Virtual Reality

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:46 pm

Ever want to be Mario? Or how about King Arthur?

This stuff is amazing

The Lion · Post by **The Lion** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:18 pm

Descent 1 & 2 had VR support

roid · Post by **roid** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:24 am

nod. VR is crazy cool.

an exciting thing in teh field is the use of cheap webcams to \"watch\" your movements so that you don't need to wear any kindof gloves or bodysuits to interact with the system - it just watches you, you don't even touch it. cuts down on hardware costs \"like WOA!\"

i'm actually pondering the idea of starting a company to develop, write, demonstrate locally based Augmented reality games. There was this segment about it on 'Beyond Tomorrow' where these ppl were playing a simple game of virtual pacman. They ran around the city streets munching 3D pellets that were superimposed onto their view. Looked so fun! So i figure, all you need to pull it off is a bunch of fun-lovin uni student programers, and the money to setup some portable Augmented reality gaming backpacks (basically just a backpack with a laptop hooked upto with wireless networking, positional tracking, and a VR interface. should be only a few thousand $ each). It will practically advertise itself with people running around the city (i just have to worry about people not paying enough attention and running infront of busses)... so we charge people for big organised games, kinda like paintball without the mess and with so much more varied gameplay potential than just some simple VR FPS system (bleh).

heh, just dreamin...

Dakatsu · Post by **Dakatsu** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:26 am

If they had UT2004 in virtual reality, how would you double jump

roid · Post by **roid** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:34 am

i guess it would force people to obey the laws of physics. it's the law!

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:47 am

it would be cool you were hooked up to a suit that captured every movement, from walking to running to crawling on the ground. you could reach out and grab objects and open your hand to drop them. It would also be cool if your gloves could stop your hand from closing if you picked up a game gun or bomb. You would then have to actually pull the pin, pull out the clip, use the computer on the rocket launcher. imagine being able to use anything from sticks to the bfg as a bashing weapon. Imagine being able to use martial arts against someone. if only there was a simple way to do this...

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:06 pm

roid wrote:i guess it would force people to obey the laws of physics. it's the law!

I prefer to think of VR as an interface that tricks your mind into thinking the virutal world is real rather than uh... something that forces you to actually run and physically do stuff yourself and other crap that's not gonna be fun at all when you get home from work and just want to sit back and relax with some video games.

TIGERassault · Post by **TIGERassault** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 3:33 pm

Isaac wrote:it would be cool you were hooked up to a suit that captured every movement, from walking to running to crawling on the ground. you could reach out and grab objects and open your hand to drop them. It would also be cool if your gloves could stop your hand from closing if you picked up a game gun or bomb. You would then have to actually pull the pin, pull out the clip, use the computer on the rocket launcher. imagine being able to use anything from sticks to the bfg as a bashing weapon. Imagine being able to use martial arts against someone. if only there was a simple way to do this...

Uhh...
I'd be happy with just a VR sword.

roid · Post by **roid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:23 am

Suncho wrote:I prefer to think of VR as an interface that tricks your mind into thinking the virutal world is real rather than uh... something that forces you to actually run and physically do stuff yourself and other crap that's not gonna be fun at all when you get home from work and just want to sit back and relax with some video games.

well yeah i'd prefer to keep the ENTIRE body healthy, whereas i guess you'd prefer to just develop the inhumanly strong neck muscles required to use your dad's LeepVR helmets

. HOOGE LIEK XBOX!!!

(Suncho's dad is Eric Howlett, one of the pioneers of the VR industry - with a heavy career investment in high-spec VR helmet displays)
You'd end up breaking your neck using your dad's leepVR helmets in an augmented reality situation. They are too heavy, bulky, and costly (think "military" pricing

).

I'm more interested in Augmented Reality because it enables you more movement freedom. You arn't wired down to a VR room (the kind your dad is more familure with). But instead all the equipment you wear on you, you have a backpack laptop with affordable VR interface devices that go with you as you walk around.
Also, merely from the commercial aspect - it would be incredibly simple to market augmented reality experiences. People are going to notice a bunch of gimps with backpacks running around like they're on acid - interacting with imaginary objects, running away from monsters only they can see

.

i'm also interested in getting gameplayers outof their homes and moving their asses (while still doing what they love), for the health benefits that exersize and sunlight provide. I'm not the only one sick of playing computer games using solely my eyes ears and hands - how much better to involve my whole body, and whole community spaces.

The videos in the original post already touch on the inherent fun in PUBLIC virtual reality performances.
I just hope you can see that there is so much more to VR/AR than just limiting it it to PRIVATE experience.

roid · Post by **roid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:44 am

Isaac wrote:it would be cool you were hooked up to a suit that captured every movement, from walking to running to crawling on the ground. you could reach out and grab objects and open your hand to drop them. It would also be cool if your gloves could stop your hand from closing if you picked up a game gun or bomb. You would then have to actually pull the pin, pull out the clip, use the computer on the rocket launcher. imagine being able to use anything from sticks to the bfg as a bashing weapon. Imagine being able to use martial arts against someone. if only there was a simple way to do this...

omg yes. i've been brainstorming ideas for forcefeedback & haptic interface clothing on my personal(private) wiki lately.

want to compare notes?

i recon it would be made of a cloth consisting of a woven matrix of conductive polymers (such polymers are already been used in artificial muscle research), woven into the shape of a glove (or an entire suit). This huge woven matrix of "muscle fibres" would need to be controlled via neural net programming techniques, because i can't think of any other way to make sense of such a huge tangled mess of controllers. Once the neural net is interfacing with the muscle fibre matrix, then it would theoretically be able to recreate any shape in the cloth via selectively flexing combinations of muscle threads - there would be an infinite amount of flex combinations.

what would happen if you had your hand in such a glove, is you would "feel" the glove moving against you providing haptic sensation. But because of the sheer amount of muscle fibers the glove will have significant strength, it would be able to provide significant FORCE FEEDBACK as well.

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:15 am

roid wrote:i'm also interested in getting gameplayers outof their homes and moving their asses (while still doing what they love), for the health benefits that exersize.

It's called playing sports. You don't need any special computer equipment for that.

roid · Post by **roid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:26 am

sports are relatively boring. kids prefer to sit on their asses indoors playing videogames getting corinary disease.

Jackie Chan has similar concerns http://www.jcstudiofitness.com/ (blarg, you can't see the cool vids atm coz they are upgrading their website)

[edit: ]

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:35 am

roid wrote:sports are relatively boring. kids prefer to sit on their asses indoors playing videogames getting corinary disease.

Ah. I never found sports boring.

I thought the whole fatass kids thing was because of today's age of safety paranoia. Recess is being banned at schools and kids are being told not to go outside by their parents because it's not safe. Families are getting their swimming pools filled in because they don't want to get sued if a neighbor's kid drowns.