The episode gives a good amount of detail on the concepting and building process for the virtual reality simulator which is excellent for our purposes. I was curious to know how they were going to be tracking the player for the omni-directional treadmill and it was revealed that they were using 10 infrared sensors to accomplish this.
When the host ran through the level with the rig, he mentioned it being rather surreal and very immersive. I can only imagine that the paintball guns added an element of fear which would make one much more conscious of running out into the open. Adding real life consequences to in-game actions is a great way to enhance the intensity and immersion of a game (though some might find bruising paintball guns to be a bit harsh).
The host said he was so immersed that he actually tried to reach his hand out to drag his wounded virtual soldier away, and I’m very curious to know if this was his genuine knee-jerk reaction, or if it was just a bit of flourish for the show. Check out the full section of the show feature the Battlefield 3 virtual reality simulator right here. Do you think he was serious or just putting on an act?
It was clear that while this might have been immersive, it wasn’t a perfect way to play the game. Given the nature of the virtual reality rig (a lot of cobbled together pieces of complex technology), we can excuse them for not getting it jut right, but clearly more tuning would need to be done to get things like navigation and aiming just right (and consistent enough to go to the mainstream).
In addition to being able to see this thing in action, they provided a valuable list of names and companies relevant to virtual reality that will be on our radar for the future. That list is here for later reference:
- Igloo Vision Dome
- MSE Weibull (company responsible for the omni-directional treadmill used)
- Daniel Yohanson (creator of MSE Weibull’s omni-directional treadmill)
- Extra Dimensional Technologies (ambient lighting) and its CEO, Chris Chase
- App Blaster (augmented reality iPhone accessory) from Apptoyz
Thanks to Not the Quake Guy for pointing this video out!