The New York Times ran an interesting story on Valve last weekend which included some tasty nuggets about the virtual reality headset Gabe Newell's company is working on. From what the reporter writes, the prototype is already working pretty well, and it could be in our hands fairly soon:
I have a crazy contraption strapped to my head: a boxy set of goggles that looks like a 22nd-century version of a View-Master. It immerses me in a virtual world... [Valve's Michael] Abrash said glasses capable of credible augmented-reality games could be three to five years away, though he said virtual reality glasses would arrive sooner. He said Valve hadn’t decided whether it would make glasses itself. But its ultimate goal is to share its designs freely so other hardware companies can make glasses, too.
Emphasis mine. Valve's efforts are important to consider alongside another VR project, the crowdfunded Oculus Rift, which also has a lot of promise. Unlike that one, however, Valve already has a distribution market (i.e. Steam) in place. And as New World Notes readers know, Second Life is coming to Steam soon, which increases the likelihood that we'll see Valve's virtual reality project merged to that virtual world soon, too.
That said, I still think the total market for VR headsets is relatively niche, maybe 10-20 million hardcore MMO/FPS gamers. But adding that technology capability to a world like Second Life would make it much more appealing to them, not to mention the mainly SLers who've been craving that feature for a long time too.
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Roleplayers will go NUTS, I think. (In a good way.)
Posted by: Janet | Monday, September 10, 2012 at 02:07 PM
"Halting State" by Charles Stross.
If you haven't noticed, Google is working on Augmented Reality goggles...
The market is potentially huge, and if it comes to a choice between a dedicated VR headset for a relatively small market, or a game which works with the Augmented Reality that everybody uses, I think the full VR might start to look a little bit too much like a dead end.
It's a bit like Microsoft and Flight Simulator. The program sold. It was in the physical game-shops, with all the add-ons. And then Microsoft pulled the plug.
Posted by: Dave Bell | Monday, September 10, 2012 at 11:50 PM
One of the charms of second life is that it doesn't take a whole lot to operate and its very conducive to multi-tasking. It may disappoint the newbies gawking at the virtual pole-dancers, but many people are doing other work, web-browsing, balncing their home budgets, and more while in SL and that wouldn't really go with a VR headset. That sort of thing seems more suited to a very fast-paced totally immersive typ[e of game where mouse response is just not fast enough. That said -- it looks like this is merely a good for Steam as they do not write game code, they just distribute the software.
Posted by: Ajax Manatiso | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 06:28 AM
Merely a goof I meant to say
Posted by: Ajax Manatiso | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 06:29 AM
It might be the case that the prototype IS the Oculus Rift; as Valve both backed and obtained one.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 10:10 AM
the highest end research years ago showed you get "sick" after wearing those type of goggles after a hr or so.
Posted by: Joker | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 12:32 PM
You'll find that "highest end research" was researched undertaken by sega and nintendo back in the mid-90s. And the only reason you get sick is because of the lacking full perception range that is offered by oculus rift, the eyes believed it was not real because your peripheral vision was of the real world.
Posted by: replytojoker | Sunday, October 07, 2012 at 05:03 PM