Virtual Reality - Will it ever happen?

[Anthony1]

I was playing King Kong for the Xbox 360 the other night, and I was struck by how much it created a real sense of fear in me. I was in this one level, where there is all these Brontosaurus's walking by, and there is mist everywhere and there are raptors running around.

Anyways, while playing that level, you had this real sense of fear when you were out in the open amongst the mist and you knew that raptors were out there and they could be charging you at any second. But I started to think that, if only you could somehow really immerse yourself into that game, then it would really be fantastic. I started thinking about the VR headsets that were talked about in the past. Sega for some time was working on a VR headset. I think Atari during the Jaguar days was also working on a VR headset. Of course, then the Virtual Boy came out, and after it failed miserably, everybody gave up on the whole VR headset concept.


But I was just thinking how cool it would be if you could actually look down and see your feet and your legs and the grass and your arms, etc,etc. To have 360 degrees of vision in a game. To be able to turn your head around and see a raptor coming right at you. It would be a revolution for first person shooters. Imagine playing massively multiplayer games with a VR headset and running around in a virtual world with tons of other people also running around in that virtual world.

It makes me wonder what the F happened to Virtual Reality and why it just completely died out. And then of course is the question, will it ever happen? Or is Virtual Reality just a concept that will never happen, at least not in our lifetimes? I think part of the problem is health related and litigation related. From what I remember about it, Virtual Reality headsets typically give the users severe headaches after more than 15 minutes or so of use. There is also the factor of what it does to ones vision and eyesight after extended use.

Still, you have to wonder if somebody will ever take another crack at it. I can tell you that I would be interested in trying out a modern day, state of the art VR headset that had a kick ass First Person Shooter game. If it ever happens.

[hezeuschrist]

Eh, it's completely plausible in the sense of todays technology, but it's a question of wether or not people actually want it.

It'll continue to remain a carnival attraction until it can become a reality on a Matrix-like scale. I mean, whats the fun if you actually have to move around in real space? You're going to be teathered to a powersource of some kind along with a control mechanism or body suit, and even then it's just seeing a bunch of your movements akwardly represented on a screen thats an inch away from your eyes.

When VR can be accomplished on a matrix-like level, if ever, will be the only time it'll work in a gaming medium.

[Anthony1]

Actually, I'm talking about just sitting in a chair with a VR headset on your head, and you are still holding a controller in your hands. I'm just talking about the vision being 360 degrees. I don't really want to stand up and move around and all that. I just want to be able to see in the game like I can see in real life.

I want to be able to look left and right and up and down and be "inside" the game. But I still want to hold a controller and move my character around in the world. It's just that instead of the right analog stick controlling the camera, my head would control the camera instead. Other than that, it would be the same old gaming experience, and that would be fine with me.

I'm not talking about body suits and all that.

[hezeuschrist]

Actually, I'm talking about just sitting in a chair with a VR headset on your head, and you are still holding a controller in your hands. I'm just talking about the vision being 360 degrees. I don't really want to stand up and move around and all that. I just want to be able to see in the game like I can see in real life.

I want to be able to look left and right and up and down and be "inside" the game. But I still want to hold a controller and move my character around in the world. It's just that instead of the right analog stick controlling the camera, my head would control the camera instead. Other than that, it would be the same old gaming experience, and that would be fine with me.

I'm not talking about body suits and all that.

Why that hasn't happened, is because it doesn't work. It's completely unnatural to move your head to look at an object without moving your eyes, not to mention you wouldn't have 360 degrees of movement. You can argue for look sensitivity but it's still insanely akward.

If you can somehow put your head on a swivel it'd be great, but until then it simply doesn't work.

[Anthony1]

Why that hasn't happened, is because it doesn't work. It's completely unnatural to move your head to look at an object without moving your eyes, not to mention you wouldn't have 360 degrees of movement. You can argue for look sensitivity but it's still insanely akward.

If you can somehow put your head on a swivel it'd be great, but until then it simply doesn't work.


Huh?


What are you talking about? I'm sitting in a chair right now, and I'm holding my 360 controller and I can easily move my head around and hold the controller at the same time and I could easily be using the left analog stick for movement and my head for the camera movement. You must be misunderstanding what I'm trying to convey. If you were playing a game like Quake 4, with a headset on. You would move your character around in the game like normal, but instead of using the right analog stick for the camera, you could just move your head around.


Try it. Sit in a chair, hold a controller in your hand, and imagine playing a game like Doom 3 with a headset on. Easy as pie.

[hezeuschrist]

No, it's not easy as pie. Such devices exist, are insanely expensive, and do not sell because they make playing games pretty much impossible. I tried one at E3 last year and it was neato for a second, but completely impossible to play. The demo they were running was Half Life 2.

What you're saying is you want to play an FPS game, but insead of having a mouse look, you have your head look. It doesn't work like you turn your head to the right, and you character turns right until you center your vision. If you had it like that it would be impossible to aim at ANYTHING. It'd be fine for looking around in a game like Tomb Raider, but any game that has your aiming on the right stick or mouse look is simply not possible to play in a scheme like that.

You would want to LOOK at the spot your aiming, not move your head so the screen is centered on whatever your aiming at. If it works so that wherever your eyes are focused on the screen is wherever your character shoots, it becomes incredibly easy with absolutely no difficulty. If you have it the way it already work, it's incredibly hard and can't have any hopes of actually playing a game without absolutely stupid AI.

It doesn't work.

[Raedon]

The old sale of VR failed because it was like having a huge heavy thing on your head that gave what looked like a big 3d TV with huge black boarders around it.

They were trying RBG lasers sneed over the retina to create an image but that was dropped because you couldn't move 1cm or look around.

VR will be much like GiTS. Right in the spine.

[unbroken]

Until they have VR that interacts with your brain, sort of like the matrix or strange days, VR will continue to stay dead. Right now it's not plausible, maybe in 20 years or so they might having something close to the matrix. I still don't think the technology is there. I tryed some VR about 2 years ago and the thing was a JOKE, it was like playing doom with virtua fighter graphics while wearing huge goggles on your head.

[Haoie]

Probably nothing serious will happen in our lifetimes. Nothing Tron esque anyway. Technology seems to progress very slowly in some areas, quickly in others.

[njiska]

When VR can be accomplished on a matrix-like level, if ever, will be the only time it'll work in a gaming medium.

It'll also be a patented Sony Product.

[Anthony1]

No, it's not easy as pie. Such devices exist, are insanely expensive, and do not sell because they make playing games pretty much impossible. I tried one at E3 last year and it was neato for a second, but completely impossible to play. The demo they were running was Half Life 2.

What you're saying is you want to play an FPS game, but insead of having a mouse look, you have your head look. It doesn't work like you turn your head to the right, and you character turns right until you center your vision. If you had it like that it would be impossible to aim at ANYTHING. It'd be fine for looking around in a game like Tomb Raider, but any game that has your aiming on the right stick or mouse look is simply not possible to play in a scheme like that.

You would want to LOOK at the spot your aiming, not move your head so the screen is centered on whatever your aiming at. If it works so that wherever your eyes are focused on the screen is wherever your character shoots, it becomes incredibly easy with absolutely no difficulty. If you have it the way it already work, it's incredibly hard and can't have any hopes of actually playing a game without absolutely stupid AI.

It doesn't work.


ok, I understand what you mean. Yeah, I guess you're right. You could look wherever you want, and that would work fine, but aiming your gun wouldn't work very well at all. You would definitely need to be using a Revolution type controller, and aim it where you want to shoot. Then it could work.

[Joker T]

Those headsets that offer "3D" game experience never work. They have some things in Arcades though that are a bit better. One I played, you put this huge helmet thing which is dangling in the air so you can easily move it in the direction you want. Good for simple games, the one on there was Beachhead 2000 which is just a standard shoot em up game, in an average FPS much more needs to be done than simply shooting.

[ProgrammingAce]

I've worked with a couple of projects involving vr headsets and the like, and like people have said, it just doesn't work. You want to move your eyes, not your head, and it's just too hard to track eye movement while still projecting an individual image into each eye.

The most practical way of having a "Virtual Reality" experiance uses just a head tracker and a few back projected screens. What we had were 4 screens that surounded you. They were all being projected from behind. We had a head tracker to track where you were pointing, then a fake gun with a tracker on it to deal with aiming. The whole thing was freaking expensive and never worked right, but i suppose someday it could be perfected.

The other way to do VR is to just have an "on rails" shooter like panzer dragoon or rez, that way you couldn't look behind you, so you can play it from a sitting position. Even that was too akward tho.

[Ed Oscuro]

VR will be much like GiTS. Right in the spine.
I doubt that, as well, but some of the idea (direct stimulation of the nerves) seems to make sense.

I think the farthest I can extrapolate at the moment without getting into ifs and maybes would be the holographic TV set. I've read rumblings that a set which could produce a three-dimensional image are in the works...but don't hold your breath. If and when they appear it'll likely be 20 years from now...

[rbudrick]

The whole head swiveling thing is solved via a swivel chair.

I wonder if a 360 degree treadmill could be made for walking in the virtual world. People would fall a lot, so it would probably be best to cable yourself to the ceiling.

I think a VR set like this could be made the size of a large shower.

It's tough to imagine fighting games like this, or swordfighting. Or how about online multiplayer real time civil war battles?

Human physics on, say, another planet could be adjusted via bungees holding you up and digitally controlled retracting pulleys.

There's so much that could be done given even today's technology. People would probably have to sign a "I can not and will not sue the manufacturer" agreement in case they get hurt and take clasees on how to use the game system, but it could sooo be worth it.

-Rob

[Raedon]

I think the farthest I can extrapolate at the moment without getting into ifs and maybes would be the holographic TV set. I've read rumblings that a set which could produce a three-dimensional image are in the works...but don't hold your breath. If and when they appear it'll likely be 20 years from now...


It took them over a decade to get people to even broadcast HDTV and you think Americans will move to 3D TV type sets in 20 years? I like your optimism, but 3D TV is not VR nor will it happen anytime soon.

with TV one only needs to look to the Movies for trends. TV 4:3 came, movies went widescreen. Widescreen is here but no HD DVD's yet. Now they are looking at selling you the DVD and the movie at the same time. Go see a movie, get the DVD. Personally I find the entertainment industry.. entertaining. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

It took them over a decade to get people to even broadcast HDTV and you think Americans will move to 3D TV type sets in 20 years?
I didn't say that. I said there were rumors the tech will be on the market 20 years from now.

[mills]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8e/Virtual_Boy_kit.jpg/280px-Virtual_Boy_kit.jpg

[Anthony1]

yeah right. LIke the VB actually qualifies LOL

[calthaer]

I hope they pour $ into making better and more interesting AI that is at least as engaging as the stuff Chris Crawford was doing 15 years ago before they dump it into some stratospheric level of eye candy (if they're not there already).

[Iron Draggon]

An even scarier question would be "What if VR had become the next big thing that it was supposed to be in the 90's?" Think about it, we could all be playing our classic VR games right now, and laughing our asses off at how primitive they were. 3D graphics are just now getting close enough to a realistic level of realism that they can be very immersive. So where would we be right now if the focus had been on VR?