Who wasn't impressed by virtual reality?
Well, one of the modern VR headsets crawled into my room with intrepid DHL couriers a month or so after being ordered, and I had the opportunity to check the stuff I heard and imagined so much about myself.
But first, a couple of words about virtual reality itself. In theory, VR is awesome. If you like games - and I sure as hell like games - VR is the thing. For a lazy escapist like me it opens up unique perspectives. I don't think I'll ever go to a climbing walls parlour, let alone climb a real mountain. Or pilot a plane, let alone a spaceship. I don't think I'll ever have the nerve to stand on the verge of a platform with nothing but kilometers of emptiness below. Or fly as an eagle, or do gymnastics underwater, or see a live raptor, or wave and show a middle finger to the lava in an active volcano, or solve puzzles on weird surreal planets, or cast real magic. VR, in theory, lets you do this, and more, much more. Awesome, right?
The potential is really crazy, and I have zero doubt that VR will become our future. Social networking where you can *be* in the same room with people from all around the world, games where *you* are the protagonist, watching movies on screens the size of cruise liners, working on a computer in relaxing yet unusual environments (filling spreadsheets in free fall, anyone?), seeing your favourite band from any place of the club or a stadium, including the scene itself - who doesn't want that?
And this is yet not all. Due to the insane immersion, you can very easily learn skills that require movement, like fighting or dancing, while being engaged in fun activities, i.e. trying not to stamp someone's virtual feet off while stamping out sentient weeds, or tearing apart multiple enemies at once.
But this is for the future. We have, like, half of the technology to enable all this, and some, but not nearly enough software.
What do we have now, though?
-You can watch movies in a virtual IMAX, provided they're of a high enough resolution, or else you'll just cringe.
-You can sort of social network in a cute app.
-You can paint and sculpt 3D models.
-You can play several native games where the positions of your head and hands are tracked - this adds insanely to the immersion, though most games are not narrative-driven.
-You can become the protagonist of several existing first-person computer games and parkour across the rooftops of fictional modern cities, look at the flying islands of a religious fanatic's floating country, avenge the murder of your empress lover in a city engulfed by a rat plague, or escape from Alien in narrow corridors of a space vessel. You can also Fallout and Skyrim to your heart's desire.
So the acquaintance with this awesome technology was really, really insane. The demo game that launches automatically - The First Contact - places you inside a trailer with a cute robot flying around. You look in disbelief at all the canned Oculus drinks and scattered floppy discs and microchips and realize: yeah, this shit looks very, very real. The future has come, and you're invited. Here's hoping that robot is not hostile. And the ability to touch things - to make a fist, to brush a can aside, to hold a VHS tape in your hand, and then fling it into the hopefully not hostile robot - this adds 300% to the immersion.
The short demo ends quickly while you melt inside your headset because of the digital butterflies that land on your outstretched finger, and launching toy rockets that fly around the trailer like crazy bees, and shooting from a toy gun that feels insanely comfortable. The robot waves goodbye, and you proceed to exercising your of choice of what to play or do next.
It needs to be said, that everybody I've read prior to ordering this thing was raving about the insane feeling of presence and general awesomeness of things. So I don't know what I was hopi... Actually, I do know. From the very first time I ran a computer game - it was a game based on the first Harry Potter book, and it blew me away with its magical atmosphere - simmering cauldrons, platforms levitating over bottomless abysses, magical creatures and cute candies scattered everywhere - I was hoping to relive that sense of miracle and wonder. Because it slowly faded away into nothingness, and computer games remained a pastime of choice only because I find them a superiour medium to movies - they add interactivity while also telling stories, and some of them are even interesting and dramatic.
So yes, I was hoping to return back to that place for some time, the place where I didn't think my picture of reality included all the possible pursuits ever, and you could still be surprised and amazed at the world.
So back to VR land. I'm both afraid and fascinated by heights and gigantic objects, so the first thing I did after setting up the headset was trying out The Climb game - a mountain-climbing experience made on a modern engine, and, apparently, boasting pretty advanced graphics. Just imagine using your own hands to cling to life ledges while drops of sweat run down your avatar's forehead and something small is crawling away from your undesirable human approach. Imagine standing on the top of a mountain and looking at the scenic islands below, at the ships in the bay, at birds circling overhead. And... it didn't do anything for me. I was seeing the picture you'd see standing on top of a mountain, but it was so clearly not real it was glaringly offensive.
Well, I said to myself, if this doesn't really work, how would you feel flying a plane? And I ran Ultrawings, a game where you indeed fly planes over some pleasant tropical archipelago. Leaving the details of using your virtual hands to flip a switch that is actually located inside your very real bed, I'd say the experience was decent - if not a little nauseating, especially during hard nauseating turns - but again, it wasn't real. The plane that reacts to the miniscule movement of your virtual flight control stick and doesn't hesitate to completely change the direction of its flight in 0.02 seconds you did something wrong at least seems realistic enough, so there's that.
Alright, if that didn't work out, it's time to play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, I kept talking with myself. TVoEC - a pretty silly story-driven game that reveals the fact of its silliness during the ending, so while you're playing it, you're convinced that it's interesting, mysterious and insanely beautiful. I've beaten it, I know its secret, but surely I could see its beauty once again? Surely? No. The things that looked like Helen of Troy in regular 3D looked like a donkey's butt in VR.
Alright, fine, VR is not there yet, I decided, noticing Obduction - a game by the misspelling gang of the creators of Myst - also looking like the aforementioned ass's rear part - let's have fun instead.
The target to have fun was picked smartly - it was RecRoom - a cute social networking and coop gaming app for hanging out in a place that immediately reminds you of the summer camp from Psychonauts and engaging people with silly shit. Want to play darts? Want to play basketball? Want to play paintball, charades, paddle ball (a glorified pong, as it turned out), swordfightey bowshootey medieval or hi-tech futuristic laser shootey games? Yep, come to the mountain of wish fulfillment and drop your soul into the roaring volcano. Or don't, if you treasure it that much. Cartooney graphics, primitive avatars, speaking with your own voice like in real life... It was interesting. Or, rather, would be, if the lowest age limit wasn't set to 13 years and the games weren't that primitive. But again, like everything in VR, it oozes potential. If only some soul decided to combine this and Jackbox Party pack...
But it didn't happen yet.
Another thing I wanted to comment on a bit is movement in VR. Your hands are tracked, sure. Not the individual fingers - it only lets you do a fist, thumbs up or an outstretched index finger - but it's still a lot. You legs is another matter entirely. And even if they were tracked too, you're still constricted by the walls of your room - or indeed by the stuff that has fallen from your table while you were frantically waving your hands around. So what was done so far?
The main way of locomotion is teleportation. You press a button, choose your destination, release a button, and whoa, you're there. Why is it this way instead of just walking like all the non-vr games do? Because of sister Nausea who visits most people in VR helmets while they're engaging in artificial locomotion. Really, walking around with a gamepad while in VR is not the best idea, and the teleportation sounds like a decent temporary solution. Or rather would have sounded, were it not a throwback to the old adventure games where you teleported from a sphere to a sphere and couldn't walk freely. Restricting a 3D environment to this old thing seems like a waste.
The only innovative method known to me was used in Lone Echo - a game about space. Infinity, glowing stars, zero gravity, captain Jack Reynolds. Hence, flying around, clinging to objects, pushing yourself away, and adding locomotion by using tiny jets in the protagonist's wrists. This adds a lot of immersion and allows you to really move around in VR. Now let's make all the games set in space and at least one problem would be solved )
So in conclusion of this brief non-informative first impressions runt - and I hope there will be other rants later - gotta say that
1. Belief that we are all in some sort of a virtual reality right now has some merit.
2. I got actually pretty disappointed with the current state of technology - especially after every dog and its neighbour kept praising the effect of presence to stratosphere. It didn't bring that state of wonder I was hoping for, and provided just a decent experience - not enough to make you forget about regular non-VR entertainment.
3. A LOT depends on the software. The First Contact game shows that you can achieve really outstanding results even with the current hardware.
5. THERE IS NO POINT FOUR IT GOT STOLEN BY EVIL GNOMES.
6. Imagine what it's like, though, to be in VR and use inferiour VR helmets to access sub-VR. Someone must really love VR for someone else to put VR into their VR.
7. Despite my disappointment, it's still easy to spend, like, five hours inside and later wonder why it's night already.
8. THOSE EVIL GNOMES, THO, GOTTA FIND THEM.
But first, a couple of words about virtual reality itself. In theory, VR is awesome. If you like games - and I sure as hell like games - VR is the thing. For a lazy escapist like me it opens up unique perspectives. I don't think I'll ever go to a climbing walls parlour, let alone climb a real mountain. Or pilot a plane, let alone a spaceship. I don't think I'll ever have the nerve to stand on the verge of a platform with nothing but kilometers of emptiness below. Or fly as an eagle, or do gymnastics underwater, or see a live raptor, or wave and show a middle finger to the lava in an active volcano, or solve puzzles on weird surreal planets, or cast real magic. VR, in theory, lets you do this, and more, much more. Awesome, right?
The potential is really crazy, and I have zero doubt that VR will become our future. Social networking where you can *be* in the same room with people from all around the world, games where *you* are the protagonist, watching movies on screens the size of cruise liners, working on a computer in relaxing yet unusual environments (filling spreadsheets in free fall, anyone?), seeing your favourite band from any place of the club or a stadium, including the scene itself - who doesn't want that?
And this is yet not all. Due to the insane immersion, you can very easily learn skills that require movement, like fighting or dancing, while being engaged in fun activities, i.e. trying not to stamp someone's virtual feet off while stamping out sentient weeds, or tearing apart multiple enemies at once.
But this is for the future. We have, like, half of the technology to enable all this, and some, but not nearly enough software.
What do we have now, though?
-You can watch movies in a virtual IMAX, provided they're of a high enough resolution, or else you'll just cringe.
-You can sort of social network in a cute app.
-You can paint and sculpt 3D models.
-You can play several native games where the positions of your head and hands are tracked - this adds insanely to the immersion, though most games are not narrative-driven.
-You can become the protagonist of several existing first-person computer games and parkour across the rooftops of fictional modern cities, look at the flying islands of a religious fanatic's floating country, avenge the murder of your empress lover in a city engulfed by a rat plague, or escape from Alien in narrow corridors of a space vessel. You can also Fallout and Skyrim to your heart's desire.
So the acquaintance with this awesome technology was really, really insane. The demo game that launches automatically - The First Contact - places you inside a trailer with a cute robot flying around. You look in disbelief at all the canned Oculus drinks and scattered floppy discs and microchips and realize: yeah, this shit looks very, very real. The future has come, and you're invited. Here's hoping that robot is not hostile. And the ability to touch things - to make a fist, to brush a can aside, to hold a VHS tape in your hand, and then fling it into the hopefully not hostile robot - this adds 300% to the immersion.
The short demo ends quickly while you melt inside your headset because of the digital butterflies that land on your outstretched finger, and launching toy rockets that fly around the trailer like crazy bees, and shooting from a toy gun that feels insanely comfortable. The robot waves goodbye, and you proceed to exercising your of choice of what to play or do next.
It needs to be said, that everybody I've read prior to ordering this thing was raving about the insane feeling of presence and general awesomeness of things. So I don't know what I was hopi... Actually, I do know. From the very first time I ran a computer game - it was a game based on the first Harry Potter book, and it blew me away with its magical atmosphere - simmering cauldrons, platforms levitating over bottomless abysses, magical creatures and cute candies scattered everywhere - I was hoping to relive that sense of miracle and wonder. Because it slowly faded away into nothingness, and computer games remained a pastime of choice only because I find them a superiour medium to movies - they add interactivity while also telling stories, and some of them are even interesting and dramatic.
So yes, I was hoping to return back to that place for some time, the place where I didn't think my picture of reality included all the possible pursuits ever, and you could still be surprised and amazed at the world.
So back to VR land. I'm both afraid and fascinated by heights and gigantic objects, so the first thing I did after setting up the headset was trying out The Climb game - a mountain-climbing experience made on a modern engine, and, apparently, boasting pretty advanced graphics. Just imagine using your own hands to cling to life ledges while drops of sweat run down your avatar's forehead and something small is crawling away from your undesirable human approach. Imagine standing on the top of a mountain and looking at the scenic islands below, at the ships in the bay, at birds circling overhead. And... it didn't do anything for me. I was seeing the picture you'd see standing on top of a mountain, but it was so clearly not real it was glaringly offensive.
Well, I said to myself, if this doesn't really work, how would you feel flying a plane? And I ran Ultrawings, a game where you indeed fly planes over some pleasant tropical archipelago. Leaving the details of using your virtual hands to flip a switch that is actually located inside your very real bed, I'd say the experience was decent - if not a little nauseating, especially during hard nauseating turns - but again, it wasn't real. The plane that reacts to the miniscule movement of your virtual flight control stick and doesn't hesitate to completely change the direction of its flight in 0.02 seconds you did something wrong at least seems realistic enough, so there's that.
Alright, if that didn't work out, it's time to play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, I kept talking with myself. TVoEC - a pretty silly story-driven game that reveals the fact of its silliness during the ending, so while you're playing it, you're convinced that it's interesting, mysterious and insanely beautiful. I've beaten it, I know its secret, but surely I could see its beauty once again? Surely? No. The things that looked like Helen of Troy in regular 3D looked like a donkey's butt in VR.
Alright, fine, VR is not there yet, I decided, noticing Obduction - a game by the misspelling gang of the creators of Myst - also looking like the aforementioned ass's rear part - let's have fun instead.
The target to have fun was picked smartly - it was RecRoom - a cute social networking and coop gaming app for hanging out in a place that immediately reminds you of the summer camp from Psychonauts and engaging people with silly shit. Want to play darts? Want to play basketball? Want to play paintball, charades, paddle ball (a glorified pong, as it turned out), swordfightey bowshootey medieval or hi-tech futuristic laser shootey games? Yep, come to the mountain of wish fulfillment and drop your soul into the roaring volcano. Or don't, if you treasure it that much. Cartooney graphics, primitive avatars, speaking with your own voice like in real life... It was interesting. Or, rather, would be, if the lowest age limit wasn't set to 13 years and the games weren't that primitive. But again, like everything in VR, it oozes potential. If only some soul decided to combine this and Jackbox Party pack...
But it didn't happen yet.
Another thing I wanted to comment on a bit is movement in VR. Your hands are tracked, sure. Not the individual fingers - it only lets you do a fist, thumbs up or an outstretched index finger - but it's still a lot. You legs is another matter entirely. And even if they were tracked too, you're still constricted by the walls of your room - or indeed by the stuff that has fallen from your table while you were frantically waving your hands around. So what was done so far?
The main way of locomotion is teleportation. You press a button, choose your destination, release a button, and whoa, you're there. Why is it this way instead of just walking like all the non-vr games do? Because of sister Nausea who visits most people in VR helmets while they're engaging in artificial locomotion. Really, walking around with a gamepad while in VR is not the best idea, and the teleportation sounds like a decent temporary solution. Or rather would have sounded, were it not a throwback to the old adventure games where you teleported from a sphere to a sphere and couldn't walk freely. Restricting a 3D environment to this old thing seems like a waste.
The only innovative method known to me was used in Lone Echo - a game about space. Infinity, glowing stars, zero gravity, captain Jack Reynolds. Hence, flying around, clinging to objects, pushing yourself away, and adding locomotion by using tiny jets in the protagonist's wrists. This adds a lot of immersion and allows you to really move around in VR. Now let's make all the games set in space and at least one problem would be solved )
So in conclusion of this brief non-informative first impressions runt - and I hope there will be other rants later - gotta say that
1. Belief that we are all in some sort of a virtual reality right now has some merit.
2. I got actually pretty disappointed with the current state of technology - especially after every dog and its neighbour kept praising the effect of presence to stratosphere. It didn't bring that state of wonder I was hoping for, and provided just a decent experience - not enough to make you forget about regular non-VR entertainment.
3. A LOT depends on the software. The First Contact game shows that you can achieve really outstanding results even with the current hardware.
5. THERE IS NO POINT FOUR IT GOT STOLEN BY EVIL GNOMES.
6. Imagine what it's like, though, to be in VR and use inferiour VR helmets to access sub-VR. Someone must really love VR for someone else to put VR into their VR.
7. Despite my disappointment, it's still easy to spend, like, five hours inside and later wonder why it's night already.
8. THOSE EVIL GNOMES, THO, GOTTA FIND THEM.