With (VR), you may experience a medical procedure, rehearse a sales pitch, travel the cosmos in a spacecraft, inspect a possible property before buying it, and create 3D art, all from the convenience of your own home.
Utilizing headgear and motion sensors, VR replicates various worlds and is employed in a variety of settings, from education to well-being.
The state of virtual reality today
In 2010, Palmer Luckey developed the first prototype of the VR headgear that would become the Oculus Rift, which is when modern VR first gained popularity. He started a crowdfunding effort on Kickstarter in 2012 and garnered $2.4 million, generating interest in VR.
Two years later, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, paid $2 billion to acquire the business.
Read up about the history of virtual reality.
Since then, a number of rival headgear have appeared, including the Pico Neo, Sony’s PlayStation VR, and the HTC Vive Focus.
In the meanwhile, Facebook and YouTube are producing 360-degree films, dozens of developers are building VR experiences, and filmmakers are investigating the possibilities for documentaries and animation.
What is Virtual Reality?
A three-dimensional, computer-generated world that can be examined and interacted with by a human is referred to as virtual reality. This individual enters this virtual world or is fully submerged in it, and while doing so, they have the ability to control items or carry out a sequence of acts that affect the surroundings.
4 main characteristics of Virtual Reality
- Credible: What you see and hear gives you the impression that you are in your virtual environment.
- Immersive: Just like in real life, when you turn your head, what you see also changes.
- Computer-generated: Complex 3D computer graphics are typically used to build VR environments that alter as we travel through them.
- Interactive: You may click buttons or open doors to interact with various items in the area.
VR Headset
The headset, which fits over your eyes like a pair of goggles, is the most crucial piece of VR hardware. It completely submerges you in the virtual world.
Mobile vs PC vs Standalone
Virtual reality headsets fall into one of three major categories: standalone, PC, or mobile, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Mobile VR Headsets
You insert your smartphone into a mobile headset, which is a shell with optics. Your smartphone is transformed into a VR device by the lenses, which divide the screen into two pictures for your eyes. Mobile headsets cost less than $100, and since the processing is handled entirely by your phone, there is no need to attach any cords to the headset.
However, since phones aren’t built for VR, they can’t provide the finest visual experiences and are weak when compared to VR that runs on a PC or gaming console. Furthermore, smartphone VR does not yet provide positional tracking. An environment may be viewed from a single point, but objects cannot be viewed from that point.
Examples:
In a daydream (not supported anymore)
Gear VR (not supported anymore)
Blend VR
Standalone headsets
Without using a phone, PC, or wires, enjoy high-quality VR anywhere you want. A standalone VR headset, sometimes known as an all-in-one VR headset, has everything you need to feel as though you are in another place. Like a phone or tablet, it is a single integrated piece of hardware.
Mobile devices are standalones. However, it is important to realise that not all wireless VR headsets function independently. While some systems employ wired packs that attach to clothes or tuck into pockets, others wirelessly broadcast information from neighbouring PCs or consoles.
Examples:
Pico Neo 3
Oculus Quest/Quest 2
Vive Focus 3
PC based VR headsets
At a premium cost, PC headsets offer a more immersive experience. The majority of these headsets are connected through wires to an external piece of hardware that supplies power to the headset.
Image and sound quality are greatly enhanced, as well as head tracking, by using a specialised display, internal motion sensors, and an external camera tracker.
In addition to the cumbersome wires, the cost is the trade-off. With the Rift and the Vive, you’ll need a strong PC to run them, whilst the PS VR requires a PlayStation 4 at the very least. The least cost tethered choices are presently around $400.
Examples include the
PlayStation VR
Vive Cosmos
Oculus Rift
HP Reverb.
Accessories for the VR headset
In addition to the headset, several more devices and accessories are entering the market.
Controllers
There are already several controllers available, especially for mobile virtual reality (as non-mobile VR now includes its own controllers). The STEM System and iMotion are two of these controllers. Before purchasing a gadget, check the developer support to see if it is compatible with your system.
Hand Tracking
Infrared and ultrasound are being used by businesses like Ultraleap to detect hand movement without the need to hold onto a controller.
Smell
In order to provide virtual reality a fourth sensation, smell devices are being created. Vaqso, a Tokyo-based company, has created an accessory for VR headsets that emits smells. The gadget, which is about the size and form of a candy bar, can hold up to three distinct smells and includes a fan that can adjust the intensity of the fragrance in response to what is happening on the screen.
Motion Sickness
VR motion sickness occurs when your brain receives conflicting information about how your body is moving in relation to the environment around you. This basically implies that in virtual reality, if you are stationary and the environment around you is moving, it throws off your brain’s homeostasis and makes you feel queasy.
Similar to other varieties of simulator sickness, nausea and dizziness are the most typical symptoms of motion sickness in virtual reality, but there are also additional signs including headaches, sweating, fatigue, eye strain, and a general loss of balance.
Types of Virtual Reality
The most typical VR experience is obtained by downloading a program or app from an app store. You may use a suitable VR headset to run it when the download is finished.
Web-based VR could be the way of the future for individuals who don’t want to wait for a (typically) large initial download. Although it’s still in the early stages of development, people can access VR using their browsers just like they would a webpage.
App Based
The majority of premium VR experiences demand a significant initial download. These can be gigabytes in size, and the download process takes some time. The experience is playable with a VR headset unique to that app once the software has been downloaded, generally via an app store like the Oculus Store or Google Play.
Web Based
Virtual reality is now more accessible on the web thanks to WebXR, making it simpler for everyone to develop, use, and share VR experiences. Whatever device you have, WebXR enables you to open a browser and enter VR by simply clicking a link.
JavaScript is used to create WebXR, which connects to the HTML5 Canvas element in current browsers to access the WebGL platform. WebGL gives browsers low-level access to your computer’s GPU so they can generate more complex visuals.
Pros and Cons
Virtual reality is a technology like any other, with both advantages and disadvantages. How many of us would prefer to have a complicated brain operation performed by a surgeon who has had VR training as opposed to someone who has only read books or looked over their colleagues’ shoulders? How many of us like to practice driving on a driving simulator before we really get behind the wheel?
Pros
- Reduce costs by substituting costly training with VR
- Compared to standard 2D displays, experiences are more immersive.
- Large firms including Facebook, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony are supporting virtual reality.
- Headset prices range from $10 to $700 to accommodate demands and budgets.
- User retention is increased via experiential learning.
Cons
- App store segmentation and headset segmentation (mobile vs. non-mobile)
- Games and experiences are exclusive, and headset makers bind creators to their environment.
- fewer but higher-quality experiences
- The acceptance of mainstream has been sluggish.
- After utilizing VR, some individuals become ill.
Future of VR
Over the past several years, technology has advanced quickly and will do so in the future. However, there isn’t a lot of material available because producing high quality VR content is difficult. This will alter when headset sales rise and the size of the consumer market expands, increasing the motivation for content producers to create captivating experiences.
As we get ready for a brand-new virtual world of entertainment, information, and communication, engineers, developers, game designers, and filmmakers will continue to explore the medium and its new creative potential, so we can anticipate seeing a lot more cutting-edge applications for the technology in the future.
