VIRTUAL REALITY: How it Changed the Gaming Industry
- What is Virtual Reality?
Virtual reality is a technology that immerses users in an artificial world. It uses computer technology to create three-dimensional images and sounds that surround a user and can replicate physical sensations, such as sight, sound and touch.
In gaming, virtual reality is used to make games more realistic by giving the player a sense of being there. For example, when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on the PlayStation 4 console, you can use your controller to look around the battlefield while shooting enemies. The same thing happens in virtual reality games like Rec Room or Space Junk.
Virtual reality has become more common with the rise of smartphones and tablets. Today, smartphones have cameras with advanced sensors that allow users to take photos and videos or record short 360-degree videos. This technology has been incorporated into many mobile games so players can capture video of their adventures and share them online with friends.
- The Beginning of Virtual Reality
Technologies used in virtual reality today are based on concepts that go all the way back to the 1800s—pretty much the very beginning of widespread practical photography. The first stereoscope, which projected a single image using two mirrors, was created in 1838. Later on, that evolved into the View-Master, which was patented in 1939 and is being manufactured today.
However, Jaron Lanier, the founder of VPL Research, first coined the phrase “virtual reality” in the middle of the 1980s when he started creating the equipment, such as goggles and gloves, required to experience what he dubbed “virtual reality.”
But technologists were already creating simulated environments before that. The Sensorama in 1956 was one significant event. Previously, Morton Heilig worked in the Hollywood film industry. He was interested in how viewers might experience being “in” the movie. In the Sensorama experience, you “rode” a motorcycle across a model of a genuine city area. In the created “world,” multisensory stimulation enables you to perceive the road, hear the engine, feel the vibration, and smell the motor’s exhaust.
Ivan Sutherland, a different inventor, proposed “the Ultimate Display” in 1965, a head-mounted gadget he said would act as a “window into a virtual universe.”
In the field, the 1970s and 1980s were a frenzied time. The development of haptic devices and other tools that would let you move around in the virtual realm coexisted with programs that worked on optical technology. For instance, the Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW) system at NASA Ames Research Center in the middle of the 1980s combined gloves with a head-mounted device to provide haptic contact.
- Blend of Businesses Spectrum & Game Development with VR Technology
Gamers used to play their games on a flat screen. But with time, technology and VR hardware made it possible for the players to merge into a mesmeric personalized environment. This also allows the player to gain a far superior level of engagement with the gaming world. With time more and more developers started taking interest in VR games. This changed the picture of the games by creating new VR content or changing past content. The businesses involved in the game started creating more interesting solutions that attract more new users. VR is helping vendors overcome tedious industry challenges while introducing VR game products.
The VR gaming space is increasing in value with the help of this new disruptive technology. Virtual reality gadgets are getting in trend among gamers. Moreover, the awareness of VR is steadily growing among users and players. After the release of the VR headset on the market, a massive change and revolution started in the gaming industry. VR Headsets were introduced to the market by early 2016. This resulted in more demand for VR games. Using a VR headset like Oculus Rift people are excited to experience 3D creatures in a computer-generated virtual environment.
- What Types of Games are There?
There are many different types of virtual reality games, most of them can be categorized as either limited virtual reality (VR) experiences or simulator games. VR experiences are games in which a person wears a headset that creates an immersive experience through audio and digital displays, while using a handheld input device to play the game. These types of virtual reality games can create just about any kind of experience, from first person shooters (FPS) to racing games. Simulators, on the other hand, feature some type of enclosed environment in which a person is completely immersed within the game experience.
Virtual reality games typically refer to those in which the experience of playing a game goes beyond simply looking at a monitor or display screen and holding a controller or using a keyboard as input. These games attempt to draw the player into the game in a more immersive way and can do so through many methods. Many virtual reality games utilize a headset that someone wears, in which speakers and small displays are used to create the impression of a three-dimensional virtual space around the person.
These types of virtual reality games can take a number of different forms and have different types of controls. A FPS game made as this type of VR experience might include a headset and shoulder rest, with handles that include triggers to emulate the experience of holding or using large guns. Racing games can be made using this type of technology, allowing a person to look around and see different directions on the headset, while holding a wheel to control the game. Games can also be made using this technology to emulate various athletic or sports activities and to create interactive virtual experiences.
There are also virtual reality games designed using a simulator. These types of simulators are usually small, closed-in spaces in which a person stands or sits to play the game. Racing games, for example, can be created as simulators in which a person sits within a small closed room similar to the inside of a car, and multiple displays within the simulator are used to create the impression of a virtual space outside of the room. Similar controls are used in these types of virtual reality games, except no headset is usually worn as the simulator creates the images around a person. This can make for a somewhat more immersive experience, since suspension of disbelief may be easier with a wider field of view. These simulators can also include motion features, in which the small room can tilt and shift in order to recreate the feeling of motion while driving, flying a plane, or riding a roller coaster.
- Is Virtual Reality Destined to Disturb the Gaming Industry?
Gamers are encouraged to invest in the most recent technology since they are used to having their current gaming platform exceeded by an updated model. The age of VR gaming has arrived. Breaking into the commercial gaming industry with a specialized product is the next critical step in VR gaming, from high-end platforms like the HTC Vive and Facebook’s Oculus to Google’s cheap Daydream and the Samsung Gear VR. Price is the most evident barrier from the viewpoint of the consumer.
Although virtual reality gaming has been in the news for a while, its commercial viability depends on its accessibility. There are two categories of VR headsets now available on the market: tethered and mobile. Mobile headsets function with a compatible smartphone, whereas tethered devices require a computer or a gaming console like the Sony PlayStation (for the PlayStation VR headset).
In addition, non-gamers would be mostly priced out due to the requirement for a VR-ready hardware. Only early adopters and die-hard gamers with powerful PCs are now able to access the high-end market. The acceptance of VR gaming will be largely dependent on accessibility. Less than 1% of the 1.43 billion PCs in existence today are equipped with graphics that can handle VR gaming. Although there are ways to optimize high-end PCs, doing so can be expensive and bandwidth-intensive.
- What Roles Will Virtual Reality Play in the Future?
Virtual Reality (VR) has a lot of potential to benefit in years of development despite its limitations and disadvantages. Maybe within the span of 5-10 years of studying and improving it, it will reach its peak as one of the technologies that will greatly impact the lives of people in many aspects. The use of VR involves entire control over a user’s senses (especially sight and hearing) to produce a completely immersive experience that immerses the user in a wholly virtual environment that looks like the real world.
In addition to interactive gaming and enjoyment, it can also be utilized for design, education, telecommuting, job and job training, healthcare, and travel/tourism. It really benefits everyone due to the fact that individuals can assume the role of an avatar, experience various environments, have realistic reactions, and store and retrieve those interactions just like they would any other real-life memory.
- Entertainment
Users can enter into a real video game wherein they can experience a more interesting and thrilling game they will never forget as a gamer.
- Education
The use of VR in education allows students and teachers to disseminate information with the actual simulation of topics to better understand them. It will be a great help in remembering knowledge, especially for those students with learning difficulties.
- Design
VR can be a help to those professionals like architects and engineers to show their proposal of their projects to their clients and to discuss more about it for the better development of the community.
- Telecommunication
Want to find more friends? Immersing with many people is the one that Virtual Reality can offer. It gives more enjoyment to the experiences you take using this amazing technology.
- Culture/Art
The use of Virtual Reality gives an immersive experience while traveling around the countries by the use of the simulations and it can help people to understand more different cultures and arts around the world.
- Job Training
Virtual reality is also capable of creating 3D models of the body to help professionals or students train their ability to perform tasks and jobs. For example, those who are in surgical procedure training. It is to help them train themselves and be ready for the actual procedure when needed.
- Health
In addition, it can also contribute to therapy for those with stroke, brain injuries, phobias, and PTSD. VR is employed in these situations to give the brain a workout and expose it to stimuli in a safe setting.
In conclusion, virtual reality has advanced significantly and has enormous promise for gaming as well as other practical uses. It can improve lives by making difficult activities simpler, teaching people to do their jobs more effectively, and curing individuals of illnesses that could prevent them from living their best lives, despite certain drawbacks and limitations. But who knows? Maybe it will surprise us all more as time is ticking.
Most games sold to devoted players are designed for hundreds of hours of play, with each session lasting up to four hours. Game developers are opposing such extensive use since prolonged games in a VR environment would eventually become tiresome for the player. When utilizing VR headsets, users may potentially encounter motion sickness problems. Games created for the VR environment must be able to engage players who are accustomed to a whole different gaming experience if creators want traditional video game players to switch over. Gamers must also be confident in their decision to invest in VR from the very beginning.
- Benefits and Drawbacks of Virtual Reality
Benefits
1. Alternate Reality
– Live a dream you thought you could never experience like riding a dragon while fighting dinosaurs using a laser gun that makes cat sounds, sounds surreal? Because it is but you can make it into reality with VR!
2. Used in various fields
– You can do more in vr than just playing games for example the latest project of Meta (Formerly known as Facebook) the Metaverse where you get put on a virtual world in which people live, work, shop and interact with others all from the comfort of their couch in the physical world.
Drawbacks
1. Eye Problems
– When we were kids we were taught not to be too close to the Television because it might damage our eyes. Now imagine the “TV” being only 5 inches away from your eyes for a long time. There is a potential risk between too much screen time and myopia progression.
2. Disconnecting to the real world
– Living too much in the fantasy world might make you hate the real world because being in this virtual world you created is much more fun and comforting to you, making you stay there and escape the real world.
3. Motion sickness
– In the virtual headset you can move whilst being in place. Your brain thinks you are moving and it sees that you are “Moving” but in reality you’re just sitting or standing still which confuses the brain even more and it causes motion sickness.
REFERENCES:
Arango, B. (2022, August 30). Pros
and cons of virtual reality. [2021]. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from
https://filmora.wondershare.com/virtual-reality/pros-cons-virtual-virtual.html
Future of virtual reality – market
trends and challenges.
Software Testing Help. (2022, October 25). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from
https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/future-of-virtual-reality/
G. Wiesen Last Modified Date: October
18. (2022, October 18). What are the different types of virtual reality
games? EasyTechJunkie. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from
https://www.easytechjunkie.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-virtual-reality-games.htm
History of virtual reality. The Franklin Institute. (2019,
December 19). Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https://www.fi.edu/virtual-reality/history-of-virtual-reality
Is virtual reality destined to disturb
the gaming industry?
Toppan Digital Language. (2017, February 9).
https://toppandigital.com/translation-blog/virtual-reality-destined-disturb-gaming-industry/
Marr, B. (2022, October 12). The Future of Virtual Reality (VR). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/12/18/the-future-of-virtual-reality-vr/?sh=7a3df9b827be
Virtual reality, Pros & Cons. A closer look at the future. Optimum. (n.d.). https://www.optimum.com/articles/internet/the-realities-of-virtual-reality
