Day Seventeen With The Oculus Rift - Space Cadet

Download Space Cadet: developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1228
1280x800 60fps gameplay video: Space Cadet - 1280x800x60.mp4

After trying Jamulus Rift, another little demo I saw posted on the Oculus forums was a small space based shooter called Space Cadet.

I downloaded the game and tried it out. I spent a minute trying to figure out how to control my space craft before realising that it was fixed on a 2D plane within 3D space. This works well but I'd still love to play a full 3D space flight game with my Rift.

Space is littered with meteors to block your path and a few rather pretty looking planets surround you.



Flying closer to this ringed planet I thought it was pretty cool that you could fly just below the rings which looked pretty nice:



I soon found that I could fly directly inside the planet however, it doesn't currently have any collision model attached. I also thought it would be pretty cool if the planet's gravity would affect your trajectory the closer you got to it. The planets do look particularly small however, either that or the space craft is bloody massive!

So I decided to head towards the sun and see if I could get inside that too. When you're getting pretty close to the sun it looks pretty nice but some animated shader effect would be pretty cool on here rather than a static texture.



When I flew inside the sun I actually thought this was pretty cool, the halo of fire that surrounds it is static (and not aligned with the camera direction) so when inside).



I think with some added scoring and an aim to the game this would be pretty fun to play with the Rift. I'd also like to see it with a cockpit view or with a view closer to the space craft as when the meteors fly by they don't look particularly big (or maybe the meteors should just be MUCH larger than they currently are?).

If you want to try Space Cadet on your Rift, you can download it here:

https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1228

If you want to watch me play the game here's the raw 1280x800 60fps video, ideal for watching on your Oculus Rift:

Space Cadet - 1280x800x60.mp4

If you haven't got a Rift yet you could just watch the YouTube video below (however I highly recommend the video linked above if you have your Rift as it's rendered at the correct resolution for the Rift display at 60fps).



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