Starbreeze's StarVR device

It is easy sometimes to forget that virtual reality can be applied (potentially in a very successful manner) to many other areas and not just games; though it is great testament to games development as a field that consumer end devices like the Oculus Rift and the Vive are being advanced from it. 

So, in 2016 there were developments towards this; and an example of that is the IMAX and Starbreeze partnership which has the latter's StarVR headset (pictured below) at the heart of it (see Engadget article here for more details on this development).

More on Starbreeze and the StarVR device itself with its enhanced field of view here. It will be fascinating to see what application areas like motion pictures/film/VFX do with virtual reality in 2017, as opposed to the trajectory the medium will take with computer and console games.

Owlchemy Labs' mixed reality approach

Owlchemy Labs has recently showcased work which, whilst terming it mixed reality, is essentially their approach towards answering the growing need of showing what an immersive VR experience feels like for the player/user to greater audiences. It's easy to envisage so many uses and applications areas for this as the medium is becoming more and more popular.

This is quite interesting to see in action (see pic above) and you can get a good overview of what the approach offers and how it works here and here on the official site of Owlchemy Labs.

Google's Daydream View

I have covered Vive, Oculus etc. more extensively than more modest efforts such as Google's Daydream View, understandably as the former two are more games related (especially when we start talking about AAA games).

The Daydream View on the other hand, recently released in the UK, appears to be following in the steps of the Oculus/Samsung Gear VR device, i.e. it is much cheaper, lighter and less cumbersome and of course much less expensive than the heavyweight efforts. It also needs a mobile phone (of specific type) to operate, very much like the Gear.

The Daydream View does appear to have some differences to the Gear VR, such as the dedicated remote controller  and of course the name, brand and resources of Google behind it. 

I have a Gear VR though not a View yet and I can definitely see what the benefit of such an inexpensive VR headset could be; and also just how much it can eventually promote the higher-spec tech of this medium. 

Hopefully the Daydream View, alongside the Gear VR, will gain more popularity, games and apps, in 2017 to achieve this very objective and push virtual reality forward.

PS VR dominating the market?

Picking up from previous blog posts on VR, an interesting piece of research was reported earlier this month; and one that shows Sony's Playstation VR finishing the year ahead of the Vive, Oculus etc. 

This work was carried out by 01consulting and you can read it in more detail here in this Venturebeat article.

It's not really much of a surprise when one considers the PS4s that are out there but certainly seeing PS VR beat Oculus and the Vive as 2016 only has a few more hours left does showcase that Sony may well have had less headlines for their VR headset but their approach that has led the way, commercially at least.

It is left to be seen what 2017 brings for this device, as well as the competition.

Oculus Touch now released

With Vive out there Oculus did need something on the controller/interaction front to rival what is for many its biggest competitor and, as of the earlier this month, they have their Oculus Touch device out there for this.

You can read more about this in a snapshot on the official Oculus blog here, the biggest innovation here for me (as can be seen above) is the fact that the Touch appears to do finger tracking. 

That is a fairly useful feature indeed and could give Oculus an edge over something such as the Vive, even though the latter certainly had the headstart on innovation in controllers. 

Wireless Vive

I have been spending some limited time with a Vive the last few weeks and it is an impressive piece of kit; which is something that most people that I have seen use it certainly will agree with. The biggest limitation of the device is by far the cabling that restricts the user. 

It appears there is now new developments on that front; there is a device listed on an official HTC Vive website here (it is the Chinese one as you can also make out from the image below).

The fairly severe regional restriction does mean it is still quite premature to envisage Vive gaming freed from the cumbersome cables but it is clear that an official solution for this is not too far from our reach now and could well be a reality in the new year.

Minecraft and Game of Thrones

If you ever wondered what different locations from the TV show Game of Thrones would look like recreated in Minecraft then you might want to check out the video below.

The effort is detailed in full in the official site of the project (imaginatively called WesterosCraft) here.

The Omni and the Virtualizer

Many are already proclaiming 2014 the year of VR for gaming technology with Oculus Rift leading the charge on this. Other products are now being developed which fit around the popular headset; two of which are the Omni and the Virtualizer. Both of these in fact address the same problem, that of moving in virtual reality and are, for all intents and purposes, omni-directional treadmills.

The Omni (seen above) is already available for pre-order and is a product of successful crowdfunding via Kickstarter. The Virtualizer on the other hand is demonstrated in the video below, in a demo which places the player in Skyrim with the help of both the aforementioned Rift but also two Wiimotes for interaction.

The potential of both of these devices, despite of course the practical issues associated with their size, is significant so it will be interesting to see how both of these are received.

Oculus Rift/Razer Hydra/Emotiv EPOC prototype

It is great to see work like this put together with what is essentially relatively inexpensive devices such as the Rift, the Razer Hydra (a gaming controller) and the EPOC EEG. Chris Zaharia demonstrates in the video below the use of a combination of these three devices in different application areas (architecture, chemistry, military and surgery), showcasing the potential of affordable virtual reality development today.

 

Worth watching and Chris has also made this available on his site here.

Bloodhound project

Visiting Intel UK last week I was exposed to the Bloodhound Project, whose primary objective is to inspire the next generation of prospective engineers to pursue careers in science, technology and maths. This is done by demonstrating how they can achieve a 1,000 mph land speed record.

The education programme of the project is dedicated to bringing the project into the UK’s classrooms while the demo car itself is currently in final build phase of the programme and will be rolled out at the end of 2011 with an initial run in the UK. The car will then be reviewed and packaged for shipping to South Africa, aiming for the final 1,000 mph run in 2012.

Partners include EPSRC and Intel (amongst others) and the initiative can be checked out here. I also saw a simulator of the Bloodhound vehicle in use which was indeed incredibly impressive!

Using online games to study human behaviour

Can researchers study the populations of online video games, like Everquest 2, just as they study traditional communities like Miami, Pittsburgh or Minneapolis? A research study by a University of Minnesota computer scientist and colleagues from across the country shows that online, interactive gaming communities are now so massive that they mirror traditional communities. These findings are creating a new evolution of social science research where researchers are able to study human behavior using the game.

The research team analyzed three years of data (over 60 terabytes) from the complete server logs and click-streams of Sony's popular PC game EverQuest 2. The data tracked every action performed in one of the world's most popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Everquest 2 has more than 300,000 players who average 26 hours per week playing the game. Because of the intense level of involvement and multi-player environment of the game, the researchers were able to study human behavioral dynamics using the game as a proxy.

The researchers used the virtual world to model the social and behavioral dynamics of individuals, groups, and networks within large communities. Their study presented evidence that the social sciences are at the threshold of a fundamental shift not only in our understanding of the social and behavioral sciences, but also the ways in which we study them.

This interdisciplinary research project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army with cooperation from Sony. Multiplayer online games and virtual worlds have become increasingly popular and have communities comprising millions. They allow social scientists to study, theorize and model the social and behavioral dynamics of individuals, groups, and networks within large communities. The researchers described how this research offers new insights as well as challenges and opportunities for advancing social, behavioral, and computational science.

Virtual Reality technology to let you see, hear, smell, taste and touch

The first virtual reality headset that can stimulate all five senses will be unveiled at a major science event in London on March 4th. What was it really like to live in Ancient Egypt? What did the streets there actually look, sound and smell like? For decades, Virtual Reality has held out the hope that, one day, we might be able visit all kinds of places and periods as ‘virtual’ tourists. To date, though, Virtual Reality devices have not been able to stimulate simultaneously all five senses with a high degree of realism.

With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick believe they have been able to pinpoint the necessary expertise to make this possible, in a project called ‘Towards Real Virtuality’. ‘Real Virtuality’ is a term coined by the project team to highlight their aim of providing a ‘real’ experience in which all senses are stimulated in such a way that the user has a fully immersive perceptual experience, during which s/he cannot tell whether or not it is real.

Teams at York and Warwick now aim to link up with experts at the Universities of Bangor, Bradford and Brighton to develop the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ - a new Real Virtuality device that can stimulate all five senses much more realistically than any other current or prospective device. For the user, the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ will consist of a headset incorporating specially developed electronics and computing capabilities. It could help unlock the full potential benefits of Real Virtuality in fields such as education, business and environmental protection. A mock-up of the Virtual Cocoon will be on display at ‘Pioneers 09’, an EPSRC showcase event to be held at London’s Olympia Conference Centre on Wednesday 4th March.

Highest-ever accuracy virtual world model of central London?

Q, the plug-in based game engine developed by London-based Qube Software, has scored its first virtual world client. Near London is a new world developed by fellow Londoners Near, which accurately models central London and allows real-world retailers to expand their online presence.

The firm is using Q because traditional virtual worlds don't allow the sort of visual fidelity that a game engine can provide, leading them to claim that Near London's representation of central London has the 'highest degree of accuracy to date'.

In addition, the extensible nature of the Q engine means that it can interface with any server back-end, effectively functioning as a universal client and allowing users to access different virtual worlds with just a single download. “I am excited about Near because it gives game developers new outlets and business models for their skills without limiting them technologically,” said Qube CEO Servan Keondjian.

"Q opens up the possibility of users changing channel to other online games built with Q or even playing them within the virtual world environment itself".

Near founder Alex Wrottesley added: “The way Q works is crucial to Near. Near presents cities as virtual gateways – just as a real city street is a gateway to shops and restaurants and other experiences. So if a retailer wants a visitor to Near London to be able to click on their shop door and be transported effortlessly to their own virtual world or custom game environment, with Q that becomes simple. Near’s cities will be able to host the most extensible content ever seen in a virtual world.”

http://www.qubesoft.com/

Predicting Crowd Behavior In Dense Urban Settings

One of the most interesting talks I sat through during my visit at IEEE VR 2008 was by Paul Torrens of Arizona State University talking about geosimulation as an engine for synthetic actors in urban models. Scientists who want to see how a crowd behaves in an emergency can now shout “Fire!” on a city street and watch everyone panic and run thanks to a newly developed computer simulation. The 3D model starts with patterns of human behavior and movement and uses them to simulate the behavior of a crowd in mob situations and pedestrian habits under certain building configurations, resulting in a virtual crowd video.

"Crowds are vital to the lifeblood of our cities,” said Paul. But, he adds, it is impractical “to establish live experiments with hundreds or thousands of people along busy streetscapes, to reproduce mob behavior during riots for the purposes of academic experimentation, or, to expect to replicate the life and death behavior under emergency situations in a fabricated fashion”. Torrens’s model uses what he calls an “agent-based methodology.” He can put individual people, or “agents,” each with different characteristics of age, sex, size and health, into the model and have them process information about the world around them. Their unique characteristic combinations make the agents interpret that information and react in different ways.

“It’s the same way we process information in the real world". Though you’re not aware of it, when you walk down a crowded street, your brain is constantly monitoring your surroundings and planning the path you will take to your destination while simultaneously monitoring for obstacles.

A prototype that Torrens has developed models the evacuation of a crowded area during a fire when there is only one point of escape, but he has used his method to develop a primitive model of a situation in which a disease spreads through casual contact, and he is attempting to create scenarios in which agitated crowds turn into unruly mobs. The model could also be used in planning cities to optimize walking space for pedestrians and alleviate congestion.

For more info check http://geosimulation.org/

Sony's Home: the answer to Second Life?

An interesting piece of news and a long-awaited product launch on this is expected from Sony, who hoping to replicate the success of social networks and Second Life in particular is working on a PS3 feature called Home. Playstation 3 gamers will be able to meet, chat and share content with friends inside a 3D universe. "It's about community, collaboration and customisation," said Sony's Phil Harrison at the recent Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco. Gamers can buy furniture and clothes, while publishers and retailers are also expected to offer 3D spaces. A teaser clip can be seen below.

Mr Harrison also debuted titles for PlayStation 3 at the San Francisco conference that would leverage the success of social networks such as MySpace and FaceBook. For example, an online version of karaoke title Singstar will let gamers share video clips of their vocal efforts and leave comments for other players. "The industry is on the threshold of a new era of creativity, collaboration, communication and commerce embedded into an experience to empower games," Mr Harrison said.

My personal opinion on this is that apart from the obvious benefits of having another virtual reality world portal out there, Sony is also trying to push the graphics capabilities of such an excursion to its very limits (unlike Second Life that seemed dated in that area almost from the day it was launched!), witness features such as real-time shadows etc. as shown on the YouTube link above...

Virtual worlds and the US elections

One of the best indications of the importance of virtual worlds in everyday life is their recent, albeit tentative, involvement in US politics. As part of a much broader online poll, Senator Hillary Clinton is asking participants about their gaming and virtual worlds habits. The campaign asks "which of the following have you visited or played online? Sim City, Second Life, Sims, None of the above, Other, Don't know."

It should be noted that while some other Democratic presidential candidates, like Kucinich, have made entrances into campaigning in Second Life, more frequently strategists seem to be recommending against that. Clinton's strategist didn't participate however so it may well be that she's also gearing up for a virtual campaign. Another possibility is that with virtual worlds taking on more of a role in government and government taking a role on in virtual worlds, that this could be associated more with questions about policy. Finally, it could simply be taste polling to determine what's hip nowadays with the Web kids.

In any case it is fascinating to see virtual landscapes taken so seriously these days as to actually be a part of the US election process, it certainly makes a huge difference from them being regarded as outlet for computer geeks, which was certainly the case a few years ago.

Virtual worlds a threat to values?

Oscar-winning film-maker Lord Puttnam gave the opening keynote speech at the Virtual Worlds Forum held in London from 23-26 October. In his speech Lord Puttnam voiced fears about the many game worlds that have sprung up which tie access to the virtual world to the purchase of a toy. Webkinz, Funkeys, BarbieGirls, TyGirlz and many others are all virtual worlds created and run by toy makers. "Are we absolutely sure that this is the very best we can offer young people?" he asked. "Do we really want them to think of themselves as not much more than consumers?". He said: "Might we not prefer to build worlds that encourage those same values and skills we wish them to exercise in the real world?". "The challenge ahead is this - to ensure that virtual worlds are increasingly places that offer real meaning to their lives and in the real world to learn from the sense of community and collaboration that's been experienced in virtual worlds," he said.

My personal opinion on this demonizing of virtual worlds as a researcher involved in the creation and evaluation of these worlds? While there are always potential pitfalls when corporate financial interest gets involved in new technologies, particularly immersive ones, it can't be denied that sometimes it helps to keep perspective on things. It is extremely debatable that virtual gaming and socialising is to blame for anything and this is really at heart an incredibly dated argument taking us back to the 60s when people feared that the television (which let's not forget was considered an immersive technology back then, very much like virtual worlds are now) would demoralise and ruin values in young people.

For more information on the Virtual Worlds Forum check http://virtualworldsforum.com/

Microsoft's Virtual Earth and Brighton

Google Earth's main competitor today, Microsoft's Virtual Earth is a platform that serves as an integrated set of services that combines a unique bird's eye (seen in the pic below for the city in question), aerial, and 3D imagery with mapping, location and search functionality. You will be able to find more details about Virtual Earth's functionality and also other issues such as coverage etc. at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/default.mspx.

Speaking of coverage, it is, at the moment at least, definitely not as good as Google's application (for example only a handful of 3D UK cities are available at the moment). However, Virtual Earth seems to be somewhat more better-suited to 3D virtual city models because of the automatic modelling approach Microsoft seems to favour. Seeing that Microsoft's product is also newer it will be very interesting to see in the next year or so which application will be prevalent over the other.

Meanwhile I will continue to feature updates on Virtual Earth (of interest to 3D urban modelling mostly) but till then here is a YouTube flythrough vid of the 3D model of the city I live in (and one of the first two cities uploaded for it a couple of months ago), the seaside-located Brighton (the seaside adjective is definitely a bit ill-suited considering the awful weather we've had this summer but anyway!)...

Virtual Tokyo & Second Life

A lot of researchers recently have been focusing on exploring the incredible potential urban modelling and Second Life, Linden's internet based virtual world, have to offer when combined. While the debate on whether serious research can be conducted with something such as Second Life rages on, it is already evident with the following piece of news the impact it can have on future work in the area of urban modelling...

According to the gaming site 1UP and a piece of news recently published there (linked here), Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Japanese entertainment chief creative officer and creator of music games Rez & Lumines plus Japanese advertising firm Dentsu will be working on a collaboration project creating a Virtual Tokyo for the open-ended simulation PC game Second Life.

However, what I really find interesting in this is that, as Mizuguchi puts it: "The Tokyo we are trying to create is based on the image of city. How do people in Tokyo perceive the city? How about foreigners? That's what we want to express". In other words the model produced will not be an exact replica but something far more creative...

Mizuguchi also adds: "I hope to make Virtual Tokyo like a museum of Japanese pop culture. My friends abroad have told me often that there's so much material and it's never preserved. This might be the perfect place for it". It goes without saying that it will be interesting to witness the final outcome (and its eventual visualisation) of this project...