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What's Popular in Virtual Reality's 3-D World? Netflix and TV.
Companies such as Samsung and Facebook's Oculus promote their virtual-reality headsets by highlighting awe-inspiring 3-D experiences for gaming and virtual travel. But one of the most popular activities among early adopters of the technology is less novel: watching 2-D movies and TV.
"It's been a surprise on the VR circuit because much of the work is driven by people coming from the gaming world, who are fairly dogmatic about what VR means," says Anjney Midha, founder of the San Francisco venture capital fund KPCB Edge. Figuring out what people want to do with headsets is crucial if companies such as Facebook are to make the devices widely popular.
Midha says consumer interest in a new way to view 2-D content shouldn't be surprising given the popularity of watching movies and TV on mobile devices with small screens. A 2-D video viewed using a VR headset can fill your visual field as if you were watching on a giant home cinema screen, even if you're in fact in a cramped dorm room or the middle seat on a budget flight. Virtual-reality apps from Netflix and Hulu even surround their 2-D content with a virtual theater, room, or beach scene to enhance the experience. Flat content is less likely to make you uncomfortable or nauseous, as 3-D content can.
People use the headsets in 3D reality to enter a 3D virtual reality where they can experience a 2D representation of 3D reality.
VR Arrives at Tokyo Game Show, Counted On to Revive Industry
Virtual reality has arrived for real at the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world's biggest exhibitions for the latest in fun and games.
That's evident everywhere. Players at the booths are donning chunky headgear covering their eyes and ears, immersed in their own worlds, shooting imaginary monsters or dancing with virtual partners, at Makuhari Messe hall in the Tokyo suburb of Chiba.
The show, which gave a preview to reporters Thursday ahead of its opening to the public over the weekend, features 614 companies demonstrating more than 1,500 game software titles.
It's still anyone's guess how VR will play out as a business in years ahead. But most everyone agrees that's the way of the future. And Yasuo Takahashi, director at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game division of Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp., believes 2016 will mark VR's debut year, helping revive an industry that has languished with the advent of smart phones.
Is the video game industry in need of reviving?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday September 17 2016, @01:36PM
It isn't dead just yet, but it's getting close. How we can restore it is, firstly, to purge the Jews and the excessively politically correct historical revisionists from design studios and gaming journalism. Portraying Napoleon as a Black man or having a 90-pound woman beat a large man's ass without superpowers isn't inclusive or empowering, it's obviously gratuitous patronizing. Stop that shit already. Once that is done, political incorrectness and controversy should be injected wherever it would be a good fit -- the part of Modern Warfare II where you're forced to gun down innocents in the airport while being forced to walk (to prolong the scene among other reasons) is a good example. More novelty would be nice, sequels to good games are themselves often good but some diversity from the big 3 or 4 franchises would be nice. Then, Big Gaming should learn to live alongside the homebrew scene and learn to make money from it rather than be dragged into it kicking and screaming. A sub-option of that would be for Microsoft or other makers of interactive sensory devices to open their APIs.
Any more ideas?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:15PM
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:22PM
Now this idea I like. Job Simulator, like Bully, [wikipedia.org] ideally would allow the player to experience Dilbert-esque hyperbole and induce antisocial behavior into otherwise mundane situations -- for example, punching one's boss when he steps out of line.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:31PM
If the stars had aligned right, I could have gotten #403172. Oh well.
This journal [soylentnews.org] I posted a couple days ago probably has shades of that, and I believe that others have worked on similar (joke) concepts to the Job Simulator.
I get the feeling that these VR games are going to feel extremely limited. You'll feel like you are more engaged in the game world due to the novelty of the input and feedback systems, so it will be an even bigger let down when the Open World feels like a tiny cage with few options. That's where the strong AI could help (in designing huge worlds, and living in them).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday September 17 2016, @03:05PM
Mass-deception of man is never a good idea, because he's going to be plenty angry when it gets cut off.