Ready Player One & The Future of Virutal Reality?

[CW4 Adaraan]

Reading "Ready Player One" (novel,film) got me thinking about what gaming might look like in the next 10-30 years and digging into what's out there already. Surprisingly quite a bit!

Just trying to imagine the degree of realism playing some future 'Arma 7 VR' wearing a headset and bodysuit while strapped into an omnidirectional treadmill!... of course on servers, gaming rigs, and global network that can provide a glitch-free frame rate. Perhaps that's where distributed cloud platforms (eg. SpatialOS) come in.

It'll be somewhat concerning to me when this comes of age; but mostly only for the potential for escapism addiction. Still, I for one can't wait -- provided we can enjoy it without all that post-apocalyptic backdrop the novel/film sets up.

[CPT L. McCoy]

Two words:  "Black Mirror"

[SFC (Ret) Lyon]

One word: Holodeck

[MSgt Minatozaki]

I can't wait for the day the first sergeant can actually PT us to death.

[MSgt A. Stevens]

If you're near Orlando, Anaheim, or London, I highly recommend you check out The Void . It is hard to explain the immersion factor that I experienced while in this. Even if you're not a huge Star Wars fan (Not sure how this would be the case), the experience had here would be amazing.

It is a 100% sensory overload. The 3 other people you walk into this VR experience with, you see them, at their expected heights. That R2 unit you see in the corner? Yeah, you can reach out and touch it. You can play with that switch on the wall, or sit on that virtual/animated bench.

That was perhaps the strangest thing for me. I see these animated objects (in very high resolution, sure but animated still) and in my mind, I'm thinking, I can't interact with it. If I sit here, am I just going to fall through the image and land on my rump? But when you get past that hesitance and sit down for the first time, you are completely immersed in the virtual environment and it becomes so natural to move and play within it.

This was the closest I've ever seen to a holodeck. It was one of the BEST gaming experiences I've ever had and I highly recommend it to anyone.

[Rollins]

I'll definitely try out that "Void" next time I visit Orlando! Shit, I'd be happy at this point if I could get Fallout 4 VR to work properly with my Oculus Rift since apparently the developers hate us if we didn't buy a Vive instead. Even simple Xbox controller support would be welcome right now.

[CPT L. McCoy]

Damn The Void sounds pretty awesome.  They have some Ghostbusters VR thing here in NYC that I've been wanting to check out, but doesn't sound nearly as cool as that.

[WO1 (Ret) Muller]

Two words:  "Black Mirror"

  got me dying from 2000 miles away

But yeah, this is something I think about way too much. I for one think my life will be complete once we can upload our consciousness to a video game a la The Matrix. I also truly believe that we'll have something similar within the next 50 years. The exponential progression of technology and all that jazz.