A complete, cross-platform Oculus Rift sample application in almost one file

There are few things as dispiriting as finding a blog on a topic you're really keen on and then seeing that it withered and died several years before you found it.

Dear future reader, I'm totally sorry if this happened to you on my account.  However, you needn't worry about it yet; I have lots more to write.  In fact, today I will vouchsafe to my readers (both of them) a large swath of code, representing a minimal application for the Rift, in a single file C++ source file.  Aside from the main source file, there are six shader files representing the vertex and fragment shaders for three programs.

The program uses four libraries, all of which are embedded as git submodules in the project, so there's no need to download and install anything else.  All you need is your preferred development environment, and CMake to generate your project files.

I've attempted to make minimal use of preprocessor directives, but some small platform differences make it unavoidable.

Lessons learned from the PAX 2013 costume

Wearing an Oculus Rift as part of my costume for PAX 2013 had it's ups and downs.  That is to say, it was a fantastic experience, but there were steps I could have taken to improve it, and in some ways I was limited by my hardware.

Googly eyes functioned flawlessly

Wearing the Oculus Rift at PAX Prime 2013

This entry is very much about the Oculus Rift, but it will take a slight detour to get there.

When I make 'cool plans', I try not to talk too much about them, because based on past experience I feel that the more I talk about a cool idea, the less likely I am to actually follow through on doing it.  To that end I haven't written much up to now on my costume plans for PAX 2013.