Wanna know the future of gaming???If u wanna know then read this post.... If Valve is to be believed then the future of virtual reality is very nearly upon us. We’ve had the enormous snowballing success of the Oculus Rift, Sony is expected to unveil its console VR solution imminently, and Valve themselves are also looking at stepping into the VR arena. Its an area of technology that has drawn interest since the earliest days of sci-fi, with the general consensus on visions of the future being that it would one day become a (virtual) reality. Now were closer than ever, but what are the problems standing in the way of VR becoming a runaway success with gamers? How The Oculus Rift Should Look Like When It Launches Commercially Technology Uptake In terms of pushing gaming as a medium forward there hasn’t been a successful gaming product that I can remember off the top of my head, with this many hurdles to release. When the analog controller was created by Nintendo it was all too easy to see how it would be implemented, and how quick the uptake would be. It didn’t take long for Sony to follow suit with a quick DualShock evolution. The previous leap was undoubtedly mobile gaming. Mobile gaming was a revolution that was almost always going to be unstoppable. Despite it needing everyone to pick up a $600 smartphone, the fact that a mobile could be used for so many other uses meant the shift to gaming was a quick and painless one. The original iPhone was a veritable Swiss Army Knife, capable of sticking its fingers in all the pies. Don’t get me wrong, it was a major undertaking from Apple, and the way the App Store was pushed was sublime, but the killer blow was how easy it was to let everyone know why they should get involved. Within a matter of weeks normally sane and rational people were rushing out in their lunch breaks to pick up an iPhone, just so they could toss some virtual paper in a bin. Head-Mounted Revolution With virtual reality though, it’s a whole new dilemma. In the case of the Oculus Rift they need to make absolutely sure it’s right before they push it out the door. A substandard product could be beyond damaging for VR as a whole. You only have to look at Nintendo’s Virtual Boy for a quick insight into how things can go tragically wrong. Whichever VR device hits the market first will have a huge amount of pressure on it, and it’s for the benefit of the VR industry as a whole that it succeeds. The Oculus Rift has found its way into the hands of many developers over the last year or so, following one of the most outstanding Kickstarter campaigns the fundraising site has ever seen. The Oculus Development Kits have been available for some time now at $300, prior to going out of stock earlier this month. A lot of people in the loop have got their hands on one, but the majority of people I know wont have even heard of an Oculus Rift, let alone want to stick it on their head. The first problem that faces VR is that of making consumers understand exactly what it is they’re missing. To the average consumer the Oculus Rift really doesn’t look like much more than a replacement telly for someone living on their own. The head-tracking feature needs to be communicated or people won’t see the point, Oculus will be lumped with the Wii U problem all over again. They could have the best product in the world out there, but if the general public can’t understand why they need it and it can have no chance beyond a niche product. Without dwelling on Nintendo too long, they need their Wii Sports. A game that’s immediately obvious and accessible to everyone, a clear indicator of why they need that product. It’s something that both 3D gaming and film failed to answer, leading it to pretty much fall on its arse in slow-motion post-Avatar. I haven’t been blessed with the opportunity to use one yet, but I’ve been countlessly reassured that once you use you just sort of get it. Everything clicks into place and you understand why it’s necessary. What VR developers are striving for is not just a sense of immersion but one of presence. You can play Half Life and feel immersed in Black Mesa, but how can you make it feel like you yourself are stood there for yourself, taking it all in. That is presence. That is the Holy Grail of VR. It’s what Oculus, Valve and Sony are striving for. But how do you create presence? Presence During a recent Steam Dev Days event, Valve’s Michael Abrash hosted a talk titled What VR Could, Should, and Almost Certainly Will Be Within Two Years, detailing what he believes contributes to presence, which he described as: Its the sense of being someplace else while in virtual reality; many people feel as if theyve been teleported. Presence is an incredibly powerful sensation, and its unique to VR; theres no way to create it in any other medium. The aim of virtual reality is pretty much to achieve exactly what the name implies, creating a reality that is indistinguishable from the real one. The aim being to fool the human brain into believing the virtual display in front of your eyes. Unfortunately, or, I guess fortunately, the human brain is too smart for that, demanding that you can’t just put a screen in front of your eyes and hope for the best. Many early Rift prototypes made users feel disoriented and sick, owing in part to failings in all nine of the requirements for total presence in a game. Key targets to obtain total presence: • A wide field of view (110-degrees) • At least 1K x 1K resolution per eye • Low pixel persistence ~3ms • High refresh rate - at least 95 Hz • Global display • High-quality optics • Optical calibration • Rock-solid tracking - millimetre-accurate • Low latency
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 10:07:31 +0000
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