I don''t know about needles in your head. Some external electromagnetic method of causing current flow in localised areas of the brain could theoretically be possible, but you''d need some weird kind of antennae or coils to do it.

Perhaps you could implant microscopic metallic threads (say a few molecules thick) into each nerve, each tuned to an exact frequency, and cause current flow in them with localised radio transmitters positioned around the head. It would require a complex surgical operation initially (unless you think of an exotic alternative to manual implanting, such as a drug or microorganism causing metal deposition in the nerves), but no breaking of the skin after that. That''s probably the best that can be done.

In more realistic, immediate terms, I think that physics engines still need a hell of a lot of work.


First you need to include toppling. How many times have you pushed a two foot wide crate over the edge of a cliff and had it sit perfectly upright with only 1cm of the edge actually supported? Black and White is the only game in existence, to my knowledge, that adresses this.

Then some decent stuff such as truly deformable objects (like rubber or semi molten things), shearing objects (actually splitting the polygon mesh in realtime into components, rather than atomising into generic fragments that disappear instantly) and decent, realistic chains, ropes and cables.

That would be a start.

Also, VR systems involving touch and smell should be developed. Touch could theoretically be quite easy, with some kind of mechanised suit with thousands of actuators in them, for mechanical sensations, temperature, etc.
Smells could possibly be composed of basic smell elements, like the primary colours, just as soon as they can figure out exactly how the nose works, and what chemicals to use for this. I gather this is a very hazy area. (in the meantime, we''re stuck with scratch n sniff!)

"If you go into enough detail, everything becomes circular reasoning." - Captain Insanity

I have always imagined a giant GAME ROOM, which is spherical with a flat floor. The wall is one giant computer screen all the way around. The floor has motion sensors, so when you walk your character moves forward. On your body you hold three fake weapon: pistol, rifle, and sword. Each of these represents a selected weapon (other games can come with other fake weapons). Your weapon would fire whenever the motion detector notices your hands jerk. You wear a body suit and whenever you get hit it vibrates. So basically, you are inside the game itself, turning it into a lifelike experience. Just imagine:

You go up to the door and put in the Unreal II disk on the console outside the room. You load up the level you want and enter. You pull out the fake rocket launcher, jerk your hands to start the game. Suddenly, you are inside the game, breathing, seeing, smelling, and hearing it. Your heart pumps faster and faster and suddenly a life size Skaarj comes come jumping off a mountain screaming with a taste for blood. You look around the room but see no real way to escape. Praying you survive, you spin around and jerk your hands, firing rockets at the Skaarj. It explodes, and you see the pieces of it fly all over the room.

Wouldn''t that be so cool? Sure, it''s kind of like a holodeck, but it only has a limited space for you to move.

Eternity is relentless

It seems almost pointless to speculate (alebit fun )..after all, where are the flying cars they predicted would be here by now, back in the 50s? Personally I think computers will get faster, monitors will get flater, etc. Heck if they can make a pc that''s completely embedded in a durable polymer sheet and costs less than $2000 I''d buy it! So far Moore''s law has been holding steady. Everyone''s saying we''re reaching the boundary of what transistors can do and that''s probably true, but another invention will probably solve the crisis before it gets here, just like ever other time in computer history.

As for games...well the hardware is to the game designer as the brush and canvas is to the artist. The better your tools, the more you can do, but the designer will always control the look and feel of the game. People probably do not want a game with absolute, photorealistic, "can''t tell the graphics from real life" games. I know I don''t. Take cinema for example: Are the scenes in a movie absolutely visually realistic? No. The colors have been enhanced, depth-of-field effects applied, not to mention the ever-present computer generated effects common today. The same principle will probably be applied in games even when we do have the ability to achieve perfect realism. Some things in real life are just visually dull. Look at stretch of highway, or a city scene. Now look at a similar scene in a game. All the colors are more vibrant. Perfect realism is not the goal. With games as with cinema we are striving to create a believable world that is more interesting than our own.

As to virtual reality, I don''t think it will ever become a market reality, at least not in it''s current headset and gloves form. If they could create a system that would project moving and realistic holograms than people may buy it, but I''m still a little skeptical that the general public would ever shell out the kind of money to make it a household item; however as a television display, a holographic device could be popular if it were well done and this could open the way to game applications.

I know I''m not adding anything insightful here, but I found this little story to be quite interesting regarding the future of games and what could happen.. dangerous stuff!

http://www.illogica.org/azpod/Occam.html

You ever read one or more books from Tom Clansy''s Netforce Explorers serie? I think that''ll be very close to reality. Implants will probably create all kinds of possibilities...

Holographic games that play in the air in full color heh. Fighting games would rock. (I think they would mostly have to be played at night or in dark areas though).

It will evolve into something like to holo-deck on Star Trek or someting ( that''d be kool)

peace

-Sage13

I prophesy that half of us will be dead and the other half old and almost dead before most of this happens.

COOLNESS!

Hmmm.. "Next" to me implies that games are seen as existing in time and are therefore a function of purposive development. If games are to acquire purpose and therefore exist in time (which is a circular concept for the presence of creativitiness) then their future lies in social integration.

I see the future of games socially as the determinate exposition and sensitivity to that aspect of consciousness that currently manifests itself in dreams. Concretely, once people realize that the games people play affect the choices or types of choices people make in life, market competition will struggle for popular consciousness by developing integrated brand realities which exist as computer games, at the level of the symbolic, manifesting therefrom in the economy. Of course, such a progression will fail without the development of gaming as a social not asocial phenomena and this may or may not be addressed by developments in technology (the concept that everyone wear computer equipment, as VR, is _one_ solution).

I see the future of games personally as the realization of emotion sensitive controls. PCs which make decisions based on emotions was introduced at the macro, group management level with Syndicate; what I refer to as a "personal" development will be that type of game in which a story unfolds around a PC whom (sic!) grows in the manner of Creatures as a coincidence of the actions they perform (player prompting in the PC "subconscious") and the emotional responses the PC has to NPC developments (player to PC non-specific emotional intervention) - Project: Ego bears the markings of emotional development gameplay, albeit as a function of egotistical cause-effect principles.

The two developements, taken together, represent a fusion of technology and the collective unconscious, with a positive potential for social harmony and social mobilization (and vice versa).

quote: Original post by aramstudios
We already have VR u fool!

COOLNESS!

i know, but we''re talking about games here. so, the vr i''m talking about is not just technology, but also games. we don''t have virtual reality games in stores yet.

Life is fair.
The hardest part of a project is to finish it as planned.
-Albert Tedja-

Personally, I believe the ONLY reason VR games aren''t common is that the gear you need to run them is too damn expensive. If I could afford it, I''d have one whole room in my house filled with VR gear built into seats for multiplayer shooters.

If they want VR equipment in high street shops, it''s got to get much cheaper. Most of us gamers don''t have too much money to play with as it is, and most of that gets spent on the software itself, leaving little for addons such as VR gloves.

"If you go into enough detail, everything becomes circular reasoning." - Captain Insanity