Virtual and Augmented Reality is here

Theres been some really interesting developments in the VR and AR scene recently. Along with this, some other lesser known tech for interfacing thats been flying under the radar could really ramp up the prospects of VR gaming. Im really excited about this stuff (big fan of Sword Art Online), so I though Id start a discussion concerning the potential for gaming.

Lets start with the 3 biggest Head Mounted Displays currently out there.

https://clip2net.com/clip/m97148/thum...418ef-39kb.jpg

Silicon Micro Display STI080, Sony HMV-T1 and the Kickstarter superstar; Oculus Rift. A blog Ive been following sums up these 3 perfectly in this (https://www.roadtovr.com/2012/08/11/h...ony-hmz-t1-937) article with a great breakdown of each units specs.

If anyones at all familiar with the development of the Oculus, you'll know its developed with a very strong focus on gaming. This I like. And while the STI080 has 10% opacity allowing for augmented reality, I wouldn't see it being very difficult to mod a camera mounted AR homebrew onto other HMD's on the market without opacity, but more on that later. Another interesting bit of info is that Hawken will now be launching with Oculus support aswell.

Lastly, the biggest selling point for me, between each of these HMD's, is the pricepoint. Micro Display and Sony are asking for 800.00 bucks each for their units while the dev version of Oculus cost less then half that at 300.00 smackers. Thats just the dev version aswell, most people are expecting the consumer version to go for around 200 - 250 once that hist the market next year. PC Gamer gives it some big thumbs up here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyoK5dbr2Ac).

So those are the main contenders in the HMD field at the moment. Though there is another AR device being developed by Google which deserves a mention. Its called Googleglass, more info here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLn0cSZfl6c). Personally, Im not really sure about this thing.. but I guse we'll have to see how it turns out.

Onto interfacing! You've got your basic devices like PS Move and Kinect, but recently a products been shown that goes by the name of Leap. Remember those scenes with Tony Stark flicking around all those fancy projected graphics with his hands? Its akin to that. A kinect type device that actually works.

LEAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQkKyOOyLSs

Now I can start imagining an HMD with a modded homebrew camera installed allowing for AR using ARToolkit, with one or two Leap devices mounted on your HMD or body allowing you to physically interact with the virtual environment imposed on the real world. Theres gonna be limitations, but for now that sound pretty sweet!

The second Interface device looks even better, it goes by the name of Emotiv Epoc. Its a cutting edge brainwave computer interface, that will allow you to control games and applications with your mind. With this I see the LEAP becoming redundant as you now just need to map the mere thought of moving to your ingame avatars movements. All you have to do is sit back/lay down on your bed for a full VR experience with Emotiv and Oculus. The only thing missing at this point is a haptic feedback system. You could use painvests that simulate being shot/stabbed in an action game, or Realtouch if watching an interactive pr0n movie. Still those devices are very basic and we'll have to wait for either full body Haptic-feedback suits or Nerve implants to truly 'feel' the VR world.

Emotiv EPOC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZrat-VG4Ms

Not just that, it knows if your bored, excited, sad and angry as its constantly reading your emotions/brainwaves and facial expressions. I could see this working fantastically with Leap as I dont want to be moving my arms/hands around all the time, would be nice if I could outsource some of the games micromanagement to instantaneous thoughts, while still being able to use dynamic hand gestures and perhaps some type of weighted weapon with motion tracking, as seen here(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbUsgJpKqs).

Ill end this with a glimpse of what fully mapped AR looks like so you can get an enderstanding of whats instore for us. I mentioned modding existing HMD homebrews and heres a great example. This vid is a bit odd lol, so stick with it untill it shows off the AR in action as its bloody fascinating! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jpWiTVR0GA).

With all this stuff in the works and already on the market, I feel gaming is on the precipice of evolution. Personally Ive found gaming has seriously lost its appeal over the last couple of years due to money grabbing publishers shitting out one unfinished over milked game after another over. And secondly, the un-immersive platform of keyboard/mouse an flatcreen interfacing.

Ive probably missed some other AR/VR developments, but for me, these are the most important/promising. With that said, how do you guys feel about this stuff? Anything in particular interest you? Are you currently throwing money at the screen but nothings happening? or are are you like me, keeping a close eye on it till it matures over the next couple of years? What kind of games do you guys expect to see coming from this?

Too tired to read all that right now, but I've always loved the idea of VR. Thanks for posting this here! And i'll definetly take a look at the post later after I've taken a good nights sleep =P

EDIT: Woken up, tired as hell, but read it anyway. Very interesting and I agree with the game companies bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Bh5iI2WY , add that treadmill at 7:05, and the only thing you gotta worry about for room is how you're going to fit it in! After that and those, the only other thing I can think of now is resistance, so you can feel what's happening to you, around you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3seTlvQtIgc , but of course bigger and stronger, enough to knock you off your feet if hit hard enough! Then again, not too sure about that bit.