Are you a fan of virtual reality? If not, that may be because you’re not entirely aware of all the fun, exciting, and productive things you can do with a VR headset and a little bit of time. If you’d like to learn about all of the amazing ways that you can enjoy virtual reality in the comfort of your own home with little more than a VR headset from Best Buy, read on as I explore 5 categories of amazing VR activities that anyone can easily enjoy. Since each category is actually a broad classification of related activities, I’ll actually cover more than 20 of the coolest things you can do with VR technology today, and I’ll even give you details about how you can enter the VR hobby yourself. Read on for full details!
Watching movies, 360 degree videos, and live events
Going to the movies will never be the same again! Neither will attending concerts, taking in live sporting events, or even going to amazing shows like Canada’s glorious Cirque du Soleil! All of this may be done today with the help of virtual reality technology.
For instance, the image you see above is a VR “extra” from the most recent Jurassic World movie. I clipped the image when viewing it in 360 degrees on an Oculus Go that I tested for Best Buy several months back. What was cool was that whenever I would turn my head, the headset I was wearing sensed my movements and the image in front of me moved to accommodate my movements. In other words, if that nasty T-rex had actually scared me, all I would have had to do was turn my head and look in the other direction.
These days with virtual reality you can watch so many cool things. Whether you like videos and movies in 3D, 360 degree content, or even your favourite Netflix programming, it’s all readily available with the right VR setup!
Participating in extreme—and not so extreme, sports
Have you ever driven at over 200mph in an open-wheel race car? What about going skydiving, flying in a fighter jet, parasailing, hang gliding, or taking a wild ride on one of the world’s most exhilarating roller coasters? If any or all of these things sound exciting and fun to you—but perhaps just a bit too scary for real life, you can easily get the thrill of the experience without all the danger by doing them in VR.
I have personally tried most of these things in VR myself, and I’ve experienced a few of them in real life as well. While nothing can ever quite match the real experience (there’s just something about facing potential death that can’t be matched), virtual reality sure comes pretty close! In fact, every time I ride a virtual roller coaster I always feel just a little bit sick. It’s glorious!
Of course, you can also partake in much less scary activities like riding a bike, playing golf, or even working out with a virtual instructor. When it comes to VR sports—whether extreme or otherwise, they’re fun, safe, and often a thrill. They can even be excellent exercise!
Playing immersive video games
Playing video games is probably one of the first things that most people think of when considering virtual reality technology. The image you see above is a screen shot from a fishing video game I played back when I reviewed the Oculus Go 64GB VR Headset, but you can click here to learn more about the new Oculus Quest 2. This game was fun, relaxing, and a whole lot cleaner than real fishing. I had a great time playing it, but it wasn’t the only video game I enjoyed playing.
The other game I spent quite a bit of time with was a first-person shooter zombie game (just one of many first-person shooter games available in VR). In this particular game the zombies would come at me fast and furious, and I had to shoot them before they got me. It was fun and exhilarating, but not at all scary as the zombies themselves were nothing more than cartoons.
For the artistic types out there, you can also create your own virtual art inside of a virtual reality studio. I’ve never done this particular activity myself, but it certainly does sound fun and relaxing—though maybe just a little bit too challenging for me considering my complete lack of artistic ability.
Virtual travel and exploring
If travel and exploration are your thing, you can do that with virtual reality too. There’s no shortage of places you can visit from the comfort of your own living room. There are virtual college campus tours, world tours where you choose an interesting place and visit its biggest tourist attractions, and you can even do a virtual real estate tour when shopping for a new home.
Of course, if you’ve already done some cool traveling and want to revisit places you’ve been to in the past, you can enjoy your own tourist photos right in your VR headset. If you happen to have used a 360 degree camera on your travels, you can really have run revisiting the places you’ve been to.
One of the coolest things I discovered while doing research for this blog is that these days there are even virtual automobile showrooms, like the Volvo HoloLens Showroom. In this scenario you virtually shop for a new car by putting on your VR headset and seeing what the different models look like with various features that you can add in or take away as you go. What an amazing idea!
Work related activities in VR
Finally, fun and games isn’t all you can do with virtual reality technology today—there are also a number of useful work related activities. For example, you can hold virtual business meetings with colleagues from around the globe as if you were all in the same meeting room. It’s basically a conference call within your VR headset, and it’s supposed to feel like you’re really face to face with people, though I haven’t experienced this one for myself yet.
Then there is a VR feature that gives users the ability to practice giving presentations in front of a virtual audience. If you’ve ever been nervous about giving a presentation and wished you had some way to practice your speech beforehand in front of something resembling an actual audience, now you’ve got it. Having not experienced this VR app myself yet either, I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I do know that I really could have used something similar myself when I was constantly doing presentations in school.
Now that you know all (not really all—there are many more) of the amazing things you can do with a decent VR headset, check out my other recent article entitled How to choose a Virtual Reality (VR) Headset for information on many of the top VR headset models that are currently available, along with details of what they can do.
The fact is, virtual reality is branching our further and further all the time, and it’s use (and usefulness) is popping up in more and more places every day, including industries and at work. VR is only going to become more useful and prevalent with more people using it more often as time goes on, so it may be a good idea to get familiar with this technology now while it’s still relatively new and easy to use and understand. Good luck and have fun!
