A nice surprise for me was the effectiveness of 1st-person, live-action, 3D recordings viewed through the Rift. With the Rift and decent headphones, it's truly

A nice surprise for me was the effectiveness of 1st-person, live-action, 3D recordings viewed through the Rift. With the Rift and decent headphones, it's truly a Being John Malkovich / Strange Days experience. VR goggles can convey that experience much better than a TV/movie screen ever could. Ex: Avatars in the Rift have personal space. If you get too close to someone in VR, it's uncomfortable just like going nose-to-nose in real space. No movie screen has ever made me feel like that. Here's my list of favorite videos so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXaxVLNMIxU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXaxVLNMIxU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zaYrd0LvI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zaYrd0LvI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByvt8he58U&t=1m10s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByvt8he58U&t=1m10s http://vimeo.com/64769947 http://vimeo.com/64769947 NSFW I have viewed 360 vids on the Rift. It's true they are not stereo, but they are still very effective. Simply being able to turn your head an look around is a significant aspect of presence. These two vids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7HtvXc-Bo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7HtvXc-Bo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4iltd0wMlU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4iltd0wMlU played through http://vrplayer.codeplex.com/ http://vrplayer.codeplex.com/ are great examples. Non-360 but wide-angle videos like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgox84KE7iY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgox84KE7iY (spy-movie violence) still work pretty well (you can look around, just don't bother turning 360 degrees) and could be stereo.