OptiTrack are well known in industry circles for their specialist motion capture technology, but at GDC this year, the company is turning its attention to wide area virtual reality experiences as it puts it tracking technology to task in a new interactive virtual reality basketball experience at GDC.
The largest motion capture technology provider in the world, chances are you’ve seen or played something that was captured using OptiTrack technology. Their systems are used across various verticals from film and television to biochemistry. At GDC this year however, OptiTrack wanted to show their tracking prowess applied to yet another field, wide-area interactive immersive experiences – tracking multiple players in large room-scale spaces.
As it happens, you may already have heard of one of OptiTrack’s success stories in this particular field. The VR theme park known as The Void uses OptiTrack’s 6DoF tracking to allow customers to roam freely through its mixed reality arenas thanks to tracking technology supplied by OptiTrack.
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So, how best to show this technology off at an event like GDC? OptiTrack think the answer is Basketball. Specifically a 1 on 1 match between players wearing VR headsets. Both tracked able to dribble and pass a basketball simultaneously in the VR environment and in the physical world. An OptiTrack 6 DoF tracking system will provide drift-free positional and rotational tracking for the HMDs, controllers, and players.
The system in use at GDC can apparently track up to 75 rigid bodies (stop sniggering at the back) with latency as low as 5ms – at least according to OptiTrack’s press release.
We’ll report back with more details on the experience as we continue to cover GDC from the show floor.
