We don't get to see gameplay footage, but it's pretty interesting to watch the journalist's reaction as he's playing BFG with the Oculus headset.

http://youtu.be/HyoK5dbr2Ac?hd=1

Thanks for this

When I see people reacting, it helps get even less skeptical. Especially after watching this guy, who apparently experience more than he thought he would. Just makes me want to see these hit the market sooner.

I've watch every video on youtube showing people's reactions and they're all pretty much the same. There's no way to show exactly what people are seeing in the Oculus Rift, but it is possible to get a clue what it looks like from this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyPSsC_qf0Y&feature=related

That's not just 3D, but head tracking 3D and with the Oculus Rift you get complete immersion in the scene as if you really were on a holodeck instead of looking through a window. Similar technology has been around for years, but costs anywhere from the price of a new car to that of a house. These first models I'd compare to the Wright brother's first airplane. They're super cheap and thrown together in Palmer's garage, but obviously the real deal with enormous future potential. For more information I recommend the MTBS3D.com website which has many threads dedicated to the subject that both Palmer Luckey and John Carmack have contributed to.

I don't understand why we can't see gameplay footage of actual footage from inside the headset

You can and, in fact, in some of the Youtube videos show a monitor displaying a split screen image of the game as the person plays it. However, the only way to actually see the game fill your entire field of view and produce head tracking 3D is to actually wear the headset. You can even play Doom 3 BFG on a 3D enabled monitor or TV, but the only way to see the game fill your entire field of view is to wear the headset because no monitor or TV will fill your entire field of view.

Oh ok, You know what would be cool, a kind of headset you can wear to watch movies. They should carry this virtual reality thing over to the blu-ray business. Yes, I would like this.

But then it would feel strange and disappointing. If you can see the whole world, you tend to want to look around, don't you think? Also, it would be totally disorienting and could cause you to vomit as the scenes get fast and you get covered 360 in motion blur. Not to mention you'd be set floating and stuff in scenes atop buildings, mountains, etc.

Stepping into movies makes no sense because they are linear stories.

That's what makes games better than movies. The fact that things can happen differently, and there is no time-run forcing you to do things in real-time, you can go wherever you want at whatever time you choose.

Virtual reality in movies seems like a pointless thing to attempt, in my opinion. Movies are just a glimpse at another world, which is why stereo3D is perfect for it, looking through a window at that world makes sense.
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Edit: UNLESS, people begin making first person movies, and that would just be weird as hell
Not to mention, still disappointing because you don't move, shoot, or do anything. You just look around while you are on rails and the "character" does everything.

It is already possible to watch films using the Oculus Rift, but it would be of limited value for most movies. I once saw a short 180 degree movie projected on the inside of a carnival dome tent. The audience swayed from side to side and even stumbled a little as their eyes told them down was a different direction than their feet said. Without head tracking and the ability to have the picture change as you turn your head it isn't that useful for viewing movies. However, films can be shot using fisheye lenses that would at least allow you to move your head a little and see more and actually feel like you were a fly on the wall observer immersed in the movie. You might hear a helicopter coming and be able to tilt your head up and look at it, etc. It would be a lot of fun for cinematographers to play around with, but most existing movies could only be displayed using a limited field of view so people would not get dizzy and throw up which, of course, defeats the whole purpose.

Actually I don't see why they couldn't just Fraps some gameplay that is outputted in split screen and set it to 3D mode on YouTube. YouTube supports 3D that way actually.

They can do that, but you might as well just watch a 3D trailer for Doom 3 BFG. This isn't just another 3D system, but a VR system which adds completely new dimensions to 3D that simply cannot be reproduced on a flat screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyPSsC_qf0Y&feature=related

Note that all this video does is give you some idea of what motion tracking looks like. It's still a 2D video of what in the Oculus Rift is 3D motion tracking that completely fills your field of vision like being on a holodeck.