idea for Virtual Reality Gaming

[Comandante]

As a keen gamer I particularly enjoy games which concentrate a lot on environmental conditions of the surroundings, i.e., snow in winter, details of snowflakes or ice on the roofs etc, and of course scientific accuracy ... but after a while it all ends up inspiring me to "want more". PC games need to escalate to a new level of realism. A nice attempt has been made by Crytek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis) but even that is not enough. The majority of gaming is still on our computer screens and TV's. Virtual Reality is the future by all means. Even though it is still in its infancy I can't wait for it to advance for I'll be the first customer on any major VR Gaming event. I would pay A LOT of money for an opportunity to be placed into VR World set in World War II. As far as I'm informed the best they've come up with so far are "VR Goggles" and "VR Gloves" which to me sounds a bit absurd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality). It's a start nevertheless, an opening.

 

To get to the point though, I've asked myself what would I do about it if I had enough time and money to make a move. I came up with the following idea, and it involves only concepts that are theoretically viable in our present time - in other words - possible to develop.

 

My idea consists of 1- “player setup” – i.e., everything necessary for the player to engage in VR activities, and 2-“terrain setup” – i.e., everything necessary to create realistic VR environment.

 

As for 1, I would make an advance from the “VR Glove” to the VR Suit much like the one used in motion labs (example: http://www.deakin.edu.au/motionlab/index2.php ). It would be equipped with wireless sensors and other (to be determined) gadgets. A player would also need some kind of Goggles but something that looks A BIT more practical than what you can see on Wikipedia. Basically the majority of “player setup” will heavily rely on software and some hardware, while the “terrain setup” will heavily rely on hardware and a bit of software.

 

For the purpose of the explanation let me assume we are making World War II simulation for example, in a particular town. And this is the fun part, the ‘entire’ town would be built from cheap plastics in a hall or some other large space. Every piece of hard material in the hall would be connected to a 3D framework encircling the “terrain” (I would guess based on electromagnetics by having materials contain metals that can be detected by the magnetic field, or some kind of radar or other sensory device (like motion lab suit)), and by hard material I refer to the ground, elevated areas, walls, trees or vehicles and for example, weapons (speaking of which, for the purpose of it being more realistic, weapons would be built from heavier materials to the specifications). Now, every weapon, vehicle or any other “movable” object in that hall would have motion sensors (or metals for detection, whichever proves to be more accurate way of doing it) attached to the 3D framework and at any point of time the main computer would know exactly where each piece is positioned and how it is rotated on x,y,z axes. This information would be transmitted to each player’s VR Goggles. The computer would also know where each player is within the 3D framework. You can now see where I’m heading with this.

Once the entire town is built and computer has precise information of all physical objects, that data can be used and proceeded with much like the way they build computer games today – by attaching textures to each piece as necessary. The textures can be animations from real life or even environment such as that in the game Crysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis) since that’s where I’ve seen the nicest graphics to date. Basically the software will put the limits in much the same way it puts the limits in games today. The “end result” of interactions between 3D framework, physical objects and textures attached to those objects, will be sent to each player’s “VR Goggles”. The players will not be able to physically see anything apart from the stuff that gets into the goggles but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to navigate around the place because the real town that was built out of plastics and other cheap materials will be fully “coated” with textures and animations from real life and any elevation, tree, weapon, vehicle or other player will be visible to each player wearing goggles. (Keyword there is “navigate” – YES, the players would not be strapped into some kind of confined space, they would be fully mobile and “computer gaming” would no longer use chairs!) The players would be able to see each other using those goggles in their preferred uniform. To make that a bit more clear, you would be able to wear anything, not physically but in the actual animation, and you would be able to look down on yourself or in the mirror and see how particular suit suits you! Animated snow could also be possible, the temperature in the hall would be lowered to say 5°C and snow would be computer generated – visible through the goggles.

 

The weapons would probably be bit more expensive to make but they would look real in the animation and you would be able to use those to fire (they would also have high quality speakers each to produce the loud sound of fire and perhaps some kind of magnetic kick back to produce the impulse effect). The entire hall should also be equipped with many dispersed high quality speakers so that environmental sound can be produced, such as that of wind or rain, or thunder, or planes flying above! Or even the roar of tanks coming onto you which you can see in the animation! The players’ voice would be 100% realistic because you would be able to hear other players yelling in the same hall! You would be able to talk with your teammates, handshake or anything else. The trick would be bit harder with the bullet hits, I would suggest using small vibrating or other magnetic or some other movement artifacts on the suit so that when you get shot by someone’s bullet you could actually feel it (not realistic of course but just so you know you’ve been shot!) and see yourself bleeding in the animation. At this point, to everyone around you, you would probably appear as lying down on the ground dead but physically you would be pulled up by some kind of lift and taken out of the game, game over! Of course, you would need to drop your gun first so that others can use it!

 

The possibilities are practically almost endless, once the terrain is set, the suit and goggles along with the main computer are working, all that remains is for game developers to do the rest. I would be very excited to play a game like that so if it’s available anywhere post me a link! (Note: I did not find any info about anything similar whatsoever and I’m unaware of anything of a kind already existing, so if there is let me know!)

[JohnF]

This sounds like LaserQuest or Paintball with 3D goggles. Not sure I understand why you need the VR Suit though. Wouldn't the gloves and perhaps sensors on your boots be enough?

[Comandante]

Never heard of LaserQuest. Paintball is a nice try but it is much more expensive to play it and there is no possibility of transforming one kind of terrain into another. Furthermore the weapons are mostly unrealistic and the atmosphere cannot be recreated into whatever you want it to be. The bottom line is that in paintball everything is very limited.

 

Think of what I've described as a possibility to "enter" almost any 1st person computer game and play it in person. The suit is needed so that your position in space is exactly known because computer draws an image of you in real-time and sends that image to everyone else 'playing the game'. That way people can aim for you properly, whether you lay down, crouch, crawl, jump or lean behind obstacles. It is basically a real-video image of you inside the video game. Download and watch this video to see what I mean, it shows people dancing with motion lab suit and then real-time animation of them dancing: http://www.deakin.edu.au/motionlab/images/Motion-capture.mov

[JohnF]

http://www.laserquest.com/pages/about/LQ_About.html

 

or in the UK...

 

http://www.laserquest.co.uk/index.asp

[Comandante]

LaserQuest is interesting, I'd like to try it once. However the system I visualized is much more advanced than LaserQuest. I'm not saying it doesn't have limitations itself but if made into a prototype I would certainly be very very excited to see it.

[JohnF]

Apparently, LaserQuest is very exhausting. I've not tried it but my wife has. From the way she described it you tend to forget that it's just a game and it becomes a very real experience. I suppose this will be different from one person to another though.

 

Perhaps when you play a game like that it's the moment that counts rather than the scenery. You are about to go around a corner and you can hear someone; are they going to shoot you; your adrenalin levels are going up, fast.

 

The addition of scenery as you described might be better suited to a non-action game where exploration was the object rather than killing, etc.

 

I would think that the introduction of 3D goggles in something like LaserQuest would be a step in the direction you want though.

[JohnF]

I watched a TV programme, many years ago, about this guy that built two suits, one for man and one for a woman. These suits were designed to fit in such a way that a couple could have sex remotely from each other and it was supposed to feel right. You can imagine how specific male and female parts of the suits worked I'm sure.

 

But considering how the sex industry works I would expect they will be the first to introduce some interesting forms of virtual reality to the market.

[Comandante]

Apparently, LaserQuest is very exhausting. I've not tried it but my wife has. From the way she described it you tend to forget that it's just a game and it becomes a very real experience. I suppose this will be different from one person to another though.

 

Perhaps when you play a game like that it's the moment that counts rather than the scenery. You are about to go around a corner and you can hear someone; are they going to shoot you; your adrenalin levels are going up, fast.

 

The addition of scenery as you described might be better suited to a non-action game where exploration was the object rather than killing, etc.

 

For many computer or real-life games you tend to forget that it's just a game, but that's only because you're new to the experience or enjoy playing it very much. However after a while the experience changes with any game. By " a while" I mean at least 150-200hrs. I've played around 950hrs of Call of Duty last year online (program counted it) and although that may seem like a 'sick' amount of time to spend playing games to a non-gamer, it can't even be compared to a LOT of people who spend that much time playing World of Warcraft for example in only 3 months or so.

 

When you play a game that long you either get very tired if the game is bad or you just want something more out of it if the game is good. With Call of Duty, as I described, I'd be the first customer to play it in VR World because no Paintball or LaserQuest or anything else can recreate the environment and the era. True you can go to war for real but that can end up deadly, besides WW2 can't be compared to any wars of today.

 

As for adventure games, that's a good point too. It could be fun in VR World but it can simply be better if you go out venturing for real. Unless you want to create a game with monsters and such, which would also be pretty damn cool, probably more adrenaline-packed than WW2 simulation. It's just that I picked WW2 sim since it's my favorite genre and simulations on computer screens can't be fun all the time.

[Comandante]

I watched a TV programme, many years ago, about this guy that built two suits, one for man and one for a woman. These suits were designed to fit in such a way that a couple could have sex remotely from each other and it was supposed to feel right. You can imagine how specific male and female parts of the suits worked I'm sure.

 

But considering how the sex industry works I would expect they will be the first to introduce some interesting forms of virtual reality to the market.

 

Suits like that would need to be very advanced, probably far more advanced than the suit I described in my 'idea'. I've seen only internet-based handshake device based on that idea, where two people can handshake by having 2 robotic hands on each end. When you move your hand in the robotic glove it automatically moves the other one on the other end, hence handshake possible

[JohnF]

Suits like that would need to be very advanced, probably far more advanced than the suit I described in my 'idea'. I've seen only internet-based handshake device based on that idea, where two people can handshake by having 2 robotic hands on each end. When you move your hand in the robotic glove it automatically moves the other one on the other end, hence handshake possible

 

If you have a look around there are plenty of examples of equipment that fulfills the more specific needs of such a suit and from what I remember it was just these specific requirements that were catered for

 

All that he did then was interface the control of this equipment to a computer and software that managed the communication and synchronised the equipment.

 

I think what you're after is Neo's chair from The Matrix. You'll certainly need a feeding mechanism in your suit though from the amount of time you want to spend there.

[Klaynos]

I don't quite see why having a real plastic settup somewhere and using that to create the model would be any better than say walking around a real town with a laser measuring device and gps receiver to log the shapes of all the buildings etc.... I know that kind of thing has been done with old buildings in the UK...

 

Also I think to make this a feasible project more has to be said about the detection system for the metal objects....

[Comandante]

I don't quite see why having a real plastic settup somewhere and using that to create the model would be any better than say walking around a real town with a laser measuring device and gps receiver to log the shapes of all the buildings etc.... I know that kind of thing has been done with old buildings in the UK...

 

Also I think to make this a feasible project more has to be said about the detection system for the metal objects....

 

Plastic setup was just an example (anything cheap and easy to work with would do), but the reason to have something simple to work with is so that landscape can be shaped into many different forms rather than to have the entire setup moved from one old builidng to another (the reason being is that it would be easier to reshape the platform than to move the entire system from one location to another). Of course, using real grass or rock for example, or trees, would result in a much nicer and better virtual animation. (example: if you walk over a hill and you need to lay down, if it was plastic without grass on top of it you would feel the actual plastic and see the grassland instead (through the goggles)). But then again, if you used real rocks for the platform that could result in people getting hurt! Perhaps some real stuff could be used, like grass or trees, but rocks or big holes in the ground should be avoided!

 

Laser measuring devices can be used to get precise detail of landscape required to assemble and some other system to capture all the textures to a fine detail (for this even simple photography would do).

 

The detection system is probably patent-pending as I can't clearly devise anything in my head now, however I'm pretty sure that it can be worked out somehow. One way would be to use the same kind of sensors that are placed on motion lab suits and that way every object would have known position (rotation and elevation) within the 3D framework (the accuracy of which would depend on the number of sensors that are placed on the object). Other ways would be to use direct visual detection, which would probably be harder or perhaps even unfeasible... 'Metal objects' was also an example, there is no need to detect anything metallic if the motion sensors are operating fine, but since I'm not completely familiar how motion sensors work I can't say anything more about it apart from that it could work. If you see any other problems please feel free to point them out as I'd like to know.

 

I would really like to try and make this happen, at least on a small scale, for I'm pretty sure I'd be able to eventually work it out.

 

I guess the next thing for me would be to research the motion sensors.. and I will when I get time But seeing how nicely it works in motion labs I'm pretty sure it can be engineered to work for this VR system.

 

The best thing of all though is that you don't have to imagine anything when you play (unlike with the today's top-tech games like LaserQuest or Paintball where the only fun is in the actual chasing and fighting... ). What I want is to be able to "inject" myself into the action, think of it much like entering the game. What you used your mouse and keyboard for when you played 3D games on your PC has now been realized into the actual movement - you want to move forward - you simply walk forward!, you want to jump - you jump!, you wan't to fire a gun - you take a gun and fire! The difference between that and say, a game of paintball, is that here you will be able to see planes flying above, perhaps even dropping bombs, you will be able to see exposions happening few meters away from you with pieces of dirt or snow flying around and the sound from the speakers in the ground or on the walls, you'll be able to see different weather conditions, you'll be able to shoot at people and see them fall (not saying that's a nice thing to do but considering that you aren't hurting anyone for real it can be considered as fun) and so on...

 

I think that this system will eventually be made, some time in the next decade or so, perhaps sooner, but if it doesn't I'll do something about it

[devon]

there is this game called dot hack and in the game its suposed to be a virtual game inside like you use a visor to see but you use a controller to make atcions i guess and theres a mike to talk to plays

[khaled]

Interesting mister Comandante, I'd think that if you'd make something close to paintball, you need to design weapons, suits, and goggles

 

weapons are the tool to eliminate other players, suits are the way to identify other players, goggles are the way players see the battle field