Sixense’s successful STEM Kickstarter has been running for a few weeks now, but for the first time they’re showing the true power of their VR tracking system with full 5 point tracking. The results are, quite frankly, awesome.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I pay close attention to the virtual reality space and in my mind I fully get the implications of full avatar embodiment. But for some reason, finally seeing it happen in a familiar environment (inside Sixense’s Tuscany VR demo) has me smiling with excitement. Just watch, and let me know what you think:
There’s something about natural human movement that just looks so much more compelling in a virtual avatar than traditional animation. There’s a life, or perhaps essence, brought to the avatar on the right in the video that feels human — like there’s really a person in there. I was blown away the first time I got my virtual hands inside of the game because it enhances immersion significantly. Having your entire body naturally there inside the game is going to take immersion to the next level.
That’s why in the headline I say that this is the next step for VR. Full body tracking is going to bring life to virtual worlds, not only by animating and making feel real your own avatar, but by putting you around other players that also move like real people. And it’s not just that feeling which is important; the gameplay implications are clear — we’ll finally be able to duck, jump, dodge, kick, and punch inside of these virtual spaces, and have it truly be part of the gameplay.
Someone make a Chivalry for VR and the STEM, please?!
I’m quite impressed with what Sixense has been able to do with 5 trackers and some smart inverse kinematics. Professional motion capture systems track many more points, but what I’m seeing in the video above is appealingly natural movement from a virtual avatar. I can’t wait to see many of the great Rift + Hydra demos up and running with full tracking thanks to STEM!
Sixense tells me that the prototype shown in the video is using older ‘time modulation’ sensing techniques, akin to the Hydra, with more latency than STEM. Sixense recently released a video to explain the differences between the old process and the new (and much faster) way of doing things with STEM:
Down the road I imagine Sixense will demo pre-production STEM prototypes to show the difference in latency between STEM and the Hydra.
At the time of writing, the STEM Kickstarter is just over $550,000 in funding (221% of their original goal) and has 7 days left. The Kickstarter also just passed its first stretch goal which will make the base station wirelesss, making it even easier to game in VR.