The 6th Day Virtual Reality

Since gaming became a platform to create digital worlds, players and designers have ever fantasized about the ability to inhabit virtual spaces. Now, after a rather headache-inducing test run in the 1990s, it looks like the gaming world is on the precipice of viable virtual reality.

VR is becoming one of the most oft spoken terms when considering what's next for the world of gaming and gamers should begin to see a serious presence this year. Since media and players alike have gotten hands on with new VR hardware at gaming and technology expos, the opinions have been largely positive, much of it thanks to the crowdfunding success of Oculus Rift.

With the trend set to take off, what are some of the notable options on the market? Take a look at what VR is promising and which developers to pay attention to in the coming months if you are looking to get even closer to your games.

Biggest Surprises - Oculus Rift

Much like what James Cameron was to 3D, the Oculus Rift is the work of a think-tank that is revitalizing an old technological idea. The company is largely responsible for the recent resurgence of virtual reality in gaming and the Rift is currently the headset with the most 'buzz' (and awards) around it.

Developers have had their hands on the kit for nearly a year now and that has seen promising new experiences like EVE: Valkyrie being announced and already-released hits including Skyrim and Mirror's Edge being converted to support the headset.

The Oculus Rift is reportedly going to hit the consumer market this year and is currently the headset that most people are associating with. Valve recently reaffirmed their support for the Oculus Rift too and that should be a powerful driving force in sales as the technology comes to the consumer market.

vrAse Headset Virtual Reality

You may not have heard of the vrAse or the 360specs but the development teams behind the devices have come up with a fairly clever design mechanic that will theoretically make for a cheaper head mounted display experience. Both are essentially a casing with straps and specialised eye pieces using your smart phone as the innards of the headset.

The versatile nature of these two headsets allows for just about anything a smart phone can output, from a 3D film to an android game. It may seem to have a smaller scope than the Oculus Rift right now, but in fact, it's potentially bigger.

As VR becomes more and more popular, it is expected to start having a bigger presence in the mobile market. This will undoubtedly spread to the gaming app market if the headsets yield any kind of popularity. If and how head-tracking could ever be implemented isn't yet clear, so it isn't known if the vrAse could give a 'true' VR experience. Only time will tell if this affordable head mounted display option will get the support from developers and buyers that it needs.

CastAR Virtual Reality

While Valve have recently re-pledged their support for the Oculus Rift, the CastAR shows that the company were at least at one point looking into VR development for themselves. The CastAR is the result of two ex-Valve staffers' research into the tech. Valve passed on the idea, so instead the inventors successfully crowd-funded the project separate from the company.

While the CastAR is said to be able to offer virtual reality experiences, that is only as a peripheral. Its main function is augmenting reality, which is something closer to Google Glass than the Oculus Rift. By putting a reflective sheet on the floor, you will be able to shape and meld items via a digital overlay in a real space. This is useful not just for gaming purposes, but for business and science practices too.

Until more is said about the VR component of the CastAR, we just won't know how it shapes up to the Oculus Rift or other headsets, but the ability to augment our reality should be useful to many, even outside of the gaming world.

Sony Headmounted Display

It's no secret that Sony has worked on a virtual reality headset, even if it isn't official yet. The company already has several head-mounted displays for sale, like the HMZ-T1 (which is already capable of gaming with some tweaking), but their prices aren't particularly consumer friendly. In order to compete with other gaming VR options, they are expected to announce a cheaper VR headset for the PlayStation 4 in the near future focused primarily on gaming.

Sony was allegedly going to announce the headset last year but are rumored to have pulled the reveal in order not to confuse marketing with the PlayStation 4. Sony clearly recognized the upcoming trend of VR early and are hoping to join the market while it's still hot. The question is, will the product be good enough to entice consumers or is it just another case of following a technological leader like with the PlayStation Move? It seems only time will tell on this one.

Microsoft Virtual Reality

When considering what Sony are doing, gamers will always turn their head to Silicon Valley to see what closest competitor Microsoft are planning in response. As of right now, on the virtual reality front, it has been fairly quiet.

That isn't to say that it has all been radio silence though. A few years back Microsoft patented an absurd looking VR helmet, and the concept resurfaced last year when it was revealed that the company had filed another patent for a pair of 'gaming glasses'. As the glasses were described, it would appear as if Microsoft is following the augmented reality route rather than virtual reality.

The patent showed the glasses tracking the user's eyes, relaying information to them as they game. While not giving a fully immersive VR experience, the glasses could potentially put heads-up display information around the screen you are playing on. Mixing this kind of augmented experience with Kinect's tracking functionality could create a useful and practical gaming experience if latency was eliminated.

Or, there could be no 'gaming glasses' coming as patents like this have come up in the past and lead to nothing. It would be very surprising if Microsoft let Sony and Oculus Rift hog much of the VR market to themselves, so perhaps we might be hearing more about their stance soon. Unless of course, they partner with Oculus.

 

Virtuix Omni VR

Not all virtual reality is about head mounted displays. They are currently where the major focus is right now, but there are developers looking even further than that in order to completely immerse players into their games. In order to illustrate the point, look no further than Virtuix's Omni.

Another crowd-sourced success, the Omni is a consumer affordable simulator that allows players to use their bodies to traverse digital spaces. Instead of being tracked by a camera like the Kinect, the Omni is an interface that gamers strap themselves into that judges the pace that they are walking and simulates it in game on a 360 axis.

The days of sitting on a couch in order to explore the world of Skyrim could be numbered if gamers deem they want them to be.

Avegant Glyph Virtual Reality

The Avegant Glyph made its $250,000 goal on Kickstarter in just 4 hours. That should go some way in explaining how sleek and attractive a device Avegant are producing.

The head-mounted display wasn't always so pretty in its early prototypes, but the picture quality of the retina display has always drawn praise. Now that the developer has been able package the headset in such a sleek design, it is no wonder that the device has just about sold out in the first day of crowd-funding.

The Glyph, like many other head mounted displays coming in the next few months is primarily for watching movies and using the internet, although the technology does have headtracking capabilities so it can be used for virtual reality gaming too. How it will stack up to gaming specific headsets like the Oculus Rift remains to be seen, but the Glyph could well be one of the hottest pieces of technology in the coming months.

Virtual Reality What Is Next?

While all of this VR fun is in the future, it's still tempting to peer even further and figure out where these ideas could eventually lead. With a flurry of head-mounted displays in development and interfaces that simulate player movement in a digital space, what is the next logical step?

There is a distinct possibility that in the not so far off future, haptic feedback will become an increasingly important part of the virtual reality field. The concept is to have the sensation of touch and texture sent electronically to a user. There are already experiments being done today which are trying to allow people to simulate interaction with objects in separate spaces . They are in their infancy so don't expect it any time soon, but don't be surprised to see these principles applied to the gaming world in the future.

Of course, it is also possible that the VR trend could be a fad in the gaming world in the same way some perceive 3D and motion controls to have been. Whether virtual reality can succeed in the market is entirely down to the consumer base.

What are your feelings about this? Let us know in the comments.