Check this video out.

I am personally going to be receiving my Oculus Rift soon and had wondered about how VR pinball would work. Not that I bought it for that reason, mostly racing/flight/space sim games, but I have to admit this looks pretty impressive.

The guy in the video is a big pinball enthusiast and created a VR pinball "simulator". I have to admit it looks interesting enough to try one day, privately, because I would look stupid using it

For those who are impatient, gameplay starts around the 5:50 mark - but the explanation of how the guy made it is also interesting enough for a watch.

Oculus runs at 90 frame per second, and that video was maybe running at 30FPS, so much different than with a Rift in person. Plus, the Rift is in 3D - so that playfield will have actual 3D elements to it... something that cant be shown on YouTube. There literally is zero latency in the display and the head tracking is 1 and your eyes and brain cant discern any type of delay.

Definitely not a replacement for the real deal, but it could be perfect for those with limited space and funds who like to scratch the pinball itch from time to time in a smaller home environment, like an apartment. It just steps up the virtual experience even more, but still has no effect on actually replacing pinball machines.

Just as racing games and flight sims coming to VR will significantly enhance the simulation aspect of those games, and make them more realistic- it will absolutely never replace actually driving a race car or flying an actual plane. It just makes for a better video game experience.

Elite Dangerous is one game I am really looking forward to with the Rift. I have a pretty beefy machine (Fully watercooled i7 6700k @ 4.5GHz and a 980ti GPU) so it should handle it pretty well. The consumer version of the Rift is much better resolution-wise then the DK2 as well.

Damn good idea- design the playfield in Solidworks - and make changes, and easily play a virtualized version to see how it flows and plays. That way they could make hundreds of incremental changes without new whitewoods, just find a perfect design and playable VR model that they are happy with, then produce the prototype whitewood and see how it does in real life. Then just go from there. That could be a huge innovative piece of the design process which could result in better designed games.

I'd love to hear your feedback once you have had the chance to try both! It was a tough decision to make, but I went with the Rift - although both seem great, each with their own pros and cons.

As soon as I get mine I will definitely give them a try !!

What are you using for flipper controls? Keyboard or controller?

I am willing to bet that just putting in a GeForce 980ti GPU in your system and a USB 3.0 PCIe card should do the trick for you. The GPU is most important, and the 970 is the bare minimum you should use, and the 980ti would more then make up for where your machine lacks in the CPU area.