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Outline thoughts on how you want to approach the brief?

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Outline thoughts on how you want to approach the brief?

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Will focus on Immersion.
AR
VR
with a main focus on VR as it is something that I am interested in pursuing within my career.

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Consider the format you will submit and how suitable it os to content

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Consider the format you will submit and how suitable it os to content

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Potentional options;
Disscussion
Written
Video

Currently feel written or disscussion best fit my skills. Subject to change as I gather additional research.

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Task 1
-defintion of emerging tech? (Makes a better intro)
- What emerging techs are there? Near/Distant Future (does not just have to be games)
- How are these technolgies used?
-Where did the technolgies stem from?(Potentinal strech goal).

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Done - Shown by the creation of this padlet wall and its sub sections

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Not likely. Not a single one has a brain. I suppose I could vagley listen to them within the class to cover this.

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Apple's AR headset

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Apple's augmented reality headset will enter mass production as soon as the fourth quarter of this year in time for an early 2020 launch, according to a new report out today from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and seen by MacRumors.

An Apple Glasses mockup

In his latest research note with TF International Securities, the analyst says Apple will cooperate with third-party brands to launch its first head-mounted AR product in 2020, with Changying Precision tipped to be the main chassis supplier.
A Kuo report in March claimed Apple would launch an AR product in 2020 that could be ready by the middle of next year. However, Kuo has brought forward his predicted time of release and the analyst now believes the launch window for the product will fall in the second quarter of 2020.

Back in July, a report claimed Apple had suspended its AR headset project, but just last month, code found in Xcode 11 and iOS 13 confirmed that Apple is still working on an augmented reality headset of some kind.

Within the internal Find My app bundle that MacRumors exclusively shared, there is also an icon depicting what appears to be an AR or VR headset that looks similar to the Google Cardboard.

Kuo understands that Apple's AR glasses will be marketed as an iPhone accessory and primarily take a display role while wirelessly offloading computing, networking, and positioning to the iPhone.

Designing the AR glasses to work as an iPhone accessory is also expected to allow Apple to keep the glasses slim and lightweight, rather than trying to pack in all the processing hardware into the one device.

As early as November 2017, reported that Apple was developing an AR headset. Apple originally aimed to have it ready by 2019, but the company was relaxed about not shipping a product until 2020. The report said the headset would run on a new custom operating system, based on iOS, and dubbed "rOS" for "reality operating system."

In addition, today's report underlines Kuo's previous prediction that the most important change to the Apple chassis industry chain in 2020 will be the upgrade of the 5G iPhone's metal mid-frame/chassis.

For Apple's 2020 iPhones, Kuo believes the company will adopt a new metal frame structure reminiscent of the iPhone 4, which will significantly increase the unit cost due to the increase in processing procedures and the integration of composite materials.

Today's report from the respected Apple analyst also covered Apple's iPad Pro and MacBook plans for 2020, which we've covered in a separate article.

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Kuo: Apple's AR Headset to Launch in Second Quarter of 2020

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Apple's augmented reality headset will enter mass production as soon as the fourth quarter of this year in time for an early 2020 launch, according to a new report out today from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and seen by MacRumors.

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Past, present and future of AR. Good artical covering a wide range of topics.

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Augmented reality has come a long way from a science-fiction concept to a science-based reality. Until recently the costs of augmented reality were so substantial that designers could only dream of working on design projects that involved it - today things have changed and augmented reality is even available on the mobile handset. That means design for augmented reality is now an option for all shapes and sizes of UX designers.

Augmented reality is a view of the real, physical world in which elements are enhanced by computer-generated input. These inputs may range from sound to video, to graphics to GPS overlays and more. The first conception of augmented reality occurred in a novel by Frank L Baum written in 1901 in which a set of electronic glasses mapped data onto people; it was called a "character marker". Today, augmented reality is a real thing and not a science-fiction concept.

A Brief History of Augmented Reality (The Past)

Augmented reality was first achieved, to some extent, by a cinematographer called Morton Heilig in 1957. He invented the Sensorama which delivered visuals, sounds, vibration and smell to the viewer. Of course, it wasn't computer controlled but it was the first example of an attempt at adding additional data to an experience.
Author/Copyright holder: Morton Heilig. Copyright terms and license: Public Domain.
Then in 1968, Ivan Sutherland the American computer scientist and early Internet influence, invented the head-mounted display as a kind of window into a virtual world. The technology used at the time made the invention impractical for mass use.

In 1975, Myron Krueger, an American computer artist developed the first " virtual reality " interface in the form of "Videoplace" which allowed its users to manipulate and interact with virtual objects and to do so in real-time.

Steve Mann, a computational photography researcher, gave the world wearable computing in 1980.

Of course back then these weren't "virtual reality" or "augmented reality" because virtual reality was coined by Jaron Lainer in 1989 and Thomas P Caudell of Boeing coined the phrase "augmented reality" in 1990.

The first properly functioning AR system was probably the one developed at USAF Armstrong's Research Lab by Louis Rosenberg in 1992. This was called Virtual Fixtures and was an incredibly complex robotic system which was designed to compensate for the lack of high-speed 3D graphics processing power in the early 90s. It enabled the overlay of sensory information on a workspace to improve human productivity

There were many other breakthroughs in augmented reality between here and today; the most notable of which include:

Bruce Thomas developing an outdoor mobile AR game called ARQuake in 2000

ARToolkit (a design tool) being made available in Adobe Flash in 2009

Google announcing its open beta of Google Glass (a project with mixed successes) in 2013

Microsoft announcing augmented reality support and their augmented reality headset HoloLens in 2015

The Current State of Play in Augmented Reality (The Present)

Augmented reality is achieved through a variety of technological innovations; these can be implemented on their own or in conjunction with each other to create augmented reality. They include:

General hardware components - the processor, the display, the sensors and input devices. Typically a smartphone contains a processor, a display, accelerometers, GPS, camera, microphone etc. and contains all the hardware required to be an AR device.

Displays - while a monitor is perfectly capable of displaying AR data there are other systems such as optical projection systems, head-mounted displays, eyeglasses, contact lenses, the HUD (heads up display), virtual retinal displays, EyeTap (a device which changes the rays of light captured from the environment and substitutes them with computer generated ones),Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR - which uses ordinary projection techniques as a substitute for a display of any kind) and handheld displays.

Sensors and input devices include - GPS, gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses, RFID, wireless sensors, touch recognition, speech recognition, eye tracking and peripherals.

Software - the majority of development for AR will be in developing further software to take advantage of the hardware capabilities. There is already an Augmented Reality Markup Language (ARML) which is being used to standardize XML grammar for virtual reality. There are several software development kits (SDK) which also offer simple environments for AR development.

There are apps available for or being researched for AR in nearly every industrial sector including:

Archaeology, Art, Architecture

Commerce, Office

Construction, Industrial Design

Education, Translation

Emergency Management, Disaster Recovery, Medical and Search and Rescue

Games, Sports, Entertainment, Tourism

The Future of Augmented Reality
Author/Copyright holder: Sonk54. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-SA 3.0
Jessica Lowry, a UX Designer, writing for the Next Web says that AR is the future of design and we tend to agree. Already mobile phones are such an integral part of our lives that they might as well be extensions of our bodies; as technology can be further integrated into our lives without being intrusive (a la Google Glass) - it is a certainty that augmented reality provides opportunities to enhance user experiences beyond measure.

This will almost certainly see major advances in the much-hyped but still little seen; Internet of Things. UX designers in the AR field will need to seriously consider the questions of how traditional experiences can be improved through AR - just making your cooker capable of using computer enhancements is not enough; it needs to healthier eating or better cooked food for users to care.

The future will belong to AR when it improves task efficiency or the quality of the output of an experience for the user. This is the key challenge of the 21st century UX profession.

The Takeaway

AR or augmented reality has gone from pipe dream to reality in just over a century. There are many AR applications in use or under development today, however - the concept will only take off universally when UX designers think about how they can integrate AR with daily life to improve productivity, efficiency or quality of experiences. There is an unlimited potential for AR, the big question is - how will it be unlocked?
Author/Copyright holder: Austin Berner. Copyright terms and license: Public Domain
References & Where to Learn More:

DID L. FRANK BAUM PREDICT AUGMENTED REALITY OR WARN US ABOUT ITS POWER? Some food for thought.

Ivan Sutherland's research can be found here: http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/19902/E1990b_123.pdf

Steve Mann's research can be read here: "Eye Am a Camera: Surveillance and Sousveillance in the Glassage". Techland.time.com

Rosenberg's original research paper was published as: L. B. Rosenberg. The Use of Virtual Fixtures As Perceptual Overlays to Enhance Operator Performance in Remote Environments. Technical Report AL-TR-0089, USAF Armstrong Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB OH, 1992.

Find out more about ARQuake at Wiki.

Learn more about Google Glass at the New York Times.

Jessica Lowry's article: Augmented reality is the future of design
Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Maurizio Pesce. Copyright terms and license: CC BY 2.0

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Augmented Reality - The Past, The Present and The Future

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Augmented reality has come a long way from a science-fiction concept to a science-based reality. Until recently the costs of augmented reality were so substantial that designers could only dream of working on design projects that involved it - today things have changed and augmented reality is even available on the mobile handset.

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AR headset aimed at a wide range of industrues aimed at gaming and beyond

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Hi. We're Magic Leap. We can't wait to show you what we've been busy building. Until then, visit our site to learn more about us.

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Microsoft AR/Hololens. Has a stronger focus on buissness rather than general public (See seperate research showing this)

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New Occulus prototype 'Dome'. Aiming to combine VR and AR technolgies for a wide range of uses in various industries. One of its new main technogies is its varifocal tech that adjusts to its users eyes.

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TL;DR: It's been a little over a year since we first unveiled Half Dome-a VR headset prototype that combined mechanical varifocal displays with a wider field of view than the original Rift for improved visual immersion. Since then, an interdisciplinary team at Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) has continued pushing the limits of what's technologically feasible to move beyond an early "proof of concept." Today, we're sharing some exciting updates to the Half Dome prototype that explore a new direction for varifocal and improve both physical and visual comfort-including a new electronic version of Half Dome with no moving parts.
Today at OC6, Facebook Reality Lab Chief Scientist Michael Abrash shared his vision for a virtual collaborative workspace-a space that you would be able to configure any way you wanted, with monitor-quality virtual screens, holograms, and whiteboards. It would give you the ability to interact with real surroundings and use a keyboard and mouse, to share the virtual space with other people, and to manipulate both real and virtual objects with your hands, complete with haptic feedback.

To deliver on that vision, we'd need to solve some considerable challenges. To get virtual monitors at visual parity with real-world monitors, Abrash notes, we'd need high resolution and good image quality-both of which would require very high-resolution displays and much improved optics. We'd want clear, comfortable vision within arm's length, and we'd need a wider field of view, so that everyone in a meeting could see everyone else-a must for social presence and effective collaboration in VR.

And since we're talking about technology that could revolutionize how we work, we'd need great ergonomics. To make it comfortable to be in VR for hours at a time, all of the necessary components need to be compact and power-efficient.

At OC6, Abrash shared some of the progress FRL has made on inventing the future in optics, including following up on varifocal and the Half Dome prototype, originally unveiled at F8 2018. That prototype headset was the result of several years of research and iterating on advanced display systems. Today, we pulled back the curtain on what's next.

Half Dome (left) combined mechanical varifocal displays with a wider field of view for improved visual immersion. FRL's new VR prototypes, Half Dome 2 (middle) and Half Dome 3 (right), are targeted at ergonomics and comfort, both visual and physical.
Half Dome: A More Immersive and Visually Comfortable Display

Half Dome was our first prototype to achieve two key milestones. First, using Fresnel lenses, it supports a 140° field of view. Second, by physically moving the screens based on eye tracking, it ensures that the image remains sharp, even when inspecting close objects. This was our first step toward more immersive and visually comfortable VR displays in the lab.

Today, we're sharing a new varifocal concept prototype, Half Dome 2, built by our Display Systems Research team, working closely with several other teams across FRL.

Half Dome 2: Towards a More Comfortable, Compact Display

While the original Half Dome prototype was a proof of concept that prioritized visual immersion, the Half Dome 2 prototype is targeted primarily at ergonomics and comfort, both visual and physical. It's both substantially smaller and lighter than the original Half Dome prototype, because it manages to fold the optical path into a very small volume.

Productivity demands not just visual comfort but also ergonomic comfort. The Half Dome 2 prototype folds the optical path into a small volume, reducing the size and weight of the headset by 200 grams.
Overall, we've been able to improve the form factor substantially and reduce weight by a full 200 grams over Half Dome 1. While the field of view for Half Dome 2 is narrower than its predecessor, it's still 20% wider than Oculus Quest.

Mechanical varifocal module of Half Dome 2 (left) and original Half Dome prototype (right).
The varifocal hardware has also been considerably improved. Let's take a look inside.

The mechanical varifocal system relies on voice coil actuators and flexure hinge arrays. These reduce friction, minimize noise, and maximize the lifetime of the headset's moving mechanical parts-all improvements on the original Half Dome prototype.

The electronic varifocal system of Half Dome 3 (left) is smaller in size than the mechanical system of the original Half Dome prototype (right), reducing overall headset dimensions even further.
Half Dome 3: More Compact with Electronic Varifocal

We also unveiled an electronic version in the Half Dome series of prototypes-one that replaces all of the moving mechanical parts with a new type of liquid crystal lens made from a thin, alternating stack of two flat optical elements: polarization-dependent lenses (PDLs) and switchable half-wave plates.

PDLs are special because their focal length changes based on their polarization state. By changing the voltage applied to the switchable plates, we can toggle between the two focal lengths. This could make for a great set of digital bifocals, but it doesn't necessarily make for comfortable VR. By stacking a series of PDLs and switchable half-wave plates on top of each other, we're able to achieve smooth varifocal that lets you comfortably and seamlessly adjust your focus in the headset.

Half Dome 3 replaces the moving mechanical parts of the original Half Dome prototype with liquid crystal lenses, eliminating noise, vibration, and mechanical complexity, and improving ergonomics.
Let's take a look at a prototype module to understand how this works. The image on the right was recorded through the electronic varifocal module shown above-this is a real camera shot of a dinosaur figure in front of a plant. The dinosaur is nearer to the camera. On the left, we indicate that a lens is "on" by highlighting it in orange; when it's off, its focus shifts to the far object (in this case, the plant).

As you can see, the liquid crystal lenses shift focus between different depths. To achieve smooth varifocal, we address the full stack of liquid crystal lenses, with each additional pair doubling the number of focal planes. In the example above, six liquid crystal lenses are driven to sweep through 64 focal planes, and you can see the focal depth smoothly changing at the right as we cycle through different sets of lens states.

In addition to having no moving parts, this approach allows for a significantly better form factor compared to its predecessors in the Half Dome series of prototype. When we integrate the electronic module into a complete prototype headset, it defines a new state of the art for VR ergonomics.

This is still very much research today, but here's our standard demo, viewed in an early Half Dome 3 prototype.

As you can see, without varifocal, the tape gets blurry up close, but the electronic approach is able to replicate the smooth varifocal experience of mechanical systems at all depths-a promising sign for the future.

This latest update to the Half Dome series of prototypes digitally switches between a large number of focal states-so many, in fact, that it appears continuous, just like the mechanical varifocal displays. For the first time, we've achieved a more ergonomic design with a significant reduction in weight. That opens the door to a future where we can be in VR for hours at a time, collaborating with others using any number of digital whiteboards spread throughout our ideal virtual workspace. While we're still developing the Half Dome series of prototypes at FRL, we're excited to see where our varifocal research takes us next.

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Half Dome Updates: FRL Explores More Comfortable, Compact VR Prototypes for Work

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It's been a little over a year since we first unveiled Half Dome-a VR headset prototype that combined mechanical varifocal displays with a wider field of view than the original Rift for improved visual immersion. Since then, an interdisciplinary team at Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) has continued pushing the limits of what's technologically feasible to move beyond an early "proof of concept."

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History of VR from Stereoscopic viewers to Virtual reality as we know it today. Used heavily in essay.

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Virtual reality has beginnings that preceded the time that the concept was coined and formalised. In this detailed history of virtual reality we look at how technology has evolved and how key pioneers have paved the path for virtual reality as we know it today.

Defining Virtual Reality

Before we can consider the virtual reality development timeline, we have to briefly consider that is that counts as "VR" or should be seen as a precursor to it. After all, the point of virtual reality is to trick someone's brain into believing something is real, even when it isn't.

For example, there's the famous example of an early cinematic screening. It showed a train heading straight at the camera. The people in attendance, having never seen film before, had a reaction to the footage as if it were really a train, than just a picture of one. While that story may be considered more of an urban legend in modern times, it underscores the problem of defining virtual reality neatly. It is entirely possible for film and television imagery to influence our sense of reality, at least to a point. Yet, we don't think of them and virtual reality as being one and the same.

There are plenty of definitions of VR today, which all more or less overlap in key areas. When we use the word "VR" now, it specifically refers to computer generated imagery and hardware specifically designed to bring those sights and sounds to us in a way that is totally immersive.

Many definitions also stipulate that VR must be interactive. This would differentiate it from things like 3D -movies, 360-degree video and other similar "look but don't touch" media. The problem with this is that plenty of computer generated VR isn't interactive at all, yet everyone considers it to be VR. While 360-degree video might not be computer generated, it's functionally no different to a pre-planned non-interactive CG VR experience.

In a historical context then, we have to broaden what is seen as VR or VR-adjacent. Some of the milestones discussed in this article are therefore also ancestors to other forms of media, such as film. The technologies are also branched into many different directions. In some cases,a milestone is more about the establishment of an idea, rather than the invention f a specific technology.

Early attempts at virtual reality

Panoramic paintings

If we focus more strictly on the scope of virtual reality as a means of creating the illusion that we are present somewhere we are not, then the earliest attempt at virtual reality is surely the 360-degree murals (or panoramic paintings) from the nineteenth century. These paintings were intended to fill the viewer's entire field of vision, making them feel present at some historical event or scene.

1838 - Stereoscopic photos & viewers

In 1838 Charles Wheatstone's research demonstrated that the brain processes the different two-dimensional images from each eye into a single object of three dimensions. Viewing two side by side stereoscopic images or photos through a stereoscope gave the user a sense of depth and immersion. The later development of the popular View-Master stereoscope (patented 1939), was used for "virtual tourism". The design principles of the Stereoscope is used today for the popular Google Cardboard and low budget VR head mounted displays for mobile phones.

1838 : The stereoscope (Charles Wheatstone)

1849 : The lenticular stereoscope (David Brewster)

1939 : The View-Master (William Gruber)

Over time mankind has been slowly but surely creating ever richer ways to stimulate our senses. Things really began to take off in the 20th century, with advent of electronics and computer technology.

1929 - Link Trainer The First Flight Simulator

In 1929 Edward Link created the "Link trainer" (patented 1931) probably the first example of a commercial flight simulator, which was entirely electromechanical. It was controlled by motors that linked to the rudder and steering column to modify the pitch and roll. A small motor-driven device mimicked turbulence and disturbances. Such was the need for safer ways to train pilots that the US military bought six of these devices for $3500. In 2015 money this was just shy of $50 000. During World War II over 10,000 "blue box" Link Trainers were used by over 500,000 pilots for initial training and improving their skills.

Left: Edward Link, Right: The Link Trainer

1930s - Science fiction story predicted VR

In the 1930s a story by science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum (Pygmalion's Spectacles) contains the idea of a pair of goggles that let the wearer experience a fictional world through holographics, smell, taste and touch. In hindsight the experience Weinbaum describes for those wearing the goggles are uncannily like the modern and emerging experience of virtual reality, making him a true visionary of the field.

Image source: sffaudio.com

1950s - Morton Heilig's Sensorama

In the mid 1950s cinematographer Morton Heilig developed the Sensorama (patented 1962) which was an arcade-style theatre cabinet that would stimulate all the senses, not just sight and sound. It featured stereo speakers, a stereoscopic 3D display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair. The Sensorama was intended to fully immerse the individual in the film. He also created six short films for his invention all of which he shot, produced and edited himself. The Sensorama films were titled, Motorcycle, Belly Dancer, Dune Buggy, helicopter, A date with Sabina and I'm a coca cola bottle!

Image source: mortonheilig.com

The video below is an interview with Morton about the Sensorama.

1960 - The first VR Head Mounted Display

Morton Heilig's next invention was the Telesphere Mask (patented 1960) and was the first example of a head-mounted display (HMD), albeit for the non-interactive film medium without any motion tracking. The headset provided stereoscopic 3D and wide vision with stereo sound.

1961 Headsight - First motion tracking HMD

In 1961, two Philco Corporation engineers (Comeau & Bryan) developed the first precursor to the HMD as we know it today - the Headsight. It incorporated a video screen for each eye and a magnetic motion tracking system, which was linked to a closed circuit camera. The Headsight was not actually developed for virtual reality applications (the term didn't exist then), but to allow for immersive remote viewing of dangerous situations by the military. Head movements would move a remote camera, allowing the user to naturally look around the environment. Headsight was the first step in the evolution of the VR head mounted display but it lacked the integration of computer and image generation.

1965 - The Ultimate display by Ivan Sutherland

Ivan Sutherland described the "Ultimate Display" concept that could simulate reality to the point where one could not tell the difference from actual reality. His concept included:

A virtual world viewed through a HMD and appeared realistic through augmented 3D sound and tactile feedback.

Computer hardware to create the virtual word and maintain it in real time.

The ability users to interact with objects in the virtual world in a realistic way

"The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked." - Ivan Sutherland
This paper would become a core blueprint for the concepts that encompass virtual reality today.

1966 - Furness' Flight Sim

An engineer for the military named Thomas Furness is credited with kick starting the development of modern flight simulator technology. Sometimes billed as "the grandfather of VR" his work in Human Interface Technology" continues to inform VR technology to this day.

1968 - Sword of Damocles

In 1968 Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull created the first VR / AR head mounted display (Sword of Damocles) that was connected to a computer and not a camera. It was a large and scary looking contraption that was too heavy for any user to comfortably wear and was suspended from the ceiling (hence its name). The user would also need to be strapped into the device. The computer generated graphics were very primitive wireframe rooms and objects.

1969 - Artificial Reality

In 1969 Myron Kruegere a virtual reality computer artist developed a series of experiences which he termed "artificial reality" in which he developed computer-generated environments that responded to the people in it. The projects named GLOWFLOW, METAPLAY, and PSYCHIC SPACE were progressions in his research which ultimately let to the development of VIDEOPLACE technology. This technology enabled people to communicate with each other in a responsive computer generated environment despite being miles apart.

1972 - GE Builds a Digital Flight Sim

General Electric produces a "computerized" flight simulator that sports three screens arranged in a 180-degree configuration. The screens surround the simulated training cockpit to give trainee pilots a feeling of true immersion.

1975 - Krueger's VIDEOPLACE

The VIDEOPLACE is widely regarded as the first interactive VR system. Using a mix of CG, light projection,cameras and screens it could measure user position. In modern terms it's more like an AR projection and didn't feature any sort of headset.

1977 - The MIT Movie Map

MIT creates the Aspec Movie Map. This system let people wander through a virtual experience of Aspen, Colorado. It was almost like an ancient precursor of Google Street View. They used video filmed from a moving car to create the impression of moving through the city. Once again, no HMD was part of this setup.

1979 - The McDonnel-Douglas HMD

The VITAL helmet is probably the first proper example of a VR HMD outside of the lab. Using a head tracker, pilots could look at primitive computer-generated imagery.

1982 - Sayre Gloves

Finger-tracking gloves for VR called "Sayre" gloves are invented by Daniel Sandin and Thomas DeFanti. The gloves were wired to a computer system and used optical sensors to detect finger movement. This was the precursor to the "data gloves" that would be an important part of early VR.

1985 - VPL Research is Founded

VR pioneers Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman found VPL Research. This is the first ever VR company to sell HMDs and gloves. The term "data glove", comes from their DataGlove product.

1986 - Furness Invents the Super Cockpit

Tom Furness, was the director of an Airforce project known as the "super cockpit". It was a simulator designed for training that featured CG graphics and real time interactivity for pilots. Interestingly, the Super Cockpit featured integration between movement tracking and aircraft control.

1987 - Virtual reality the name was born

Even after all of this development in virtual reality, there still wasn't an all-encompassing term to describe the field. This all changed in 1987 when Jaron Lanier, founder of the visual programming lab (VPL), coined (or according to some popularised) the term "virtual reality". The research area now had a name. Through his company VPL research Jaron developed a range of virtual reality gear including the Dataglove (along with Tom Zimmerman) and the EyePhone head mounted display. They were the first company to sell Virtual Reality goggles (EyePhone 1 $9400; EyePhone HRX $49,000) and gloves ($9000). A major development in the area of virtual reality haptics.

1989 - NASA Gets Into VR

NASA, with the help of a Crystal River Engineering, creates Project VIEW. A VR sim used to train astronauts. VIEW looks recognizable as a modern example of VR and features gloves for fine simulation of touch interaction. Interestingly, the technology in these gloves leads directly to the creation of the Nintendo Power Glove.

1991 - Virtuality Group Arcade Machines

We began to see virtual reality devices to which the public had access, although household ownership of cutting edge virtual reality was still far out of reach. The Virtuality Group launched a range of arcade games and machines. Players would wear a set of VR goggles and play on gaming machines with realtime (less than 50ms latency) immersive stereoscopic 3D visuals. Some units were also networked together for a multi-player gaming experience.

1991 - Medina's VR Mars Rover

These days we are pretty used to seeing live footage from Mars rovers. Back in 1991 this was still a future dream and there were many problems left to solve. A NASA engineer named Antonio Medina develops a VR system that lets you pilot a Mars rover, even taking the time delay into account. A system dubbed "Computer Simulated Teleoperation".

1992 - The Lawnmower Man

The Lawnmower Man movie introduced the concept of virtual reality to a wider audience. It was in part based on the founder of Virtual Reality Jaron Lanier and his early laboratory days. Jaron was played by Pierce Brosnan, a scientist who used virtual reality therapy on a mentally disabled patient. Real virtual reality equipment from VPL research labs was used in the film and the director Brett Leonard, admited to drawing inspiration from companies like VPL.

1993 - SEGA announce new VR glasses

Sega announced the Sega VR headset for the Sega Genesis console in 1993 at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1993. The wrap-around protoype glasses had head tracking, stereo sound and LCD screens in the visor. Sega fully intended to release the product at a price point of about $200 at the time, or about $322 in 2015 money. However, technical development difficulties meant that the device would forever remain in the prototype phase despite having developed 4 games for this product. This was a huge flop for Sega.

1994 - The Sega VR-1

On a roll with their VR devices, Sega also releases it's VR-1, an arcade motion simulator that moves in accordance to what's happening on-screen. This makes it like the AS-1, but the VR uses a head-mounted display, whereas the AS-1 made use of a regular projection screen.

1995 - Nintendo Virtual Boy

The Nintendo Virtual Boy (originally known as VR-32) was a 3D gaming console that was hyped to be the first ever portable console that could display true 3D graphics. It was first released in Japan and North America at a price of $180 but it was a commercial failure despite price drops. The reported reasons for this failure were a lack of colour in graphics (games were in red and black), there was a lack of software support and it was difficult to use the console in a comfortable position. The following year they discontinued its production and sale.

1997 - Landmark VR PTSD Treatment

Georgia Tech and Emory University collaborate to use VR for the treatment of PTSD in war veterans. This is still a crucial aspect of PTSD treatment and research today. Controlled exposure to traumatic triggers are crucial to treating the symptoms of PTSD. VR technology gave therapists unrivaled control over what the patients sees and experiences.

1999 - The Matrix

In 1999 the Wachowski siblings' film The Matrix hits theatres. The film features characters that are living in a fully simulated world, with many completely unaware that they do not live in the real world. Although some previous films had dabbled in depicting virtual reality, such as Tron in 1982 and Lawnmower Man in 1992, The Matrix has a major cultural impact and brought the topic of simulated reality into the mainstream.

2007 - Google Brings Us Street View

Google enhanced its Maps service with street-level 360-degree images, captured by special cars fitted with custom camera equipment. Immersive Media did the work using a dodecahedral camera of their own design. Today you can "stand" in just about any part of the world and look around thanks to this technology.

2010 - Street View Goes 3D and the Oculus is Prototyped

Just a few years later, Street View gets a 3D mode, but much bigger news in the history of VR is the work being done by a young man known as Palmer Lucky. He's created a kit VR headset that anyone can make, but a fateful meeting with computer legend John Carmack puts him on the path to taking his "Oculus Rift" bigger than he could have imagined.

2012 - The Oculus Kickstarter

Palmer Lucky launches a Kickstarter to fund the product and development of his prototype headset, the Rift. The campaign raises almost 2.5 million dollars and is a clear dividing line between the commercial failures of consumer VR in the past and the modern VR revolution.

2014 - Facebook Buys Oculus and Sony Announced their VR Project

Social media giant sees potential in the Oculus technology, buying the company and making Lucky incredibly wealthy. This is a bumper year, also seeing the launch of Google Cardboard, PSVR and the Samsung Gear VR. Virtual Reality is suddenly a very hot topic.

This is also the year that Sony announced that they are working on a VR add-on for the popular PS4 console. The PS4 is much less powerful than VR-capable computers of the day, so everyone is pretty curious to see how they'll pull it off.

2016-2017 - All Hell Breaks Loose

This is the year everyone unleashes VR products that are ready for primetime. The Rift and the HTC Vive lead the way, but the floodgates have truly opened. You can see the results of this boom by visiting our HMD database .

2018 - The Half-dome HMD is Announced

Oculus shows off a new HMD prototype known as the "half dome". This advanced headset uses varifocal lenses and an extremely wide field of view, at 140 degrees.

2018 - Standalone VR Rises, Mobile VR Dies

We now have both the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest. Two examples of standalone VR, that need no computer or phone to work. Mobile VR is declining rapidly and standalone systems such as the Go are very affordable.

2019 - VR is Shifting Rapidly

Mixed Reality systems and sophisticated technologies are now part of standalone VR headsets. The Oculus Quest receives a promise of tethering capability and smartphone-based VR projects begin shutting down.

The cost of VR headsets has dropped dramatically and computer hardware capable of running these headsets is virtually mainstream. Many advanced headsets are on the horizon. Varifocal technology, extremely wide fields of view, hand scanning and eye tracking are but a few of the key developments.

Major companies such as Apple are rumoured to be working on mixed reality projects and at this point it time it seems as if VR and mixed reality are likely to be inseparable in future.

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History Of Virtual Reality - Virtual Reality Society

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Virtual reality has beginnings that preceded the time that the concept was coined and formalised. In this detailed history of virtual reality we look at how technology has evolved and how key pioneers have paved the path for virtual reality as we know it today.

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History of VR. Not as in depth as previous but will use for supporting statements and research.

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Updated June 14, 2023 - Dom Barnard

In 1935 Stanley Weinbaum released Pygmalion's Spectacles - a science fiction story. The story's main character wears a pair of goggles which transports him to a fictional world which stimulates his senses aptly and features holographic recordings. Some consider it to be the origin of the virtual reality (VR) concept as this story was a good prediction of the aims and achievements of the future.

However the first VR technical developments were in the 1830s, so this is where our timeline starts:

1838

Sir Charles Wheatstone was the first to describe stereopsis in 1838 and was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1840 for his explanation of binocular vision, a research which led him to construct the stereoscope.

The research demonstrated that the brain combines two photographs (one eye viewing each) of the same object taken from different points to make the image appear to have a sense of depth and immersion (3-dimensional).

This technology enabled Wheatstone to create the earliest type of stereoscope. It used a pair of mirrors at 45 degree angles to the user's eyes, each reflecting a picture located off to the side.
The Wheatstone mirror stereoscope.
1935

In 1935 American science fiction writer Stanley Weinbaum presented a fictional model for VR in his short story Pygmalion's Spectacles. In the story, the main character meets a professor who invented a pair of goggles which enabled "a movie that gives one sight and sound [...] taste, smell, and touch. [...] You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply [...] the story is all about you, and you are in it."
Pygmalion's Spectacles short story.
1956

Cinematographer Morton Heilig created Sensorama, the first VR machine (patented in 1962). It was a large booth that could fit up to four people at a time. It combined multiple technologies to stimulate all of the senses: there was a combined full colour 3D video, audio, vibrations, smell and atmospheric effects, such as wind.

This was done using scent producers, a vibrating chair, stereo speakers and a stereoscopic 3D screen. Heilig thought that the Sensorama was the " cinema of the future" and he wanted to fully immerse people in their films. Six short films were developed for it.
The Sensorama VR machine.
1960

Heilig also patented the Telesphere Mask which was the first head-mounted display (HMD). This provided stereoscopic 3D images with wide vision and stereo sound. There was no motion tracking in the headset at this point.

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1961

Until Headsight was created by Comeau and Bryan, two Philco Corporation engineers. Headsight was the first motion tracking HMD. It had built-in video screens for each eye and a head-tracking system.

However, this wasn't used for virtual reality; it was developed for the military to allow them to remotely look at hazardous situations. A remote camera imitated the head movements so the user could look around the setting.

1965

Ivan Sutherland, a computer scientist, presented his vision of the Ultimate Display. The concept was of a virtual world viewed through an HMD which replicated reality so well that the user would not be able to differentiate from actual reality. This included the user being able to interact with objects. This concept featured computer hardware to form the virtual world and to keep it functioning in real-time. His paper is seen as the fundamental blueprint for VR.

"The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked."

1966

Thomas Furness, a military engineer, created the first flight simulator for the Air Force. This assisted in the progression of VR because the military subsequently provided a lot of funding for producing better flight simulators.

1968

Sutherland, with his student Bob Sproull, created the first virtual reality HMD, named The Sword of Damocles. This head-mount connected to a computer rather than a camera and was quite primitive as it could only show simple virtual wire-frame shapes.

These 3D models changed perspective when the user moved their head due to the tracking system. It was never developed beyond a lab project because it was too heavy for users to comfortably wear; they had to be strapped in because it was suspended from the ceiling.

1969

Myron Krueger, a computer artist, developed a succession of "artificial reality" experiences using computers and video systems. He created computer-generated environments that responded to the people in it. These projects led to VIDEOPLACE technology which is mentioned later.

1972

General Electric Corporation built a computerised flight simulator which featured a 180-degree field of vision by using three screens surrounding the cockpit.

1975

Krueger's VIDEOPLACE, the first interactive VR platform, was displayed at the Milwaukee Art Center. It used computer graphics, projectors, video cameras, video displays and position-sensing technology and it didn't use goggles or gloves. VIDEOPLACE consisted of dark rooms with large video screens to surround the user in "VR".

The users could see their computer-generated silhouettes imitating their own movements and actions - the users' movements were recorded on camera and transferred onto the silhouette. Also, users in different rooms could interact with other users' silhouettes in the same virtual world. This encouraged the idea that people could communicate within a virtual world even if they weren't physically close.

1977

Aspen Movie Map was created by MIT. This program enabled users to virtually wander through Aspen city in Colorado, like with Google Street View. There were three modes: summer, winter and polygons.

It was created using photographs from a car driving through the city. There were no HMDs but it was the use of first-person interactivity and it suggested that VR could transport people to other places.

1979

McDonnell-Douglas Corporation integrated VR into its HMD, the VITAL helmet, for military use. A head tracker in the HMD followed the pilot's eye movements to match computer-generated images.

1980

StereoGraphics company created stereo vision glasses.

1982

Sayre gloves were created by Sandin and Defanti. These gloves were the first wired gloves. They monitored hand movements by using light emitters and photocells in the gloves' fingers. So, when the user moved their fingers the amount of light hitting the photocell varied which then converted the finger movements into electrical signals. This may have been the beginning of gesture recognition.

Furness created a working model of a virtual flight simulator, for the military, called the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator (VCASS).

1985

Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman founded VPL Research, Inc. This company is known as the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves. They developed a range of VR equipment, such as, the DataGlove, EyePhone HMD and the Audio Sphere.
VPL Research developed a range of VR equipment.
1986

Furness developed a flight simulator between 1986-1989 known as the Super Cockpit. The training cockpit featured: computer-generated 3D maps, advanced infrared and radar imagery and the pilot could see and hear in real-time.

The helmet's tracking system and sensors allowed the pilot to control the aircraft using gestures, speech and eye movements. Read more about Thomas Furness.

1987

British Aerospace used the HMD similarly to Furness' Super Cockpit and developed the Virtual Cockpit which also featured speech recognition.

Jaron Lanier popularised the term "Virtual Reality" while at VPL Research. The VR and graphics-related patents were later bought by Sun Microsystems.

The company Dimension International created a software that could build 3D worlds in a PC.

1989

Scott Foster founded Crystal River Engineering Inc after receiving a contract from NASA to develop the audio element of the Virtual Environment Workstation Project ( VIEW) - a VR training simulator for astronauts. Through this company real-time binaural 3D audio processing was developed.

Mattel, Inc released the Power Glove, based on VPL's DataGlove. The Power Glove was a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it never took off as it was difficult to use.

1990

Jonathan Waldern exhibited Virtuality, a VR arcade machine, at the Computer Graphics 90 exhibition in London.

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1991

Antonio Medina, a NASA scientist, designed a VR system to drive the Mars robot rovers from Earth in supposed real-time despite signal delays between the planets. This system is called "Computer Simulated Teleoperation".

The Virtuality Group launched Virtuality. These were VR arcade machines where gamers could play in a 3D gaming world. This was the first mass-produced VR entertainment system.

A Virtuality pod featured VR headsets and real-time immersive stereoscopic 3D images. Some of the machines could be networked together for multi-player games. Eventually some of the very popular arcade games, like Pac-Man, had VR versions.

SEGA announced that they were working on the SEGA VR headset which would be available for the general public to purchase. This headset was meant to be used for arcade games and the Mega Drive console. It had a visor-like look due to the influence of popular films, such as, RoboCop. LCD displays were placed in the visor, as well as stereo headphones and sensors for tracking head movement.

However, it was never released even though four games were made for it. One of the explanations for the termination was SEGA's concern of people injuring themselves as the VR effect was too realistic. However, this seems unlikely due to the limited processing power.

1994

SEGA released SEGA VR-1, a motion simulator arcade machine.

VictorMaxx released a VR headset called CyberMaxx.

1995

Nintendo launched the Virtual Boy console which played 3D monochrome video games. It was the first portable console to display 3D graphics. But it was a commercial failure due to:

The lack of colour graphics

The lack of software support

It wasn't comfortable to use

One year later it was discontinued.

Affordable home VR headsets were released:

1. Virtual IO released the I-Glasses.

2. VFX1 Headgear was released by Forte.

1997

Georgia Tech and Emory University researchers used VR to create war zone scenarios for veterans receiving exposure therapy for PTSD. This was known-as Virtual Vietnam [link 1][link 2].

2001

SAS Cube was the first PC based cubic room. It led to Virtools VR Pack.

2007

Google introduced Street View.

Immersive Media was identified as the contractor that captured the imagery for four of the five cities initially mapped by Street View, using its patented dodecahedral camera array on a moving car.

2010

Google introduced a stereoscopic 3D mode for Street View.

Palmer Luckey, an 18-year-old entrepreneur, created the first prototype of the Oculus Rift headset. It featured a 90-degree field of vision, which had never been seen before, and relied on a computer's processing power to deliver the images. This new development boosted and refreshed interest in VR.

2012

Luckey launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift which raised $2.4 million.

2014

Facebook bought the Oculus VR company for $2 billion. This was a defining moment in VR's history because VR gained momentum rapidly after this.

Sony announced that they were working on Project Morpheus, a VR headset for the PlayStation 4 (PS4).

Google released the Cardboard - a low-cost and do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphones.

Samsung announced the Samsung Gear VR, a headset that uses a Samsung Galaxy smartphone as a viewer.

More people started exploring the possibilities of VR, including adding innovative accessories, for example Cratesmith, an independent developer, recreated a hoverboard scene from Back to the Future by pairing the Oculus Rift with a Wii's balance board.

2015

VR possibilities started becoming widely available to the general public, for example:

The Wall Street Journal launched a VR roller coaster that followed the ups and downs of the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The BBC created a 360-degree video where users view a Syrian migrant camp.

The Washington Post released a VR experience of the Oval Office at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

RYOT, a media company, exhibited Confinement, a short VR film about solitary confinement in US prisons.

Etc.

Gloveone was successful in its Kickstarter campaign. These gloves let users feel and interact with virtual objects.

2016

By 2016 hundreds of companies were developing VR products.

Most of the headsets had dynamic binaural audio.

Haptic interfaces were underdeveloped. Haptic interfaces are systems that allow humans to interact with a computer using their touch and movements - like the Gloveone gloves that were being developed. This meant that handsets were typically button-operated.

HTC released its HTC VIVE SteamVR headset. This was the first commercial release of a headset with sensor-based tracking which allowed users to move freely in a space.

2017

Many companies are developing their own VR headsets, including HTC, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft Sony, Samsung etc.

Sony may be developing a similar location tracking tech to HTC's VIVE for the PlayStation 4.

2018

At Facebook F8, Oculus demonstrated a new headset prototype, the Half Dome. This is a varifocal headset with a 140 degrees field of vision.

Virtual reality has significantly progressed and is now being used in a variety of ways, from providing immersive gaming experiences, to helping treat psychological disorders, to teaching new skills and even taking terminally ill people on virtual journeys. VR has many applications and with the rise in smartphone technology VR will be even more accessible.

2019

Forbes describes this as The Year Virtual Reality Gets Real. Oculus Quest, Facebook's standalone headset, created a lot of interest and momentum, selling out in many locations and generating $5 million worth of content sales.

The shift from tethered to standalone VR headsets represented a shift within the immersive ecosystem, as standalone headsets are much easier to use for the average consumer.

Road to VR reported that the monthly-connected VR headsets on Steam had surpassed 1 million for the first time.

Nintendo entered the VR market with the Labo: VR kit for Nintendo Switch on April 12.

In March, Beat Saber became the first application to sell over 1 million copies in under a year.

2020

The Oculus Quest 2 was unveiled on September 16, 2020, during the Facebook Connect 7 event.

The Quest 2 received mostly positive reviews as an incremental update to the Quest and continues to sell in the millions around the world.

2021

Pico launches the Pico Neo 3 headset, a competitor to the Oculus Quest 2 headset.

The Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, acquired Pico in a push to diversify its business.

Facebook (now Meta) plans to spend at least $10 billion this year on Facebook Reality Labs, its metaverse division tasked with creating AR and VR hardware, software, and content.

2023

Apple announced its entry into the VR market with the Apple Vision Pro, an upcoming mixed-reality headset announced on June 5, 2023, at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The headset will sell for $3,499.

Meta announced the Meta Quest 3 on June 1, 2023. The headset will sell for $499.

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History of VR - Timeline of Events and Tech Development

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A timeline of virtual reality, including important inventions and developments from 1956 to today. Images show how much technology has improved over time and how VR has evolved through recent history.

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8 milestones of VR. Covers different milestones not mentioned in current research 'Sega VR'.

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Until fairly recently, the dream of donning a headset and dropping into a virtual world belonged purely in the realms of science fiction, like Star Trek's Holodeck or The Lawnmower Man. Thanks to the work of companies like Oculus, HTC, and others, that's no longer the case. But virtual reality's history goes back a whole lot further than that - so without further ado, here are our picks for eight of the major landmarks in tech history that made the VR dream a virtual reality.

Sensorama (1957)

When you think about Hollywood movies in the 1950s, there's a good chance that one of the first things that come to mind are the gimmicks. Modern widescreen, 3D stereoscopic movies, and even the ill-fated Smell-O-Vision arrived over a 10-year stretch of time. Filmmaker Morton Heilig took things even further, however.

In 1957, he invented a large booth-like machine called the Sensorama, which was intended to combine multiple technologies to give one to four people the illusion of being in a fully 3D immersive world - complete with smell, stereo sound, vibrations, and even atmospheric effects like wind in the hair. A few years later, in 1960, he honed a version of this idea into a patent for the world's first head-mounted display, promising stereoscopic 3D images, wide vision, and true stereo sound.

Neither technology ever materialized in his lifetime, but they both helped lay the groundwork for the VR revolution to come.

The Sword of Damocles (1968)

The first actual VR head-mounted display (HMD) was created in 1968 by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland. Sutherland was one of the most important figures in the history of computer graphics, having developed the revolutionary " Sketchpad " software that paves the way for tools like Computer-Aided Design (CAD).

Sutherland's HMD was a project he described as "the ultimate display." It connected to a stereoscopic display from a computer program depicting simple virtual wireframe shapes, which changed perspective as the user moved his or her head. Because these are superimposed on top of a real background, this could also be seen as the birth of " augmented reality."

However, it never developed into more than a lab project - possibly because the device's weight required it to be suspended from the ceiling on a mechanical arm like a periscope. (Hence the "Sword of Damocles" name, a reference to the Roman myth about a sword which hangs above a person's head to teach them responsibility.)

The Super Cockpit (1970s-80s)

At around the same time that Ivan Sutherland was working on his "Sword of Damocles" project, a military engineer named Thomas Furness was busy developing an ambitious flight simulator project which eventually grows into something called the "Super Cockpit."

Furness continued working on the project through the 1980s, with the result being a training cockpit able to project computer-generated 3D maps, infrared and radar imagery, as well as avionics data into a real-time 3D space. According to Furness, the project costs into the "hundreds of millions." Way ahead of its time, the Super Cockpit allows a trainee pilot to control an aircraft using gestures, speech, and even eye movements.

The Aspen Movie Map (1978)

Developed by MIT in 1978, with a helping hand from DARPA, the Aspen Movie Map was basically a virtual reality take on Google Street View. Instead of the basic 3D graphics that could be created at the time, it used photographs taken from a car driving through Aspen, Colorado, giving the user an interactive first-person journey around the city.

Running it required several Laserdisc players, a computer, and a touch screen display. While there was no HMD component to the project, the Aspen Movie Map's innovative use of first-person interactivity nevertheless represented a smart examination of how VR could be used to transport people to other places.

Making a name for itself (19??)

In the 1970s, computer artist Myron Krueger coined the term "artificial reality," while most people consider the popularization of the term VR as we now know it to be due to computer scientist and artist Jaron Lanier in the 1980s.

Sega VR (1991)

One of the first companies to attempt to launch a VR headset was Sega, which planned Sega VR as an accessory for the Genesis. With development starting in 1991 and continuing for a couple years after, Sega VR was an attempt to squeeze more life out of the company's 16-bit games console. The visor-like look owes a lot to RoboCop and The Day The Earth Stood Still, with a sleek black plastic design that concealed LCD displays, stereo headphones, and internal "inertial sensors" for tracking head movement.

"Sega VR will create the impression that you are exploring an alternate reality," a press release stated. "As your eyes shift focus from one object to the next, the binocular parallax constantly changes to give you the impression of a three-dimensional world." Unfortunately it was never released - with one (somewhat amusing) explanation being that Sega worried the virtual effect was too realistic, and people would wind up hurting themselves while immersed.

Despite this, Sega VR makes our list for being one of the first attempts at a mainstream consumer-facing virtual reality headset.

Enter Oculus (2010)

In 2010, 18-year-old entrepreneur Palmer Luckey created the first prototype of the Oculus Rift. Boasting a 90-degree field of view that hadn't been seen previously in a consumer device, it raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter a couple years later, before the company was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.

Luckey's decision to sell the company before shipping any prototypes to Kickstarter backers stirred up controversy from early supporters.

Hitting the mainstream (2017)

Here in 2017, hundreds of companies are working on their own VR headsets. These include market leaders such as HTC (makers of the HTC Vive), but also Google (with its enormously popular Google Cardboard), Apple, Amazon, Sony, Samsung, and others.

With plenty of marketplace competition, the addition of various innovative controllers for allowing interaction with the virtual world, and a wide range of intriguing use-cases for the technology, it seems that virtual reality's time may finally have come at last.

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8 Major Milestones in the Brief History of Virtual Reality | Digital Trends

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Until fairly recently, the dream of donning a headset and dropping into a virtual world belonged purely in the realms of science fiction, like Star Trek's Holodeck or The Lawnmower Man. Thanks to the work of companies like Oculus, HTC, and others, that's no longer the case.

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Articule covering both the pros and cons of research. More of a focus on the games industry rather than the wider use of the tech as a whole

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The Fall and Rise of VR: The Struggle to Make Virtual Reality Get Real

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Virtual reality has been the next new thing for five years and counting. Clunky headsets, a dearth of content, and lack of consumer interest have caused VR to stall. Can this much-hyped technology finally catch on?

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Will use documented research to discuss this (VR & AR Research found within these sildes)

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Will use documented research to discuss this (VR & AR Research found within these sildes)

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Cover cloud gamig, mobile (5G, 6G), AI and VR. Potential to disscus more technologies but assignment is already at 2000 words

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History and Present use of VR v1 (Could be used for Criteria 3, 4)

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History and Present use of VR v1 (Could be used for Criteria 3, 4)

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This covers the commercial side of the tech. (Cover healthcare use. reduced costs, quicker recovery times etc) (travel & tourism - opportunities to visit/view locations and venues that could not have been accessed due to time or financial restraints)

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All relevant technolgies, rather than future technolgies (neruolink etc).
Link briefly touchs on each tech and how it is currently used. Good introducting to the topic

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11 Unbelievable Advances in Gaming Technology

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Video games have come a long way since they crossed into the mainstream in the 1980s.

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Looking at a small group of tech VR, AR, Cloud gaming and facial reconition. Relevant for my chosen topic (Immersion). Focuss on near future as opposed to distant future

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4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

The biggest game-changer in the way we consume anything these days has to be the technology considering it has a role to play in all the facets of our lives. From Hospitality to entertainment, it has had a wide reach. Particularly, the Gaming industry is at an advanced stage where the most casual of gamers have adapted to it making it one of the most consumed mass technologies. It has changed the way we create and consume games with the leading gaming markets USA, China & Japan being at the forefront of it.

According to Statista, at the beginning of 2018, there were 2.1 billion Mobile gamers in the world and 56per cent of this gaming population played 10 or more sessions a week. The number is only likely to rise by another half a billion in the next 3 years. To fulfil this demand, huge investments in newer technologies is being done.
Here's a look at some new and emerging technologies in gaming that are set to take over 2019: AR & VR - The Next Big Mass Bet
The trend of using technology to enhance games isn't going to slow down either if anything we're likely to see it become more prevalent as the time goes on. As we look forward to the future, we can already see tech like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality coming onto our screens. Last year, a company launched a mobile cricket game with Sachin Tendulkar, which had motion captured batting shots of the legend recorded in the same studio as the James Bond movies in London. But, for the world of AR, the whole Pokemon sensation had shown the potential technology plays in gaming, not just in terms of revenue but the global appeal and reach as well. The key is also taking a game that already has enough brand appeal that the technology becomes easy to accept.
Facial Recognition in Gaming
Technology has also contributed immensely to the way we interact socially, removing barriers of communication across the world. It also has a bigger role to play in making things much more intuitive inexperience. Facial recognition, a technology that has been primarily introduced as a feature on mobile phones are also bound to come into play more within our games in the next 2 years. From character creation to judging our emotions, this tech will be able to bridge the gap between the real world and the virtual world.

The list of companies working on these new technologies is endless. Intel with its RealSense 3D camera allows developers to scan 78 different points in a person's face. A dismayed face at the game screen would result in the system reducing the game's difficulty. Custom avatars can be created with FR technology. In China, Tencent uses facial recognition to figure out the user's age. Voice commands can be used to control gameplay, interact on social media play selections from media library or simply searching the web.

Story based games are also likely to see game worlds become much larger and more graphically advanced. This will greatly impact gaming as we know it. With so many great titles hitting our screens in the past few years, it is going to be interesting to see how developers will use this to their advantage while creating content.
Cloud Gaming - The Solution
Conventionally, huge investments in hardware were needed making it difficult for the masses to get a hold on Games. Cloud gaming solves this problem, Gamers need an internet connection and they can extract any game, any time they want from the cloud. Major active companies bringing cloud gaming services. Microsoft and Google have entered this forum with Project stream and Project xCloud as recently as October 2018.

With the rise in technology, gaming, entertainment all over the globe. The need for internet is higher than it ever was. The global average internet speed is 9.1Mbps. Many of the countries of South Asia, Latin America and Africa have only basic internet connectivity with speed less than 3 Mbps. As the advanced countries are saturated, this population is likely to drive the next phase of growth in the gaming industry.

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2019: New & Emerging Technologies in Gaming

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4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. The biggest game-changer in the way we consume anything these days has to be the technology considering it has a role to play in all the facets of our lives.

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Emerging Tech in other industries (Automobile)

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Emerging Tech in other industries (Automobile)

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How VR and AR is aiding the sale of cars. (NOTE Local company also uses the technolgy for the same purpose 'Zerolight')

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When Sandeep Kaul, a Delhi-based marketing professional, walked into a Kia BEAT 360 showroom in Gurugram, surprisingly, instead of keys, Kaul was handed over mixed-reality smartglasses.

The showroom's mixed-reality zone allows users to experience a variety of Kia products in a virtual world. Opened in October 2019, the BEAT 360 centre is the company's first digital store outside South Korea, and among the first in the new wave of digital car showrooms coming up across India.

Sharatchandra Aithal, field engineer, Unity Technologies, said while automobile companies have been using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in their production pipeline for a while, the use of these technologies to impress customers is finding favour among car companies.

Unity, known for its game development engine, has been offering its platform for creating AR and VR applications, much like the ones automakers use. "When it comes to marketing, having a catalogue of AR and VR is still very relevant as it assists in the presentation of cars. So, if a showroom has a car model in just one colour, by using AR they can show the same car in multiple colours," he added.

While getting behind the wheels for a test drive is an unmatchable experience, with increasing feature sets on modern vehicles, auto companies are turning to 3D visualization, augmented, mixed and virtual reality technologies to offer more insightful experiences to customers visiting their showrooms.

In October, UK-based MG Motor, too, opened its first digital showroom in Bengaluru. Unlike Kia, the showroom does not have cars on display. Instead, it has large interactive screens where customers can experience the MG Hector and all its features before taking a test drive. The screen shows a 3D view of the car, capturing its attributes from multiple angles. Buyers can see colour options, check out various security features, and learn about the car's AI-enabled iSmart technology. MG is also using augmented reality on an iPad to project a virtual three dimensional image of the car in the digital store.

"With the growing importance of omni-channel brand presence, we believe that such showrooms represent the next-generation network footprint in the automotive business," said Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India. "With increased costs of operating a conventional car showroom, including aspects such as space, rentals and infrastructure, the new business model helps unlock operational efficiencies and offers more convenience as customer preferences move towards digital."

Mahindra Electric, a subsidiary of Mahindra Group, is also offering a virtual reality-based driving experience at select dealerships. It puts buyers in a virtual world, simulating the interior of the company's connected electric car, the e2oPlus, in the drive mode. During the VR drive, users learn about the car's features and with the VR headset on, users can experience the interiors of the car. While Kia, Mahindra and MG are examples of mainstream automobile makers using future-facing technologies, luxury brands aren't far behind either. German carmaker Audi is using AR and VR to allow buyers to tweak the look and feel of its cars.

At its new showroom in Gurugram, opened in August, Audi India is offering a virtual view of its cars with an option to customise performance elements, exteriors and interiors. "A luxury car buyer is emotionally invested in the car he/she is buying. Customers today are looking to own cars that are smart and highly customised. They want to experience everything at the touch of their fingertips without having to visit the dealership," said Balbir Singh Dhillon, head, Audi India.

Rudratej Singh, president and CEO of BMW Group India, believes, VR and AR can simulate the numerous capabilities and features of products that would otherwise be difficult to simulate in a dealership environment. Customers enjoy it also because it is a new experience for them, at least for now. The change in experience isn't limited to the use of emerging technologies alone. Kia Motors is using Internet of Things to improve its after-sales service. It will notify customers on the Kia Link app if their cars are due for service and will let them book an appointment through the app. Its service centres will use radio frequency identification scanners to identify cars and process them without wasting time.

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Emerging tech helps reshape how vehicles are showcased

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When Sandeep Kaul, a Delhi-based marketing professional, walked into a Kia BEAT 360 showroom in Gurugram, surprisingly, instead of keys, Kaul was handed over mixed-reality smartglasses. The showroom's mixed-reality zone allows users to experience a variety of Kia products in a virtual world.

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Traditionally modeling would be developed using software on a PC (with mouse and Keyboard). Modelling is now being used in VR

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Digital Arts looks at the latest VR painting and modelling tools on the market, including the latest update to Gravity Sketch.
While interest in VR as a place for games and experiences has waned over the past year, there's still a lot of interest in it as a medium for creativity. Here we've brought together the best VR apps for artists - whether you want to paint and sculpt full artworks, or model 3D characters, vehicles and props for use in other applications.

Google paved the way with the launch of its much-hyped Tilt Brush for the HTC Vive headset in 2015. But beyond the novelty of painting into thin air, Facebook's Quill was created to propel illustration filmmaking. Oculus has tapped into character art with its VR 3D modelling experience, Medium, and even Mozilla is jumping in by creating a basic web-based painting tool. And Gravity Sketch has taken tools designed for carmakers and made them accessible to 3D artists.

We take a look at these VR painting and modelling tools a little further so you know exactly what's on offer right now. Although the tools alone are not expensive to purchase, buying a headset and controllers will set you back quite a bit if you don't already own them. As we're updating this feature throughout the year, please let us know of any VR painting tools that you are using.
VR painting & modelling tools on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
For more information on pricing and performance of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift headsets, check out the reviews below by our sister site Tech Advisor.

Gravity Sketch

Recently refreshed with update 1.5, Gravity Sketch started out as a VR sculpting tool for car and shoe designers - but its just as usable for VR sketching and modelling as there's a potential for grace and solidity to the models you create that's lacking from Google and Oculus' tools.

You can draw freehand in 3D space using smooth curves, then extrude surfaces into 3D space - or extrude as you draw around a central access. You can grab and move points to adjust splines. And you can use both controllers together to create a surface like pulling a ribbon through the air.

With Gravity Sketch 1.5, users can now make use of new features like taper mode, which allows you to draw any length of stroke and always have tapered ends. Other new tools to make use of include a group/ungroup option, depth of field + square snapshot, and an option to draw and edit with normals.
Learn more about Gravity Sketch including how ILM concept artist Jama Jurabaev is using it.
Gravity Sketch supports both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, and works on both Mac and PC.

Google Tilt Brush

There was a lot of hype around the release of Google's Tilt Brush app for the HTC Vive in 2015 (through Valve's Steam platform). Artists, painters, cartoonists, dancers and designers were commissioned by Google for their Artist in Residence program. It's worth checking out the impressive designs posted on their Virtual Arts Experiments blog. We ourselves asked illustrator Alex Moore to give it a go and see if it lived up to the hype.

We also discovered how the Tilt Brush could be used for than just painting - but for designing sets like we saw at The National Theatre's Immersive Storytelling Studio in London.

Tilt Brush allows professional artists or amateurs to paint in 3D space inside a VR world, using a variety of brushes (such as ink, smoke, snow and fire) to create artwork that you can interact with, walk around in, and share as room-scale VR masterpieces or animated GIFs.

The best part about Tilt Brush is that it works in both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets. It costs £14.99 on both Steam and Oculus Experiences.

Unbound Alpha

Unbound Alpha is very new to the VR artistic playing field, only being released in January 2018 and still considered 'early access software', which basically means it's in development.

Using Unbound, artists can create 3D sculptures alongside other users - so you can create artwork collaboratively. Unbound also says you can export your creations to OBJ files and to 3D printers. Keep an eye on the app as it develops.

See what you can create in the video below.
VR painting & modelling tools using HTC Vive
Buy Unbound Alpha for £23.79. It's primarily for HTC Vive but can be run on all systems that support SteamVR, so the Oculus Rift as well. You can even use Unbound without a headset.

Substance Painter

Most of you will already know Substance Painter, the reference texturing app for 3D animators and VFX studios. Now it can be used on the HTC Vive headset.
VR painting & modelling tools using Oculus Rift
It's still treated as software however, not an app, so it will cost you £118.99 to buy from SteamVR, but it may be worth it for a entire studio or agency who create 3D modeling all the time.

Facebook Quill

Facebook's virtual reality illustration tool, Quill, now supports animation capabilities including traditional frame-by-frame and an animation brush.

Quill was originally born out of Oculus Story Studio, created for the creative needs for writer and director Saschka Unseld and art director Wesley Allsbrook for their work on the illustration film, Dear Angelica. The film screen at the Sundance Film Festival as the first animated experience created entirely in VR.

But after Facebook announced it was shutting down its Oculus VR unit - Story Studio - in May last year, its now upgraded the remaining Quill drawing tool for clear and faster animation than what was achieved with Dear Angelica.

Quill is now a 3D animation tool, and is designed to support frame-by-frame redrawing, and support copy-and-re-pose animation, and an animation brush among other features.

See what you can create with the new tools.

Facebook's resident Oculus artist Goro Fujita created a new animated film, Beyond the Fence, in an impressive three weeks with the new tools.

As well as creating traditional frame-by-frame animation, users will be able to re-use and modify existing strokes as well as use the 'Anim Brush' which helps artists to create particle-effect like animation and sketched out animation rhythms. For example, fire and smoke can be animated in quite literally seconds.

Quill is free with Oculus Touch Activation, otherwise it'll cost you £22.99 from Oculus Experiences.

Quill offers the ability to work in watercolour, pencil, oil painting and comic format among others. Artists can experiment with brush shapes and brush strokes which are sensitive to fine pressure from the Touch controllers. Flip through layers to tell a story, and manipulate reference images and sound files. To export work, users can choose from high-res screenshots, 360 photos and animated GIFs or videos with 360 video support.

Quill is now offered as a Oculus Experience for £22.99.

Oculus Medium

Oculus Medium may be more appealing to character artists or those aspiring to be one.

The VR tool lets a single user sculpt, model, paint and create objects in a VR environment using the Oculus Touch controllers alongside the Oculus Rift.

Users can choose from hundreds of prefabricated stamps to help build complex structures, or export high-res mashes for 3D modelling and printing. Prefabricated stamps include anatomy, letters, numbers, primitive shapes and a variety of widgets. Oculus also hosts a community site where artists can save and share sculptures and their work.

Although creating models may seem daunting to those who've never done it before, let alone grasping the idea inside a VR platform, Oculus encourages anyone to try Medium. There are guidelines and a help forum available, and an in-depth tutorial on offer when first using Medium. Its latest update from 2018, Medium 2.0, will appeal to the more experienced, though, offering as it does core sculpting features like increased layer limit, grid snapping and multiple lights.

2.0 also introduces a new file management system, scene graph, and a major UI facelift that allows for faster and more intuitive navigation of Medium's tools, settings and options. What this essentially means is that artists can spend more time in creative flow, ideation, and production.
Web-based VR tools
The latest Medium iteration is available as an Oculus experience for £22.99. Potential users should note the new 2.0 update requires Windows 10 as part of the Rift's newly updated recommended and minimum specs.

Mozilla A-Painter

A-Painter isn't a VR app, but rather Mozilla's web-based interpretation of Tilt Brush. The Mozilla VR team(MozVR) explain on a blog post that A-Painter is an example of how artists can paint using VR online across platforms with no software installations. However, you will still need an HTC Vive headset and controllers, and a Windows operating system to use A-Painter to its full potential.

To use A-Painter, make sure you have a WebVR-enabled browser(with Google Chrome Canary enabled in) before visiting the website. If you don't have a HTC Vive headset, you can still view other artists' creations using a mouse and keyboard, or even your mobile.

Artists are limited to painting 3D illustrations with a choice of over 30 brushes. Paint on top of other people's drawings, or import images and OBJ models from your desktop to the browser. Artists can save and load local binary files of their illustrations.

The benefits of this web browser VR experience are the ability to create a custom brush(although this involves coding) and viewing 3D drawings without a headset.

A-Painter is a little nerdy, and perhaps more for those who have a basic understanding of coding, or who wish to play around with a simple VR painting tool without having to purchase an app. It's part of a range of web-based VR content by the Mozilla VR team available for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

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Gravity Sketch 1.5, Oculus Medium and other Incredible tools that let you paint, model and sculpt in VR

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Digital Arts looks at the latest VR painting and modelling tools on the market, including the latest update to Gravity Sketch. While interest in VR as a place for games and experiences has waned over the past year, there's still a lot of interest in it as a medium for creativity.

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Same as above, shows that the techolgy is used

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Blocks - Create 3D models in VR - Google VR

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We’re on a mission to bring amazing virtual reality experiences to the world.

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Google giving up on VR?

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Google has confirmed that they are ending sales for Daydream View headsets, following the revelation that the newly-announced Pixel 4 Smartphone will not support the VR platform.

While the Daydream app will continue to work for users on older devices, this marks the end of Google's VR experiment, a troubling sign for the future of consumer VR. In a released statement, a Google spokesperson addressed the disappointing sales of the Daydream: "[There hasn't] been the broad consumer or developer adoption we had hoped, and we've seen decreasing usage over time of the Daydream View headset."

The announcement does not come as an enormous surprise, as Google has been visibly moving away from VR for some time now: last year's Pixel 3a didn't support the platform either. Additionally, Hulu dropped support for Daydream last month, and Google closed their Spotlight Stories VR studio in March this year .

Google stated that they do not see mobile VR as being a long-term viable solution for the moment, citing "clear limitations constraining smartphone VR." Alongside the recent demise of the Samsung Gear, this comes as another blow to VR.

Google's initial announcement that they were entering the VR space proper back in 2016, following the buzz of created by its Project Cardboard, prompted a lot of excitement among supporters , who believed that Daydream, with wide support from phone manufacturers, was VR's best shot at mainstream success.

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Google ends sales for the Daydream View VR headset - MCV/Develop

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Google has confirmed that they are ending sales for Daydream View headsets, following the revelation that the newly-announced Pixel 4 Smartphone will not support the VR platform. While the Daydream app will continue to work for users on older devices, this marks the end of Google's VR experiment, a troubling sign for the future of consumer VR.

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VR Gloves

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Teslasuit - known for its full-body haptic feedback suit - is introducing a glove that can let users feel virtual textures and gather biometric data. The device is called simply the "Teslasuit Glove," and it will debut at CES in January, with the goal of shipping by the second half of 2020.

Like the Teslasuit, the Teslasuit Glove is meant for training, medical rehabilitation, and other professional applications. It combines several different technologies to simultaneously create the impression of touching and holding objects, capture the motion of users' hands, and record pulse and other biometric information. The gloves can also be paired with the suit over Wi-Fi to offer nearly full-body motion capture or haptic feedback for virtual reality.

Teslasuit is one of several haptics and motion control companies that launched during the mid-'10s VR boom, appealed initially to consumers, then shifted to business customers. It launched the suit on Kickstarter in 2016, but it canceled that campaign and officially announced its first product in 2018. It's since demonstrated potential applications in astronaut training, emergency evacuation drill practice, and other simulation scenarios. The creators aren't ruling out gaming and entertainment possibilities, but at around $5,000, the glove isn't a home headset accessory.

The Teslasuit Glove will compete with existing products from companies like Manus VR and HaptX. While it doesn't tout the hyper-fine feedback you can get from a device like HaptX's glove, Teslasuit is seemingly distinguishing itself with a breadth of features. The gloves include basic haptic and force feedback capabilities: an array of nine electrodes on each finger produce the sensation of touching a nonexistent surface, while a plastic exoskeleton creates resistance and vibration to simulate interacting with solid objects.

On top of that, the gloves capture the motion of a user's wrist and fingers. And they include a pulse oximeter that gathers information like the user's heart rate - which can help indirectly measure stress and other physical reactions to experiences. This whole spread of features is similar to that of the Teslasuit, which gathers biometric and motion data and simulates physical feeling with electrical stimulation. Sadly, while Teslasuit says CES attendees can check out the suit, they can't try the gloves yet - they're still going through testing.

Update 4:00PM ET: Updated Teslasuit's description of the testing phase.

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Teslasuit's new VR gloves let you feel virtual objects and track your pulse

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Teslasuit - known for its full-body haptic feedback suit - is introducing a glove that can let users feel virtual textures and gather biometric data. The device is called simply the "Teslasuit Glove," and it will debut at CES in January, with the goal of shipping by the second half of 2020.

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Virtual reality games are enjoying a boom at the moment. Many developers, both AAA and indie, are exploring the possibilities of this exciting medium. But by and large, their immersive 3D worlds are being built with the same 2D tools that were used to create video games for flat monitors, TVs, and touchscreens.

Will devs one day create 3D worlds within a 3D workspace? Some game companies are currently trying to make that a reality. At the forefront are Unity and Epic, who both offer VR authoring tools that work with their existing game engines. The Unreal Engine VR Editor and Unity EditorVR are both currently available for users of those engines.

Unity Labs principal designer Timoni West believes using virtual reality to create video games is the natural next step. It will be more intuitive and accurate. It's very difficult to describe 3D objects in 2D, she said, which is why developers rely on software like Blender or Maya. But with VR, devs can see 3D objects in their natural environment and manipulate them.

"Let's say I want to draw a Christmas scene in VR," West explained. "Right now, I have to set up the scene in Unity in 2D, use the grids to align things, constantly move the screen back and forth using the hot keys to pan, or other keys, to place things as precisely as the mouse and keyboard. And people get really good at this. They get really fast at it, but it takes years and years of practice and knowing how to translate what you're trying to do in two dimensions across three dimensions. But if you just put on the headset and go to VR, you can decorate your Christmas tree just like you would in real life, and that's a big advantage."

Lauren Ridge is a technical writer for Epic Games who works on the Unreal Engine's VR Editor. Over the past year, she's collaborated with the team to add new features and improve user experience. Like West, she believes that seeing and manipulating objects in 3D can give game developers an edge when crafting virtual reality experiences.

Epic's Lauren Ridge plays with the Unreal Engine VR Editor

"If you're making a VR experience or a VR game, sometimes it's hard to really feel if [objects] are right until you're actually in the position of the VR player," said Ridge. "So, maybe something is too close to you, maybe something's not quite the right height for your reach, and being actually immersed in that environment let's you tell that without having to iterate a lot between the desktop editor and playing the game in VR."

Another potential benefit of VR editors is that they can make a developer's work a little more fun. Although Ridge says her team isn't trying to "gamify" game-making, she believes people will enjoy seeing their game worlds build up around them. "It really shifts your perspective from just looking into a window at it," she said. "We have inertia on objects, so if you're moving, say, a ball around the world, you can throw it with a gizmo and it actually has a little bit of physics to it. And things like that really give it more of an immersive, engaging feeling while you're designing that way."

During the keynote address at Unite 2016 in Los Angeles, West took to the stage to show off how EditorVR works. (You can see it at the 1:48:00 point in this video.) Using Campo Santo's first-person adventure Firewatch as an example, she used a Vive headset and controllers to easily and fluidly place objects, such as a coffee mug and typewriter, into the scene and change their positions and rotations.

Fiddling around with Firewatch's level design in Unity's EditorVR

"We're just trying to put as much of the functionality that already exists in Unity directly into VR so you can just do it all in there, and you don't have to get out of your workflow or take off your headset," says West.

Meanwhile, Epic co-founder Tim Sweeney himself has demoed how his company's VR editor can be used in a video:

It's still early days for VR design tools. Virtual reality itself is a new field, after all, and Epic Games and Unity acknowledge that they don't have all the answers. Both Unreal Engine VR Editor and Unity EditorVR are open source, and are currently available on GitHub.

"We see people come up with cool solutions all the time, and we're a relatively small team, and our goal is to further people making amazing 3D content," says West. "So there's no reason for us to keep that closed source and lock people into a tool that may not suit their needs. We really want people to come up with better solutions than we have, because we think that they will be focused on areas that we can't focus on or we'll never get to, and then we can take what they learned and hopefully bring that back into the EditorVR core itself."

Creating video games in virtual reality does have its drawbacks. It requires a fast, cutting edge computer; West recommends a GTX 1080 graphics card, one of the best GPUs currently available. Ridge points out, however, that if you're creating a VR game, you likely have that kind of hardware already.

The physical movements required to manipulate objects in a virtual space are another potential obstacle. They're not as efficient or precise as a mouse and keyboard. It's difficult to type using motion controllers, and your gestures have to be broader.

"For that reason, we don't anticipate anyone's going to be coding in VR for quite some time," said West. "We need tracked keyboards. We need 3D models that are fully rigged, and also the resolution of even the best VR headsets is not that great right now, and it's actually very hard to read text in VR to this day, and will continue to be for quite some time."

The NumberPad feature in the Unreal Engine's VR Editor
West and Ridge both offer some advice for those who want to get more experience working with VR authoring tools.

"A lot of it's just looking at the level design tutorials, which we have a lot of on YouTube, but also on the documentation site," said Ridge. "Reading those tutorials, watching videos, tuning into the live streams, and just learning about game development in general will map really well, too."

"Try everything you can on every platform," West said. "Bug your friends with rigs. Cold-call people and ask if they can show you things. Pay attention to onboarding, button mappings, options, locomotion, sound design, selection types. Read up on ergonomics. Start thinking about why things are set up the way they are in the physical world. Are there natural constraints, like gravity, or are things genuinely easier to use than others, like keyboards vs. finger painting? Try to replicate the genuinely good, not just the physical standards."

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Virtual reality games are enjoying a boom at the moment. Many developers, both AAA and indie, are exploring the possibilities of this exciting medium. But by and large, their immersive 3D worlds are being built with the same 2D tools that were used to create video games for flat monitors, TVs, and touchscreens.