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...and apparently no suitable computer / OS combo to run it?

Yeah I picked up a virtually new DK1 for super cheap. Oculus open-sourced everything about the DK1 a while ago so I figured there's going to be tons of Linux support, homebrew, user hackery and other fun stuff around. Apparently not.

Oculus's own runtime only supports windows 7+ and has to be 64-bit. I *do* have a windows machine that I built recently for some old games but it's a 32-bit P4 and runs XP. Any older drivers Oculus made which may or may not have supported XP are apparently expunged from the internet.

My other choices are a Macbook Pro with a Core i5 / Intel HD4000, which should be fine but I don't have the needed displayport->DVI/HDMI adapter and everyone in town seems to want $50 for one, or an HP Touchsmart Core2 Duo / Intel HD3000 with native HDMI out running Ubuntu 15.

Oculus have "paused" (WTF?) development of their drivers for OSX and Linux. There's an old version of the OSX runtime on their website but I don't know how many apps support it. No sign of any Linux binary they may have ever made but the source is out there ... and doesn't compile.

Just looking to screw around with some demos / tech demos / exploration environment shit, I don't exactly need to run the latest & greatest "AAA" game here. What can I do with this thing??

I also have an Android 2.3 phone with an HDMI port if anything for the Rift runs on that.

ebay

Setup a Windows & 64b machine, install the DK drivers, install Unity, have fun.
Variant: setup a Windows 7 64b machine, install the DK drivers, read the SDK, have fun.

Meh, let's just say win7+ and I have agreed to disagree, vehemently ... I might try it as a last resort but I refuse to believe there's nothing I can use this with on a real OS. Hell, Unity itself runs on anything right?

Lol, now you now realize why you got it cheap? :D things are worthless. Do what Zavie said or flip it on eBay before literally nobody wants it anymore!

Why? Win7 is basically the better WinXP. And if you don't like the Aero look, you can always turn it off...

and get a hololens for cheap, they're the real shit!

Heh, ya I know ... I knew what I was getting. Anyway, with it being open sourced I'm holding out some hope for community development. There are apparently now DK1 clones coming out of China so I'm assuming there will be some stuff written for it, even if it's not the latest & greatest games (which I don't care about.)

Hell this thing doesn't actually need a driver for the display, it just acts like an external monitor (unlike the DK2.) Theoretically anything can run on the Rift as long as it can display the side-by-side 3D view. The runtime/driver is for head tracking input.

For example SublevelZero works fine in Rift mode on my Mac even without the runtime (if only my stupid Thunderbolt->HDMI adapter from AliExpress would arrive...)

At the price I paid for this thing I'm fine with just hanging on to it and seeing what develops. Hell, maybe I'll fire up Spontz's editor and Make a Demo For It.

(Plus have you guys seen how much a Forte VFX-1 goes for these days?? Holy shit!)

Install Directory Opus on your winbox and it's a pleasure :) i couldn't use windows without it! well i could, but it feels horrible ;p

DK1 stuff was always open source. The new runtime+library SDK that came with DK2 still provides sources for the library part. Or at least it did some time ago.

If you want to play with newer stuff that expects the new SDK, you could probably take the old open source SDK for DK1 and hack together a runtime that would mimick an IPC expected by the newer library.

Or you could take a Raspberry Pi and pair it with DK1. This has been a thing that I wanted to do for a while myself, but never got enough free time to actually try.

What's the problem of getting a cheap Win7 PC with a decent graphics Card? It's possible to get something that drives the Oculus Rift decently for under 100€....just ask friends or workmates if they have spare old computer parts.

I got a Geforce GT580 3GB Edition for 50€ a year ago....I think that's not so bad...

I could trade a DOS PC that i basically got for free against a last-gen i5 PC anytime over here.

DIY convert that junk into a scuba mask so it will be useful at last.

Wow that would be cool!

Isn't the point of penguin fuckery to kind of make this stuff yourself?

5 EUR.

Iirc the DK1 does not even have positional head tracking featured in the hardware along with the extremely low resolution.

I am at the moment using a Galaxy S6 (quad HD super amoled screen) with the freefly HMD headset (120 degree field of view) and using Trinus VR and moonlight to stream wirelessly from my PC to the phone which in turn sends back the gyroscope data back to the PC. Frame rate is silky smooth (although am running it on a 750ti based GeForce) and latency is around 20ms according to moonlight. There is lag, but not as bad as it seems.

Alternatively for video, I am using VR player directly from the android device.

algorithm: If you can notice a lag in VR headset then it's definitely way too bad and you should get yourself a better headset.

Save it for your grandchildren to sell it to a museum or something.

I'm waiting for the cheap Chinese clones of the OSVR thing.

Pommak, when viewing the 3d videos directly from the phone (or 3d game - although not many out there yet), there is no lag.

The headset is just a pair of lenses. The android phone is the main device used as the image generator. 18-20ms using gamestream via moonlight is the lowest I have got this to be. Not great, but ok for playing around.

Using a quad hd display such as the one in the S6, display quality is rather nice. less of the screendoor effect

Man, some of you guys are harsh. This is why I got out of the "upgrade your PC every 8 months" rat race ages ago. I feel like I'm 15 and posting on gamer forums again. (Are we going to have an ATI vs. Nvidia screaming match now? I remember those!)

FYI this thing works exactly as well as it did when it was released in ... 2012. The dark ages, yeah yeah. I just need some apps to run on it. I'm not averse to throwing a dedicated box in the corner somewhere but 8-year-old Core2 Duo machines are still going for $150+ here, no idea why but I'm not really willing to fork that kind of cash out. The Rift will run fine on my Macbook once my video adapter arrives.

The DK1 has accellerometers and level sensors so you can 'look around' using it, but it can't sense where you are in space. I'm not even that bothered about the head tracking stuff, if I can get it going as a 3D screen I'll be happy.

If you have a webcam and place a specific shaped object (or light) on your head, then you can also get the positional tracking :-)

Fwiw i played quake on a dk1 and it was fun for a bit!

Awh, I was merely joking! It is awesome tech. Might I suggest making a demo about it?