GridStream Productions

Okay, so this is completely out of the blue... but I was just listening to an old episode of Talk Deviant which Tarryk mentioned a VR Headset.

That got me thinking... as a young man growing up in the early 90's, I was promised that by the year 2000 computer monitors would be a thing of the past, and we would interact with our computers through devices vaguely resembling the Nintendo Power Glove.

Well, it's 2005 and I'm still staring at a monitor (albeit two of them) and typing on a keyboard.

I want to come into work in the morning and strap on a VR headset, darn it!

What other promises of the past have not quite come true for you, my fellow Gridstreamers?

They exist, but mostly they're still experimental. VR causes sickness in a lot of people, because of the motion on the screen being so realistic and the body not actually feeling that movement.

It's actually very realistic now. Compared to what you see in games, at least. I know of a few guys who work in a Uni up in Denver that are experimenting with it. Basicly, they have a lab setup with sensors about a foot apart on the roof, walls, and floor, and they recognize movement and geometry. They put this helmet and glove on a person, then move them towards this square frame made up of 2x4's. In the VR world, it looks like a well, and when you look over the edge it looks like it's very realistic. The truth is, it's just carpet. The test is to make someone step over the edge and into the center of the well where the hole is supposed to exist.

VR technology is used sometimes in arcade games as well, but it's very expensive to run.

For the most part, the technology is out there and available, but very expensive. Even though you can use it, your computer system isn't built to really take advantage of it. Using 2d interfaces in 3d isn't really much of an improvement. It's kind of like how there was the AMD processor that was 64-bit compatible, but Microsoft didn't have an operating system built yet to support it. Linux more than likely has a solution to solve all of those woes, however.

I'm a huge anime junkie, especially .hack//sign, and .hack//legends, And that is what i'm seeing in the future. VRMMORPGS. That is going to be freaken nuts.

I am eagerly awaiting them...

NO NO NO nononononononononononononononononononononononono!!

No VRMMORPGS, because then, drama would be fricken rampant. I DON'T WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE FEEL OF EQ!!!

Goddamn, no, if they make anything, not VRMMORPGS... the though just makes me want to kill someone!

Personally I can't wait for something to finally hit the consumer market to put any 3d game into a full virtual reality.

They pulled it off with the 1st-gen consumer VR goggles back in the day of Quake 1, and it was pretty slick but definitely not VR (you were basically wearing a really small 640x480 monitor on your head).

Now they have shutter glasses that will turn a game "true" 3d, but their support is dying out because they're not patching for newer games (practically nothing works with them that was originally made any time after 2002). Thank god they work with AO, because that's like a graphics boost all it's own.

But I want the gloves and head-tracking goggles. I want to clear a 10'x10' space out of my room, stand in the center, and literally "jack in" to an online world.

The problem is that very few people want this. They either think it would be a sort-of cool thing that they'd never use, or that it's a stupid idea. Both of which make me throw my hands in the air and howl. VR is the name for god in eye of every true geek.

Well...here's a site that is still selling the 2d to 3d glasses and other snazzy gear. Seems they're still popular to some degree.

-> http://www.edimensional.com/index.php?c ... 06270a0937

Those would be the shades I'm talking about, Mae. I've been gushing about them for months.

http://forums.anarchyonline.com/showthread.php?t=358203

Unfortunately, their popularity is give-and-take. If you go to any 3d glasses forums, most of the top posts are like 2 years old, with a few recent stragglers like myself wandering in and going "so uh...no company supports these things anymore, eh?"

back in the '80's I was promised "hover cars" and stuff. We're supposed to be flying in our day to day comute now. Makes me think; we're a tad behind the times.

But I want the gloves and head-tracking goggles. I want to clear a 10'x10' space out of my room, stand in the center, and literally "jack in" to an online world.

That's exactly what I'm talking about!

We've got the technology, I want to damn goggles!

back in the '80's I was promised "hover cars" and stuff. Razz We're supposed to be flying in our day to day comute now. Makes me think; we're a tad behind the times.

Those exist. SkyCommunter cost a million or two USD tough I think.

But I want the gloves and head-tracking goggles. I want to clear a 10'x10' space out of my room, stand in the center, and literally "jack in" to an online world.

Possible today! But sadly the VR headgear (with visor to block out room/RL view) with head tracking, wireless cyber stick to control (or alternatively a glove) can all be baught. However as Tarryk mentioned, driver support suck,
even tough just about all new games is able to take advantage of it.
One reason may be price (the shutterglasses Tarryk like is prolly the cheapest/best solution right now).
the other reason may be that the headgear (I don't think shutterglasses when I say headgear, I think the whole package),
doesn't really have that good a resolution yet.
Buw with the new OLED and similar flatscreen tech around the corner,
price, weight and size may drop to a level that the average consumer can handle.

Please note! Besides the shutterglasses Tarryk mentioned,
few other VR equipment are truly "mass" produced,
the same way that keyboards or mice are.
So the gfx card akers just don't see a market in it "yet".
I be that in-house ATI has some pretty nifty VR drivers for research purposes.
NVIDIA has semi ok VR support with it's Stereo drivers, but still people arent' flocking for the tech.
(which may be why ATI stay clear for now, despite large lists of name lists people make and email in) (I'm on one somewhere too)

there are lots of vr techs in use.
just not in private use
teh automobile industrie and similiars are using awesome vr and ar technologies
including caves, optical/video see through non see throughs, various holobenches projection techs, all kind of tracking stuff. som erealy cool stuff.
the tech is there its just that there are not enoug products.
its that typical new tech curve, bigtime hype when it starts then large drop in interesst followed by a slow rising when applications and solutions come one by one. right now we are starting to get out of that valley.