Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Stood by the Oculus stand at GDC, I heard someone say “the thing about all this VR stuff is that it hasn’t moved on a great deal from the ’90s.” Can that be true? For a moment I assumed this gentleman in the crowd might know something I didn’t, but it turns out that there’s a good deal that VR and head/body-tracking can do in 2013 that it couldn’t do in the 1990s. For a taste of that, you’ll want to read this and watch the video below, which places the user in a Doom 3 level with a Portal gun, and shows off all manner of body tracking and movement cleverness.

Go look!
Read the rest of this entry »

PCG has the news on Carmack’s latest side-project, which is making a VR kit. Carmack showed it off behind closed doors at E3, allowing people to play Doom 3, with full-on surround-o-vision. Carmack says: “This is literally held together with duct tape, but the guts of this is going to be made available as a kit for around $500.” (Update: Apparently this guy is also responsible for a lot of what they’re up to.)

So not a commercial thing, but a do-it-yourself VR system with Carmack’s brain behind the gadgetry. I’m getting one. For research and development purposes, you understand. Anyone else?

This is an outrage! Mice – who scientists believe don’t care about games at all – now have access to a first-person shooter style virtual reality system. Where is our all-encompassing virtual reality kit? We were promised them back in the Nineties and we’re still having to make do with screens, desks and chairs… and sometimes funny goggles. It’s not good enough. You can check out the blatant favouritism towards mice in the video below.
Read the rest of this entry »