fit otherwise.
I didn’t feel right inserting myself in these pictures because the whole place is just… so… beautiful. It’s honestly worth exploring if you play the game and want to see a tranquil place!
Half + Half
The other thing I’d like to show off, is swimming around in a virtual world called Half + Half. Turn on the audio in the video below to get a feeling for the full experience:
Half + Half is a peaceful world with a few minigames that seems focused on relaxation. Unlike VRChat, you can’t hear what other people are saying when they talk. Instead, your voice is turned into a singing tune–“La la la!” and everyone ends up singing back and forth to each other in communication.
Really, the only reason I visit H+H is for its swimming level. You float in this endless ocean and chase schools of fish over and over. There’s haptic feedback on your controllers when you swim around that imitates real water, too. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relaxed in a virtual world until I visited here.
Half + Half costs about $15 on the Oculus store, but this experience is worth it if you like floating around underwater.
Are you interested in virtual reality? Do you like these blog posts? I’d love to write more about VR and the different things I experience there, it’s all so exciting. Let me know what you think!
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