What a crappy name, anyways, this new company has developed a what's that material? sphere and inside it you can walk in a virtual eviroment, taking virtual inmersion to a whole new level The Navy Newstand has a quick run-down of the VirtuSphere -- a nine-foot plastic ball that sits on wheels enabling unlimited rotation in any direction. It makes virtual reality feel a whole lot more real.The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is developing systems like VirtuSphere as part of a program called Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE). A user, wears a wireless head-mounted display (HMD) that displays landscape, and can update continuously as the service member moves, by detecting changes in orientation. Much of the work with VIRTE focuses on the needs of the Marine Corps. The ONR selected VirtuSphere for the VIRTE program last fall. The VirtuSphere allows the trainee to walk, run, and crawl in any direction, adding a further dimension of realism to virtual training. The ball can be disassembled, the entire kit fits in a car for transportation, and it weighs less than 500 pounds. Here are some videos of the thing in action Sooo, while it seems to be running a crappy HL1 mod, the cost reduction of this shpere could bring a new kind of gameplay in the future. PS: my grammar sucks.......
Bleh, these strange guys in Europe built one of these already. Not as flashy but it's really really expensive in terms of use for non-industry/government purposes.
Unfortunately, the latency of the video tracking is horrible. Most people who use the machine for more than a few minutes get dizzy, disoriented or flat out sick. I do like the idea, though I would like to see it switched from goggles to a set of camera projectors on the inside.
Think that this is government tech, so it sucks, becos as anything done for the army the quality is bad, and is overpriced to hell. I've seen some new tracking systems that are pretty fast compared to those old VR helmets from the 90s
The one I'm talking about, which name eludes me, was done in the same full rotating orb thing except surrounded by projectors and a crappier set of games.
This is neat for the fact that you walk around...but I think there's a natural awkwardness in the fact that you're in a sphere...you know...would be a pain. I'd imagine much tripping. I guess it's a step closer to realism... Can anybody think of anything better than a ball? I imagine a surface similar to a treadmill....but multidirectional...pearhaps something wrapped around ball bearings...i figure you could at least do inclines with that...then again...you could probably just tilt the ball.
Actually, people have tried the treadmill thing, but you can't get full 2D movement without some serious lagging when changing directions and the cover material doesn't like to be shaped around something like that. The best/cheapest way to do 2D movement is with the hamster ball, though I would like to see someone use a significantly bigger ball so that the walking area is flatter. I have wanted to test out something similar to a treadmill for applications like this. Basically, I want to take several thousand small ball bearings and put them on a surface uncovered. Instead of having them free spinning, make them stoppable with pistons, pads, etc. That way you could incline the surface, but keep the person stationary at the same time. You can still get accurate positioning and movement information from them, but the cost for this would be really high. Time to go look at grant applications...
The VS is already pretty big, if you make it bigger you'll need a bigger area to place it, and that's a problem in arcades and small houses. What if we took one of those old VR platforms, take the floor and replace it for a single, 4 feet soft ball, so when you step on it the surface wont be that much irregular. And there you go: 360 degrees of 2D mobility, and a small footprint.
