This blog post nearly summarizes a bunch of conversations Iâve had recently after receiving my Oculus dev kit. Especially love the dactyl nightmare reference
I work at a 3d printing company (Shapeways) and we are constantly having similar discussions: âwhen will 3d printing be ready for mainstream adoption?â What Iâve realized is that âmainstream adoptionâ or in other words, the tech being ready, is entirely application-specific.
For example, we have people making UAV/drone landing gear out of nylon-based plastic. For those users, the 3D printed part is everything they want: light, flexible but strong, and inexpensive. Others, like action figure makers, feel that the plastic is not smooth enough to rival injection molding, isnât watertight, and most likely is not safe if a kid puts it in their mouth.
I use these examples because I believe theyâre incredibly applicable to VR. When I first strapped on my Rift and loaded up riftcoaster, I was expecting graphics comparable to 640x480 GLquake. Instead, I got sub-300x200 and was quite disappointed. I tried a variety of games and had a similar experience - something just felt âoffâ and my brain couldnât get into it.
However, there was one game that blew me away. It wasnât a big-budget shooter, or even one of the more highly rated rift demos. It was an incredibly low-poly racing game that loosely resembled the old game âStuntsâ that made rounds in the msdos shareware days.
What this game nailed was a combo of graphics that were simple enough to appear ânormalâ within this low-res world, controls that felt smooth, and above all else: absolutely perfect head tracking. Itâs crazy how much of a difference being able to look slightly left makes when taking a left hand turn⌠Or the moment when youâre launched up in the air from a huge ramp and look behind you to see the ground as it quickly approaches.
Abrash constantly refers to âimmersionâ and this demo made me understand why. Some percentage of aspects of the world around you must feel ârealâ in order for your brain to believe the trick.
The most interesting question in VR today is not: âcan the hardware and tech be built?â With carmack and abrash on the case, I have no doubts.
The real question is⌠Who is VRâs Romero?
Many of the challenges the VR industry faces are design problems, not fears of engineering. Weâre talking about making something âfeelâ real.
The same designer/engineering balance described in Masters of Doom needs to take place again, or else weâll end up with clunky, high-tech systems that donât feel human.