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Original post by Fournicolas I think I remember an arcade game, about ten years ago, which required the player to ride a training bike, in order to play... You were supposed to direct a sort of balloon with your pedals, the faster you pedaled, the faster you went, tilt the handlebar, and you went left or right, or up or down, and you had to race through a series of hoops in mid air, and the ultimate stage was a sort of flying bicycle dogfighting stage, I believe... To bad I can't remember the name of that arcade, though. It was quite fun... Can anyone find it on the net?

Yes I remeber that too.

If games on bikes happened that would be great. Online cycle racing could be a smash hit, as long as players have to raid the bike to go vitually.!

1994: "Garage Virtual Reality" by Linda Jacobson (SAMS Publishing ISBN: 0-672-30270-5)

This book was LIGHTYEARS before its time. 1994 may seem fairly modern, but the first printing of the book was more like 1990...and if you cant remember computers back then...thats ancient!

They described hacking Nintendo power gloves to create head tracking units, mouse control using your hands...and using videocamera screens (remember the old ones) to make video stereoscopic glasses.

There are even parts on the (then current) world-building software and program hacks to be done.

Worth ordering from your local bookstore, seriously.

VR can be done..and for much more cheaply than you'd think. That book proves it.
My problem with VR is leg movement. Even if you have a treadmill for backwards and forwards...what about sideways? Youd have to have something track your feet and the treadmill would have to spin around as your body spins around.

Strange stuff...but it will come about some day :)

You know how people always wondered if you can just intercept brain waves to control objects? Well, there was a highly publicized research a few years back about a new human computer interface through thought. They were able to let users control a mouse cursor and move it around the screen just by thinking about it. Warrant that it wasn't an easy task and clicking wasn't possible, but maybe it would be useful for controlling player motion in VR.

Just a thought.

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Original post by WeirdoFu You know how people always wondered if you can just intercept brain waves to control objects? Well, there was a highly publicized research a few years back about a new human computer interface through thought. They were able to let users control a mouse cursor and move it around the screen just by thinking about it. Warrant that it wasn't an easy task and clicking wasn't possible, but maybe it would be useful for controlling player motion in VR. Just a thought.

IIRC they also had to cut a hole in your skull and place a pad directly onto your brain. Dont think I wanna do that just yet:S

That CAVE Quake 2 looks really cool, I want a CAVE now!

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Original post by Kazgoroth I'd love to see something along the lines of paintball/lasergames making use of this kind of technology at some point.

errr.....or you could just play paintball/lasertag.


The fact of the matter is that VR has faded out of mainstream use and entertainment because its actual not as accomodating as it first appears. The whole appeal of a VR system is escaping the abstraction of inerfaces and simply being 'in' the world. Unfortunately you will always be 'in' the real world and likely to knock over your mums favourite vase or tread on the cat. Getting around this with a DDR pad of sorts completely defeats the purpose and takes 2 steps back towards a contrived abstraction of real movement.

I can see a VR helmet working quite nicely in combinaton with something like a racing game to simply aid the immersion of being in a cockpit, especially as it ould feel like a racing helmet but the truth is that VR is not the holy grail it first appears to be. If it could be done, it would have been done by now and I would suggest you wait until we reach the year of the tinfoil hat and we're fully capable of interpretting and manipulating brain signals before you get excited.

Actually, a pad that lets you move in any direction and even simulates terrain bumps and walls is possible. It's a thesis I'm working on :) I'd like to release some details, but it would be better to wait until it's more than just an idea. My opinion is that there's still a lot to see on this subject.

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Original post by grekster Quote: Original post by WeirdoFu You know how people always wondered if you can just intercept brain waves to control objects? Well, there was a highly publicized research a few years back about a new human computer interface through thought. They were able to let users control a mouse cursor and move it around the screen just by thinking about it. IIRC they also had to cut a hole in your skull and place a pad directly onto your brain. Dont think I wanna do that just yet:S

I saw a program on this years ago, and if memory serves it wasn't quite like that. They just had to stick those electrode pad things to your scalp (you had to shave your head, but no skull holes :P), and they meant something very specific when they say "control just by thinking about it".

It was all based on a brain wave pattern (I forget which). The subject would start by staring at this flashing light which triggered the brain wave. All the while they'd get bio-feedback from the sensors, so they'd know when they were in that state. After a while they were able to concentrate and enter that state at will, without needing the flashing light. Then they went into a simulator where they used the wave to turn left or right (I forget how they got two signals from the one brain wave o_O), and after a while they could train their minds to associate changing the brain wave with turning left or right.

It's "just by thinking about it" only in the same way driving a car is - at first you have to concentrate on the wheels, the pedals, but after a while you just think about where you want to go. I often wonder how trainable the human body/mind is, to associate movements with actions nature didn't intend (e.g. a flick of the foot to accelerate/slow-down). Judging by how many people try to Ctrl+Z in real life, I'd say very :P

I doubt full blown VR will take off until you can step into your own holodeck or “jack in” matrix style, but I do think VR goggles or helmets will become more common… especially as the game genres continue to blur.

We’re seeing an increase of, & a higher demand for hybrid games that blend the gameplay styles of FPS, vehicle/mech, & flight/space sims into the same gameworlds, such as the GTA series, BF 1942 I & II, HalfLife2, or various MMO’s, etc. As these games get better at being true representations of each genre within single gameworlds, developers are most likely going to try & incorporate support for the multiple input devices that the players of these genres like to use. This may also result in cross-over use of input devices to play these games that haven’t seen much use before, such as using a HOTAS setup with a VR headset for FPS style gameplay, etc.

What’s most likely holding VR headsets from taking off is poor design & the inability to offer true 1024 x 768 resolution at a reasonable price. I know I’m not willing to pay the prices they are asking for when all they can offer is sub-par resolutions without even incorporating headphones/microphones or 6 degrees of movement with the head-tracking.

The ideal VR headset should, at a minimum, offer resolutions comparable to 1024 x 768, be able to be worn over glasses, have built in headphones & microphone, & offer 6DOF head-tracking. If I were designing it I would also incorporate some other features that seem to have been neglected:

1. The viewscreens would be more widescreen-like to allow for peripheral vision & the ability to look left/right while turning your head left/right, since this is how you naturally look left/right anyway. This may help eliminate some of the motion sickness not related to latency that occurs from constantly looking straight ahead into small viewscreens while turning your head.

2. The viewscreens would be designed so that you could easily peer underneath them for easy viewing of things like keyboards etc. DURING gameplay. Since you always have sight of the real world as well as what’s on the viewscreens, this may also help with the motion sickness issue, as well as just being a good general safety feature.

3. If what’s holding back higher resolutions is being able to make screens with small enough pixels, then I would design the headset so that it uses slightly larger screens (which are already available & cheap), place those screens elsewhere on the headset (such as the top of the head) & use a mirror/lens system to project the image to the eyes.

All the technology exists to make this happen. Someone just needs to put it all together correctly & affordably.

[Edited by - ToppDog on August 17, 2005 4:36:26 PM]

Running in 3 dimensions can be done ( as someone mentioned ) with a hamster ball ;) or by running on a movable sphere. Like a trackerball, but under foot. You could also simulate an incline by running off center, but the sphere would need to be a good few feet in radius to seem flat under foot.

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Original post by ToppDog I doubt full blown VR will take off until you can step into your own holodeck or “jack in” matrix style, but I do think VR goggles or helmets will become more common… especially as the game genres continue to blur. We’re seeing an increase of, & a higher demand for hybrid games that blend the gameplay styles of FPS, vehicle/mech, & flight/space sims into the same gameworlds, such as the GTA series, BF 1942 I & II, HalfLife2, or various MMO’s, etc. As these games get better at being true representations of each genre within single gameworlds, developers are most likely going to try & incorporate support for the multiple input devices that the players of these genres like to use. This may also result in cross-over use of input devices to play these games that haven’t seen much use before, such as using a HOTAS setup with a VR headset for FPS style gameplay, etc. What’s most likely holding VR headsets from taking off is poor design & the inability to offer true 1024 x 768 resolution at a reasonable price. I know I’m not willing to pay the prices they are asking for when all they can offer is sub-par resolutions without even incorporating headphones/microphones or 6 degrees of movement with the head-tracking. The ideal VR headset should, at a minimum, offer resolutions comparable to 1024 x 768, be able to be worn over glasses, have built in headphones & microphone, & offer 6DOF head-tracking. If I were designing it I would also incorporate some other features that seem to have been neglected: 1. The viewscreens would be more widescreen-like to allow for peripheral vision & the ability to look left/right while turning your head left/right, since this is how you naturally look left/right anyway. This may help eliminate some of the motion sickness not related to latency that occurs from constantly looking straight ahead into small viewscreens while turning your head. 2. The viewscreens would be designed so that you could easily peer underneath them for easy viewing of things like keyboards etc. DURING gameplay. Since you always have sight of the real world as well as what’s on the viewscreens, this may also help with the motion sickness issue, as well as just being a good general safety feature. 3. If what’s holding back higher resolutions is being able to make screens with small enough pixels, then I would design the headset so that it uses slightly larger screens (which are already available & cheap), place those screens elsewhere on the headset (such as the top of the head) & use a mirror/lens system to project the image to the eyes. All the technology exists to make this happen. Someone just needs to put it all together correctly & affordably.

Well, this device here may not satisfy all your requirements, but I think it will satisfy quite a few.

http://www.3001ad.com/trimersionhmd.cfm

Its suppose to hit the market sometime this year with a price tag of around $395 - $500 depending on whether it will have head tracking built in.

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On a side note, I think this device shown here may have some awesome yet weird game potentials when it does hit the market.

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/jp/20050607_073900.html

Currently its only useful for showing data, but then that in itself can be used to create an interesting game in itself. For example, an alternative FPS game where the device links with your cell phone with built in GPS. Its like an MMO in the real world where through some mechanism each player is given an ID and a target who you need to track down, another player. The glasses linked to your cell phone and GPS will tell you how far you are from your target, and when you get close enough, you key in their ID that gets displayed on your view. Then at the end of the day, you tally up your "kills" and see who has the most "kills." Of course, once a person has been "killed" they "respawn" with a new ID. Of course, if someone tracking you comes within range, you'll be warned as well and you have a chance to move out to range or then try and get close enough to see their ID and "kill" them before they can get you. Would be an interesting experience.