- HOME CONTENTS ENTERTAINMENT VIDEO GAMES
The continuous technological revolution in which we live has transformed our day by day. First, it was the way we access the information, then the ease and the way we communicate and in recent years the technology has taken a new step: now we live and feel the experience without interaction with the electronic device, breaking the barrier that the screen or the physical device implied.
This combination of reality and virtual elements has been called virtual reality and is shaking the old foundations of a world that have remained stagnant and stagnant in recent times: the world of video games.
- Oculus Rift, the pioneer
In an environment where graphics and hardware improvements were becoming increasingly limited, and virtual reality projects were remembered as sounding failures of the late 1990s; the popular crowdfunding Kickstarter platform launched a campaign to make a virtual reality project a reality. The campaign caught the attention of the users, getting funding of $ 2.4 million when the initial request for the manufacture of the first models was 255,000 dollars.
The creation of Palmer Luckey soon received a new boost: the donation to Oculus VR –a company founded by Luckey and his colleagues after the project was launched– worth 16 million dollars from different investors outside the company until then.
The Oculus Rift was born as the first RV glasses designed specifically for video games and compatible with both PC and smartphones. Its low latency, its 7″” panel (initially 5,7″”) and its resolution of 1280 × 800 for each eye make the experience very realistic and the feeling of immersion total, transporting us on a unique journey: it is not a question of simulating what another sees, it is a question of getting into their skin and not a mere simulation away from the sensitive reality.
Below you can watch a video with the best and most fun reactions of people with the Oculus Rift:
- RELEASES AND NEW PROJECTS
The first version of the Oculus Rift –version 1.0 for developers– was composed of the Oculus Developer Kit and was priced at $ 300. Sixty thousand units of it were distributed, assuming a profit of approximately 18 million dollars for the company.
The Development Kit 2, pre-commercial version will be released in July. Its price will amount to$ 350, and developers can book it from the project website. This version includes the recognition of the relative position with respect to the field of vision, so that the Oculus perceives the movement of the whole body and the sensations it generates, which also means a technical improvement that largely eliminates the feeling of dizziness caused by its predecessor, resulting in the less artificial experience if possible.
Until we can have them in our house, we’ll have to entertain ourselves with video games on TV, or even go for a run!
- COMPLICATED TIMES FOR OCULUS
Despite the heightened expectation and the good feelings of its early versions, the future of Oculus Rift is more uncertain than one might think. The texts that have been released to date are still far from what should be the final product, which always has no estimated time of departure and, as everyone knows, in the development of these products in the initial phase if you don’t hurry you run the risk of being overtaken: already rumored that a power like Samsung would be preparing its own virtual reality glasses, more affordable than the rest of the models available today on the market and with which you could play Android games.
All of this potential competition there is to add the earthquake in the networks that resulted in the purchase of Oculus VR last march by 2,000 million dollars, on the part of Facebook. The so-called “crowdfunding betrayal” by some (none of those who made the Oculus Rift possible with their investment will take off a sale compensation, in addition to losing the money invested) has stirred up tension among many, while the current recession of the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg is not too promising either.
As a result, the version of Minecraft that was going to be compatible with Oculus Rift was canceled, and the situation has caused the Facebook Creator to decide to sell the Oculus Rift at the lowest possible price to try to copy the market. Let’s hope it’s not to flood advertising and invitations to the Candy Crush with our spectacular virtual reality goggles.
- Sony joins Virtual Reality: Project Morpheus
Sony presented in March the Project Morpheus: a prototype augmented reality system that works with PS4 and whose prototype has a 1080p resolution and a surprising 3D audio technology, at least, on paper.
In the past E3 2014, we were able to freak out with the Morpheus prototypes that Sony provided to those present for their test, the feeling of immersion is mind-boggling and leaves you wanting more. Also, coinciding with the E3, NDreams announced the first project planned for Project Morpheus: The Assembly, VR adventure game that will include numerous features to make the most of Sony’s new device.
The Internet and portability have made it increasingly impersonal how we communicate, how we stay with a friend, how we learn a language, and even the channels we use to fall in love. Virtual reality could be the next step: we will no longer live with devices that help us day by day, we will merge the real world and the virtual world and our perception of reality will contain in itself all those advantages, being able to enjoy all those sensations in our skin.