Virtual reality idea - is this possible?

C

coolplace

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Summary:
Player views computer game with glasses/headset that are connected to computer
Player controls movement (forward, backward, left, right, diagonal in the 4 above directions, strafe left and right, crouching, walking) by moving his body
Player controls direction by turning his body and moving controller around, up down etc.
Player controls shooting and other actions with buttons on the controller

What I'm imagining is a person playing Counter-Strike.

The player would be using a gun-shaped controller to shoot and to also to control direction (360 around him, and also up and down). To make the in-game character turn, the player would just turn his body to move the gun in that direction. The turning wouldn't be controlled by head movement. To make the player shoot or stab a knife or throw a grenade, then the player would just hit the trigger on the controller. Another button could be put on the controller to control reloading, or maybe it could be done with detected hand motions.

To make the in-game character move in a particular direction the player would first have to take one step in that direction and then if he wants to keep going in that direction then he would start running/walking on the spot. You could hopefully do this in a small area and wouldn't have to worry about running into furniture etc.

Is there any hardware out there that can detect the following movements of a player standing in front of it:
* forward
* backward
* left
* right
* diagonal (in the 4 above directions)
* strafe left and right
* crouching
* all the above movements in a slower speed. the default speed for most FPS games is running, but the player would need to be able to walk slowly too
* jumping

I know the Kinect can detect motion but can it detect all those things?

To view the game the player wouldn't be looking at a projected image on the wall or his computer screen, but would wear a head-mounted display or glasses like the Vuzix glasses.
 
VR sounded cool before we realized that it's way more fun to be lazy while play video games than it is to do work while playing video games.

It could be fun for a simulation every now and then, but not as an every day thing. Most people play video games to relax and take a break; it would be pretty impossible to do that with VR.
 
the Wii isn't for people who want to game, but who want to have fun exercising. :p
 
you know a mouse is going to be a hell of a lot faster than these hand gestures.....
 
i still think VR helmet is possible.

imagine screen res of about 1080p but, only a few inches from your eyes but when you look around you control the camera for something like simulated 16000x9000 res for example. real 360 sound. toss in the added bonus of VR full arm gloves that would allow you to interact in game or just see your hands using a keyboard and mouse when you look down.

i think simply full vision view of a world with easy interaction would add a whole new level to any virtual world. i am surprised no RPG's have taken to voice commands to interact with NPC's in game. imagine you walk up and and you say hey to a NPC they looks at you and tell you the quest. you can just talk to accept or deny the quest. a person can express something in a much shorter time it takes for a person to read the same info. they can prick words that would not sound similar as triggers and could get the accuracy down for any user in no time.

watching lawnmower man a as kid and seeing what technology has become we have really dropped the ball on the VR helmet and VR environment.
 
VR always made me nauseous, same with most 3d tech. it will never be mainstream because of that.
 
gesicht said:
i still think VR helmet is possible.

imagine screen res of about 1080p but, only a few inches from your eyes but when you look around you control the camera for something like simulated 16000x9000 res for example. real 360 sound. toss in the added bonus of VR full arm gloves that would allow you to interact in game or just see your hands using a keyboard and mouse when you look down.

i think simply full vision view of a world with easy interaction would add a whole new level to any virtual world.
Click to expand...


This is my gaming Holy Grail.

Imagine full field view, full head tracking, sitting in a Raptor cockpit flying at 30K ft, you lean your head and look left out the cockpit window at the enemy below, reacting visually just like it would in real life... Same with racing games, no more restricted lousy in car views, your actually in the vehicle.

Ahh, the Star Wars games, flying X-Wings, Tie Fighters, the Hoth Battle...

Wow!!! come on technology!
 
I already came up with an idea similar to this long before Kinect, and it's even better than this idea.

The idea is that you're physically suspended in a gyroscope-type contraption that has arms reached out and connecting to parts of your body (like joints and keypoints). This would give your mind the illusion of gravity and physical space in virtuality; that is, when you place your hand on a wall in-game, the contraption will prevent you from moving your hand passed this virtual wall in real life. How your body is oriented and positioned in real life is the way it will be in-game.. and you will FEEL and experience that factor. You won't be standing like in a ball -- because you're free moving and you don't actually feel the game.

Now imagine this: skydiving simulators. You're body would literally be "flying" in the device through the devices mechanical arms and such.

Imagine a game like Counter-Strike, walking up behind someone and grabbing their gun out of their hand and having a fist fight. There would be no more static animations, as YOU would BE the animator.

With Kinect, 3 (minimum required) or 4 (for additional accuracy and precision) is what you'd need to get the movement stuff taken care of. The user of this device would also be wearing a helmet that contains built-in headphones w/ mic and an OLED display; you would not be able to see through the visor -- only the OLED display. Additionally, you could wear a body suit that emulates some degree of physical pressure -- i.e. when you get shot or you trip and fall on your legs.

There could be real sports games.. boxing/fighting games.. volleyball (oh how awesome this would be), swimming. You could learn snowboarding for realz (pun intended).
 
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It's possible, but you can't do it at home. No one is going to pay a ton of money to go use this sort of thing in a basically single-player experience at some arcade. So no one is going to spend money developing it.
 
I remember seeing at an arcade some kind of VR game where you had the helmet on and a gun arm kind of thing. Then you walked on a ball or something and pointed the gun at things to shoot them. That was like 10 years ago, but I don't really remember what it was. I didn't even play it just watched someone else play it on the monitors set up to see the players vision. Have no idea what the game was called.
 
kumquat said:
It's possible, but you can't do it at home. No one is going to pay a ton of money to go use this sort of thing in a basically single-player experience at some arcade. So no one is going to spend money developing it.
Click to expand...

I really know nothing about gaming technology and only got interested in virtual reality after I saw this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvfT3TX_tn0

He has a Wii remote with a mini projector and a PNI SpacePoint Fusion attached to it. The PNI SpacePoint Fusion is a little device with a gyroscope and accelerometer inside it, and is used for aiming. The projector projects the game he's playing on his wall, and he turns around and points his gun around to aim. The controls to shoot and run etc. are on Wii controller.

All I thought of doing was:
Getting rid of the projector and using glasses
Keeping the aiming functionality on the gun/controller
Getting rid of the movement controls and leaving that up to tracking the player's motions.

Couldn't this be hacked together so you could just have it in your room and even be played on the internet if the aiming is responsive and accurate enough?
 
The impracticality of these ideas always trumps their novelty.

You could try doing all of that stuff to play CS with but you'll be destroyed by people using mice and keyboards, it would just be frustrating once the novelty had worn off.
 
so much work to make... so much money to play.

just go airsoft/paintball. i guarantee you'll have a good time... and it'll be REAL REALITY. :D
 
Well.. Maybe jumping around a room with a glasses on, holding a controller would not be fun after all..
 
With items like Kinect and WiiMotionPlus being viable and affordable for in-home use, we're closer than ever to having the technical capability to make something like this. Right now, the big hold-ups are movement and touch. For instance, sure we could use a controller or whatnot that somehow you press "forward" and your character moves forward in the game world, but what would be ideal is allowing full body movement. This means we'll either need some sort of giant, room-sized "holodeck" to allow the player to actually be able to walk,or some side of gadget that acts as a gyroscope/treadmill - you strap your feet in and "walk" the machine. Now, it may be possible to get something like this that will allow walking/jumping, but what about other sorts of movement? Is it possible to create a device that will both say...allow the user to "walk" in it normally, but also lay down prone and get back up, with current tech?

Full-on haptic feedback is probably the biggest issue - take the simple idea of having a box in the user's path. Now, assuming we're using 1:1 user movement mapping and the player wants to climb over the box, what has to happen? They need to "feel" the box - thus, the VR machine somehow has to put something capable of holding user weight, at roughly waist height? Then the player has to put his hands on the thing representing the box and swing themselves over it. Of course, the simulation has to calculate for any possible other outcomes, like the user choosing to sit or crouch on top of the box instead. In addition, there needs to be other boundaries.. like another set of "arms with pads" above the user positioning themselves above the user in the crouched position, to simulate that there isn't room to stand all the way up while sitting on the box! Then, both sets of "pads" need to get out of the way as the user continues over the box and back onto level ground..

Dealing with touch and feedback is clearly the most difficult issue, aside from full-range movement. With a comprehensive movement system as above, it will be relatively easy to say...have a switch on the wall. - simply have a "pad" the system marks as an active switch zoom to the right place and then react when the player taps it. However, there are much more complicated touch actions. There will also need to be a variety of "Item/controller blanks" in the simulator that the system is capable of handing the user. For instance, if there is going to be a handgun stashed in a locker, the system would have to simulate both the locker itself (ie Locker door and a way to access it...does the user have a key? If not, are the stats high enough to bash the door in? If the user chooses bashing, how far does the sound carry! Really cool stuff, if possible), and put the "gun" in there. The "handgun blank" can be simple, but needs to have a working trigger button and perhaps clip-action. There will also have to be other blanks for a realistic feel, such as a knife and sword blank, larger weapons like a shotgun or assault rifle etc...and even keycards and throwables. The system will need to be able to retrieve any dropped blanks, and the player's suit will likely have an amount of attachment points for various blanks. Dealing with attacks or other actions done TO the player is another consideration. Of course, we don't want to make VR actually painful, but if say...we allow a full spectrum hand-to hand combat scenario, we need to provide haptic feedback on impacts and locks

The complexity goes through the roof when you have something multiplayer w/NPCs that integrates many of these systems. Thinking of say...a Metal Gear Online-like tactical simulation would be a good use of the tech. One or more "Sneaking" characters on one team, and one or more "assault" players elsewhere. If you get shot in the leg, you need to not only feel the impact, but any persistent "checks" for actions - you may not be allowed to jump a large gap or jump high enough to reach an air duct access. Now picture something like waiting for a NPC (or even more complex) a player to walk by the room and then using a "takedown" on them. Depending on how advanced the simulation is, you'll either need to basically perform the first "movement" to a target point (that of course, in reality is being simulated in front of you by the apparatus to give you something to grab onto), such a choke from behind. In a more technically and physically advanced game (like military training) you may need to go through the full set of motions while the player or NPC is resisting. Looting their body requires spawning of item blanks of course, and moving the body requires the proper simulation.

The hardware and software necessary to make something like this work would be incredibly complex, but I think well worth it for all the various benefits conferred. It could never be something built by a for-profit initiative, but rather a group that understands the long-term benefits. I believe that within our current, or perhaps 5-20 year in the future, tech everything I described would be doable if initially expensive, and would likely represent the pinnacle of virtual reality until such time as we either can provide a true "Holodeck" experience, or create virtual worlds through actually interacting with our brains...the latter of which of course has an enormous potential for consequences, as many sci-fi writers have theorized.
 
gesicht said:
i still think VR helmet is possible.
i think simply full vision view of a world with easy interaction would add a whole new level to any virtual world. i am surprised no RPG's have taken to voice commands to interact with NPC's in game. imagine you walk up and and you say hey to a NPC they looks at you and tell you the quest. you can just talk to accept or deny the quest. a person can express something in a much shorter time it takes for a person to read the same info. they can prick words that would not sound similar as triggers and could get the accuracy down for any user in no time.
Click to expand...

Mass Effect 3 should have voice commands
 
Sabrewulf... said:
This is my gaming Holy Grail.

Imagine full field view, full head tracking, sitting in a Raptor cockpit flying at 30K ft, you lean your head and look left out the cockpit window at the enemy below, reacting visually just like it would in real life... Same with racing games, no more restricted lousy in car views, your actually in the vehicle.

Ahh, the Star Wars games, flying X-Wings, Tie Fighters, the Hoth Battle...

Wow!!! come on technology!
Click to expand...

They had this in the mid 90's. My friend had 2 setups at the time.
I tried out Doom or Quake (whichever one was out in 1995) standing in the middle of the living room with a VR headset on and a hockey puck style controller on my hand.
My view changed as a I turned my body or head and my forward/back/side to side movement was done by tilting the puck.
I also tried a flight sim which was pretty cool since your view was wherever your head was pointed. you wanted to look behind you, so you just turned and looked over your shoulder. It was like you were in the plane. Sitting in a modified dentists chair made the game feel even more realistic.

http://www.vrtifacts.com/hmds/retrospective-photo-review-of-forte-vfx1-virtual-reality-system/
 
i forgot to mention the movie the lawnmower man. i was like 11 the first time i seen it and the movies is almost 20 years old and VR is still absent.

i remember reading about that VFX1 in nintendo power. it was quite limited and they had comparisons between other VR sets and the VFX1 was the best despite all of it's short comings. back in 95 it might have been bad ass but soon as real 3D cards hit the market few years later it was really dated. it is exactly my point they pulled it off in 95 and 16 years later we have nothing better.
 
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