Arguably the games industry's most important annual event, the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 begins in LA next week. As the final E3 before the retail release of three major virtual reality headsets from Oculus, Sony, and Valve/HTC, we take the opportunity to look back at the last three years of consumer VR. [caption id="attachment_26654" align="alignright" width="325"] The Los Angeles Convention Center, Home of E3 2015[/caption] E3 2015 is here again and begins officially on the 16th of June at the Los Angeles Convention Center. As ever, Road to VR will be there to bring you the latest news direct from the show. Do drop us an email at info@roadtovr.com if you have something VR related you'd like to share with us at the show and we'll try to line up a meeting. This year's event marks something of a milestone in virtual reality's recent explosive renaissance—specifically the final E3 before the arrival of the first major consumer virtual reality systems in this new era. So, before we're swept away by the inevitable tsunami of E3 (and pre-E3) revelations, here's a brief up-to-date summary of this most recent virtual reality renaissance period, using E3 itself as a convenient way-point. E3 2012 John Carmack, founder of id Software, co-creator of Doom, and all-round programming demi-god turns up at E3 with a gaffer-taped ski mask and a hacked-up version of Doom 3 and promptly steals the show, all the while proclaiming that virtual reality is back! The ski mask was of course an early version of the Oculus Rift, sent to Carmack by one Palmer Luckey, before the headset ever took to Kickstarter. The showing catapulted VR back into the gaming industry's consciousness whilst awakening the VR dreams of a generation of industry professionals and enthusiasts all at once. [caption id="attachment_8811" align="aligncenter" width="680"] John Carmack at E3 2012, now Oculus VR CTO[/caption] For the first time since the 90s, the gaming and tech media begin talking and writing about VR in positive, non-derisory terms and at Quakecon that same year, we see one of the first discussions on VR's future. Featuring Oculus' Palmer Luckey, Valve's Michael Abrash and of course John Carmack, the event foreshadowed how important these three figures were to become in later years, with Carmack and Abrash eventually leaving id Software and Valve respectively to join Oculus. [caption id="attachment_29054" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Palmer Luckey (right), Michael Abrash (center), John Carmack (right)[/caption] E3 2013 [caption id="attachment_2910" align="alignright" width="325"] An early pre-production Oculus Rift DK1 Prototype[/caption] Oculus as a company has now been formed on the back of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the so-called Rift DK1—the first widely available developer kit for a consumer virtual reality headset—to life. By now the DK1, despite production delays, is already in the hands of Kickstarter backers across the world. The VR community is swelling with an influx of enthusiasts feeding from an explosion of early developer tech demos for the device. Oculus don't rest on their laurels however; during E3 2013 the company reveal their latest VR headset, simply called the 'HD Prototype', formed from the guts of a DK1 and added a new HD LCD Panel, upgrading the DK1's resolution from 800p to 1080p. [caption id="attachment_7578" align="aligncenter" width="680"] A set of Oculus Rift HD Prototypes[/caption] Demo's of the new headset included the latest previews of Unreal Engine E3 2013 and the combination of increased display fidelity and cutting-edge rendering techniques left quite an impression. At the same time, the first glimpse of triple-A software using VR was provided in the form of EVE Online developer CCP Games' EVE-VR, a space combat shooter which used head tracking as a core gameplay mechanic. [button color="orange" size="large" type="3d" target="" link="https://www.roadtovr.com/e3-2015-will-mark-three-years-of-incredible-vr-progress/2/"]Continue to Page 2 "E3 2014 and Beyond"[/button] E3 2014 [caption id="attachment_9332" align="alignright" width="325"] Me, trying the Crystal Cove prototype at CES 2014[/caption] Virtual Reality is gaining momentum. Having demonstrated their latest feature prototype 'Crystal Cove' at CES earlier that year, Oculus have launched their second widely available developer kit—the Rift DK2. Like the prototype, the Dk2 housed a 1080p OLED display, taking advantage of the display technology's fast pixel switching times to deliver low persistence of vision, a technique to reduce motion blur and smooth motion stuttering. [caption id="attachment_10497" align="aligncenter" width="680"] The Oculus Rift DK2 and Positional Tracking Camera[/caption] Positional head-tracking via an outside-in camera / IR LED system also promised to alleviate nausea for users as well as add another dimension to VR immersion and interaction. Crystal Cove and the DK2 represented a huge leap in user experience, so much so that Oculus declared the DK2 'close enough' in concept for developers to target when developing for the eventual consumer edition. See Also: Oculus Announce Consumer ‘Oculus Rift’ CV1 Release Date as Q1 2016 [caption id="attachment_12947" align="alignright" width="325"] Playful Corp's Lucky's Tale[/caption] Despite this rapid and continuing hardware evolution in the first half of 2014, E3 itself was, appropriately, really all about the games for Oculus. The company brought with them a wealth of new premium VR experiences to demonstrate VR's flexibility such as Playful Corp's third-person platformer Lucky's Tale, Creative Assembly's terrifying first person survival horror Alien Isolation and Superhot, a bullet-time action game which leveraged positional head-tracking to bring dreams of living-the-Matrix to life. [caption id="attachment_10572" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Sony's Morpheus VR Headset Being Revealed at GDC 2014[/caption] By now, the world had cottoned to the potential of virtual reality and Oculus had been joined by consumer giant Sony in the VR gaming space. Project Morpheus, a VR headset designed for the company's Playstation 4 game console, had been launched at GDC earlier in the year and Sony were out in full force at E3 showing just what could be done with their unique combination of headset and input system—bringing with it a new lease on life for the 6 DoF Playstation Move controller. It was an impressive showing that confounded those who believed VR to be a PC exclusive platform. [caption id="attachment_9546" align="alignright" width="325"] Valve's 'The Room' Demo and Prototype VR Headset[/caption] It's also important to note that Valve had presented their prototype VR technology at their Steam Dev Days event towards the start of 2014. The "Valve Room" demo, given to selected attendees of the event was considered by many as the most impressive virtual reality experience yet shown, one where many excitedly spoke of sustained moments of 'presence', a state of heightened psychological immersion in a virtual world. The system seemed to achieve this level of immersion in part due to its unique room-scale positional tracking, at that time using headset cameras and wall mounted fiducial markers. At this point however, Valve seemed adamant that this technology was purely to help further R&D in the field with no plans to release the hardware to consumers. Oh yes, some social media company also liked virtual reality so much, just like the legendary Victor Kiam*, they bought the company. *This reference requires that you be over the age of 35. If you're not, Google it. [button color="orange" size="large" type="3d" target="" link="https://www.roadtovr.com/e3-2015-will-mark-three-years-of-incredible-vr-progress/3/"]Continue to Page 3 "E3 2015"[/button] E3 2015 Oculus have demonstrated their 3rd major VR headset feature prototype at their Inaugural 'Oculus Connect' developer conference. It was the first time Oculus publicly emphasised a standing VR experience and the new headset's 360 degree positional tracking allowed them to demonstrate this extremely effectively. It has since transpired that this headset actually represents the closest relative of Oculus' first consumer VR headset, the CV1, as the company recently announced technical specifications for the long-awaited device. See Also: Oculus Reveals Recommended Rift Specs and Confirms CV1 Resolution [caption id="attachment_28939" align="alignright" width="325"] Valve's Vive Developer Edition Kit is Now in Developer's Hands[/caption] Valve have by now of course joined the fray too—and how! They took GDC 2015 by storm announcing and demonstrating their own entry into the virtual reality market—the HTC manufactured 'Vive' headset—the flagship device for their SteamVR platform. Along with their impressive Lighthouse room-scale laser tracking system, this was no half-arsed attempt at VR bandwagon jumping. The GDC demonstrations wowed everyone who tried them and for the first time it seemed Oculus had been ousted as the sole purveyors of high-end virtual reality. Importantly, Valve demonstrated solutions for both immersion (headset) and input (SteamVR controllers powered by Lighthouse), offering a vision of a complete VR consumer package. [caption id="attachment_26449" align="alignright" width="325"] The Oculus Rift 'CV1' Consumer Edition[/caption] Oculus meanwhile, whilst having long acknowledged the importance of dedicated VR input solutions, have yet to talk about what they intend to offer. This is very likely to change over the next couple of weeks however, with hopes that Oculus' VR input revelations may well come at their recently announced Pre-E3 'Step Into the Rift' event in San Francisco on the 11th of June. Their acquisition of computer vision and input specialist Nimble VR late last year and their more recent purchase of 3D environment mapping company Surreal Vision may give us a hint as to where Oculus' plans for input lie in the medium to long term, but it's unlikely we'll see solutions based around those technologies any time soon. Although it is likely that we'll see the fruits of an older partnership, Oculus' acquisition of Carbon Design; the team behind the original Xbox 360 controller have some impressive industrial design chops and, although we've heard little from the group since the original announcement, their hand in designing Oculus' consumer grade hardware is likely to extend to both headset and input peripherals. See Also: Oculus Rift CV1 High Res Photos Suggest a Lighter, More Comfortable Headset [caption id="attachment_28249" align="alignright" width="325"] Samsung's Most Recent Revision of their Gear VR - Now for S6 Mobiles[/caption] We shouldn't forget of course that mobile virtual reality has made huge strides in the last 12 months too. With Samsung launching the Oculus powered Gear VR last year, astounding many by demonstrating the high-levels of immersion possible in a device powered by a mobile phone. Google too have had enormous success with their Cardboard initiative, with their recent I/O conference dominated by virtual and augmented reality technology. There's no doubt that both players see a long term future in virtual reality and are beginning to invest heavily in its future. Three Years is a Long Time in VR Within the next 12 months we'll see the release to market of at least three major VR systems. Valve boldly committed to not only get their Vive Developer Edition into creator's hands ASAP and they recently quite literally delivered on that promise. They're adamant they'll also be the first company to market with a desktop consumer VR system as they target a holiday release window for the Vive. Oculus meanwhile have finally announced that they intend to get their CV1 into consumer homes by the close of Q1 2016 with Sony hot on their heels with Project Morpheus arriving in Q2. So, the stage is set for a retail virtual reality face off the likes of which we've never seen before or even dared imagine just three years ago. Few could have predicted VR would enjoy such a meteoric rise in that time, and despite some delays along the way, we should keep in mind that less than three years ago the technology was a painful joke to most. Now, it's poised to change everything. It's been a privilege to have helped journal VRs incredible history thus far here at Road to VR. But frankly, we're even more excited about the future of VR now than we've ever been. We'll be at E3 2015 to continue in our commitment to bring you the latest in virtual reality news direct from the show floor. If you're at E3 this year and have something cool and VR related to share with us, drop us a line at info@roadtovr.com and we'll try to line up a meeting.