Huge Interest in IT’s Oculus Rift at Galway Minecraft Fan Convention

Feb 03 2015 Posted: 15:26 GMT

Dr Michael Madden of the Discipline of Information Technology in NUI Galway, along with volunteers from CoderDojo in Athenry, demonstrated the Oculus Rift at the recent MineVention event in the Radisson Hotel Galway on 25 January. The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that combines a 3D head-mounted display with sensors to detect the wearer’s movements, so that what they see in the display changes as they look around.

Over the course of the 6-hour event, about 200 people (children and parents) tried out the Oculus Rift, which was running with a modified version of Minecraft that supports it.  Those who tried it were very positive about experiencing being “inside” Minecraft rather than just viewing it on a flat screen.

NUI Galway’s Oculus Rift demo also drew attention from the YouTubers present, including Netty Plays, Mousie Mouse, Tomo Hawk, and Snake Doctor, all of whom tried it out before the official start of the convention. 

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