Can Virtual Reality Really Work With a Fully-Embodied Avatar? (Hint: Probably Not)

A recent post in Gamasutra, "Letting go of the avatar" got me thinking about my experiences at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference from last month, which left me in an excited but decidedly ambivalent state:

When the player moves, she expects an immediate and precise feedback to that movement, a subconscious association created out of many years of continuous experience in the real world. If our game fails to deliver on that, it will break the illusion of presence, the feeling that the body and avatar are one and the same, and might even cause physical discomfort in some of our players. I'd argue that, as designers, we need to learn to let go of the player's avatar. In VR, avatars act more as visitors in our virtual world than as part of it, and we should consider them as interfaces with the player's body. As technology improves, these interfaces will need to become thinner and thinner.

This sounds right to my own experiences in VR -- using the Oculus Rift headgear is pretty immersive, but when I try to also use hand controllers or a body suit, that sense of immersion starts breaking down. (What's the point of a hand controller, for instance, if you can't also control your fingers?) Simulating sight is difficult enough, and we're only getting close to success there -- simulating our limbic system and how it interacts with the rest of our physical body is probably going to be as difficult, if not more so, and we're just getting started. (And that's not even talking about the economic feasibility of mass marketing full-body periperhals in the first place, let alone the physical feasability of waving one's arms and legs around for extended periods of time.)

This realization leads me to a fairly confident conclusion:

For virtual reality to go mass market, we need to abandon the goal of a fully-embodied avatar. There will be a niche market for Iron Man-style VR suits like the one I tried at SVVR (above), but these peripherals seem to be based around a categorical mistake, assuming that since we can simulate sight, we must also now simulate all our other senses. In contrast, the most compelling applications of VR so far seem to be based on a context where the body is believably confined: For instance, clamped down in a roller coaster seat, or in the cockpit of a dogfighter. For the short term, this is probably the best frame of reference VR developers should be using: Not a virtual reality where we interact as fully embodied avatars, but as an "avatar" which can only explore virtual reality as disembodied eyes.

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Comments

[Iggy]

"the most compelling applications of VR so far seem to be based on a context where the body is believably confined"

I agree. In 1981 or 82, I had the uber-cool experience of standing on the wing of an A-10 Warthog simulator at Langley AFB, as a pilot flew passes against a pilot in the simulator next door. Both rigs resembled planetarium domes with a partial aircraft and full cockpit. Cost? I'm guessing tens of millions each in 1980s dollars.

I nearly fell off the wing when the other virtual plane buzzed us. Luckily they had not enabled sound or the weapons suite (that bit was classified) or I'd have suffered cardiac arrest. It was completely immersive in a way no game has ever been for me.

It was really cool and I thought "yeah, in 20 years we'll have this sort of simulator in the den."

This aircraft fanatic is still waiting.

[Carlos Loff]

People will always like to be exploring and chating wile zipping a cup of coffee on their pijamas at home and being able to reach for something at the Kitchen or take a phone call - Immersive suits fascinate me but not to be the main long hours way to be inworlds

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Full sensory immersion is a tall order. We don't yet fully understand many of the senses we're trying to interface with, so many of the efforts are crude at best.

Assuming humananity doesn't drive itself extinct, I expect we'll eventually achieve it, but not in my lifetime (of course, my remaining lifespan is not a vast expanse of time).

[Ciaran Laval]

How long has it been since people have been reluctant to wear coloured eye glasses to view 3D? These peripherals face a massive challenge in terms of widespread adoption.

[Jaqua]

I'm of the opinion that the avatar in the full Sanskrit meaning of the word is the embodiment of another form by consciousness, so why couldn't we be one with our digital identity, instead of controlling the character on the screen, you are the character living the adventures.