A software company called Trinus VR has developed a platform that allows you to enjoy pretty much any game with android operated VR headsets, including the very cheap cardboard ones you can make yourself.
And by bringing the costs down dramatically, it could bring VR to a lot more people.
Simply connect a PC with an android device, slide the latter into one of those headsets and you’re ready to go.
The experience will probably not be as good as with the Vive for instance, but for a fraction of the price, you will be at least able to experiment VR from within your games and… virtual worlds!
And this is where it gets interesting for us.
The technology isn’t that new, Trinus VR has been around for about a year, but now someone has tried it with Second Life!
Of course the experience will probably not be as good as with the fancy pansy whoop dee doc headsets but it will allow you to go into Second Life with VR support without having to wait for the next LL viewer or buy an expensive Oculus or Vive or one of the other headsets.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Sadly, I don’t have a mobile phone, so I can’t try it out.
Unfortunately there are no plans (yet) for Mac Support.
Even though I am generally promoting a VR experience that involves fewer wearables and not more, here is one gadget I might be tempted into wearing.
The Teslasuit allows you to undergo a wide array of sensations while exploring or gaming (or whatever else) in Virtual Reality.
From the expected bullet hits and punches, it also promises to let you experience wind, water, heat, cold and even something as subtle as a hug or stroke.
Yes, they really do promise that during your next visit to a VR beach, you’ll feel the water at your feet and the wind on your body.
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Incorporated within the suit is a mesh of sensors that pick up and translate actions in VR into electric impulses that you’ll experience as pressure.
It is called neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and is generally used for exercise, physical therapy, etc.
You’ve probably seen it done with little patches stuck to the skin.
It comes close to the Haptic Suit we know from the bestseller book ‘Ready player one‘, soon to be made into a Spielberg movie.
Just like with most VR related gadgets and VR itself, it is hard to imagine or understand how well it works and how much an impact it makes until you’ve actually tried it.
So checking out some of the videos that show people wearing and testing the suit is what got me excited.
Have a look at some of them by clicking here.
It is still early days and like many other gadgets being developed for VR these days we know that it is only the beginning and things will continue to get better, cheaper, lighter, etc.
I can imagine a not too distant future where VR haptic suits become even lighter and thinner, much cheaper and will cover your entire body, including your face and hands.
And that they can also be used to send signals to VR, not just receive them and when you close your hand, your avatar will close her hand.
I think that giving us gloves that allow us to actually feel what our avatars are touching or holding, or at least create some sort of sensation when you push a button or open a door, will change a lot of things.
I think the Teslasuit guys are working on those as well, and perhaps next a haptic balaclava so you’ll feel it when I slap you in the face for telling a dirty joke in my virtual bar in 1920s Berlin in Second Life.
When we have the ultimate suit that does everything, we will no longer need to place sensors in our rooms or wave controllers about the place.
And maybe they’ll add heat and cold pads that will be able to actually make you feel colder or warmer.
Maybe one day we can get rid of all our gadgets and wearables and just wear the suit and the headset to do everything.
One suit to rule them all.
The benefits of these suits are obvious; VR experiences become more real, more complete.
In games you actually feel a hit when someone shoots you, when you go sailing you feel the wind and the water, when you are with someone you care about you feel their hand shake, their hug or their hand on your shoulder.
And yes, I am avoiding the obvious, I’m too much of an old fashioned prude to discuss VR hanky panky with you lot.
I’ll leave that to your dirty, dirty imagination 😉
The Kickstarter went live yesterday and they hope it will get developers on board who will start creating experiences for their suit.
Their goal is £250,000 and as I write this the total stands at £7,649 £9,758.
Check out their video below and the Kickstarter page by clicking here.
Personally I am very excited about this development, not specifically this suit, because right now I couldn’t even afford one and I think that this technology still has some way to go, but it is more the potential that I love, I can see what this will be used for in the future.
It is the possibilities that are most exciting.
All pictures copyright Tesla Studios & Kickstarter.
The well known (and excellent) website ‘Road to VR’ has just published a story about a video made by Federico Heller of production team 3dar that is rather interesting.
It is about the future where VR junkies are addicted to VR and their dependence on it is abused by a third party.
Go ahead and watch it here, spoilers follow below the video.
Spoiler alert.
I rather enjoyed the video, as someone who spend 4 years in film school and a few years making film & TV, I was impressed with how well it was made.
I can enjoy a film simply based on technicalities.
At first I felt a bit defensive, because I consider myself to be VR junkie already, or, like many people, at least a computer & TV addict.
How many people spend almost every available free moment behind a screen?
Yet my house looks pretty decent!
And I still have a social life.
So seeing people obsessed with VR being shown as social outcasts who live in squalor and filth, made me grumble.
But that is of course not quite the subject of the film.
This story is about the state (I assume) abusing those who spend lots of time in VR as entertainment to fight their (very) dirty war.
Connecting their avatar to an actual robot warrior somewhere across the world.
I find this a very realistic scenario and would not be surprised if in the future this is something that actually will happen.
After all nobody wants to risk the lives of their own soldiers and what we do with drones today will one day be possible with robots.
Putting metal boots on the ground.
However, I fear that the state will not have to fool VR junkies into doing this.
Maybe I am too cynical and have too little faith in mankind, but I reckon that they can just recruit gamers.
If a country would offer its civilians the ultimate VR experience, a very exciting combat game that also could be considered as patriotism, doing your bit for freedom and democracy and that could involve a salary or possibly prizes and awards… people would come running.
No need to fool them, no need to mask the reality.
Countless people would enjoy playing this ‘game’ of war even if they knew the people they were shooting were real, as long as they don’t get hurt themselves.
And perhaps most shocking of all, would be that most of these soldiers would be kids.
A battle half way across the world could end abruptly as half the soldiers of one side have to go to bed as it is a ‘school night’.
Anyway, enough dark thoughts.
An interesting video.
And what do you think about the VR device?
A little nose ring…
The website Road to VR is one of the most active and up to date websites on the subject of Virtual Reality.
Today they published a short article on Sansar and in it Ebbe said a few interesting things.
Such as;
We’ll do a lot of things to help users understand how to create performant content. There’s a lot of work yet to do, but we have plans for things like automatic optimization of content, polygon reduction of content that preserves quality at the same time, including showing users that create content some sort of visual indication of how performant their content is going to be across various platforms… I’ve already see stuff in Sansar that I know you’d never see in SL.
I like the sound of this.
Giving users the tools to build whatever they can imagine is crucial for Sansar to succeed and be something more than all those other VR worlds that are and will be popping up.
One of the problems with SL is that we have those tools and can build whatever we want but as many of us aren’t that experienced, this sometimes results in corners of our world that don’t look very good or take a long time to load.
So the golden formula for Sansar will be easy creation tools + automatic optimisation = great VR.
Please read the entire article on the Road to VR website by clicking here.
An interesting kickstarter is offering us a glimpse into the future.
By attaching a device to your VR headset you’ll be able to experience heat, cold, wetness, vibration and even smells while exploring virtual worlds or playing a game.
Right now this is of course all still in a rather early phase and while everyone is trying to make VR work with fewer wearable tech, they are adding to it.
I doubt many of us will want to wear more stuff or even that helmet they show at the end.
But… the idea of walking trough 1920s Berlin and smelling the coal fires, ‘feel’ the rain, experience vibration while driving the tram, being cold while rushing trough dark streets to get to that basement bar where I’ll feel the heat and experience the cigarette smoke, the smell of sweat and lukewarm beer of this busy place while having a schnaps is one I’d love.
Kickstarters come and go, especially VR related ones are a dime a dozen.
Many amount to nothing and are just plain silly.
This one may also never make it big, it may be a bit ahead of its time, but it is interesting because it does show us what is already possible now and what will undoubtedly become mainstream one day in one way or another.
As soon as advertisers realise that one day they will be able to send you the smell of their newest Pizza while you’re watching a film, they’ll be pumping money into development.
Games,movies, virtual worlds… the journey has only just begun.
The news has finally come; Oculus will start shipping its consumer version of their VR Headset ‘The Rift’ in the first quarter of 2016.
I’ve written before about how I think VR is going to change the world as one day VR devices will become as common as Radios and television sets once were.
We’re already being flooded with VR games, software and technology, VR movies and TV are following rapidly and a few ‘virtual worlds’ are being developed.
Not to mention the other headsets that have already popping up all over the place
We are at the dawn of a VR renaissance and with a bit of luck, we’ll be the trailblazers.
Second Life is in a rather good position to take advantage of the situation.
Because no matter what people think of our virtual world, it is still the oldest, most experienced one out there, has its own stable economy, more content than anyone and is working on a brand new up to date version.
If Linden Lab manages to get their Next Generation Virtual World ready before or shortly after the release of the Rift, it could bring in a LOT of new users and start a second ‘Golden Age’ for Second Life.
So, exciting times ahead, one way or another.
VR is here to stay this time.
There is no word on the tech details or how much the Rift is going to cost but I’m sure that will all come soon.
Personally I can’t wait to buy one, I hope I can afford it.
Jo Yardley's Second Life 