Virtual Reality: Future Worlds or Future Trap

(By Brandenads - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90747344) 

We all enjoyed these games on mobile phones in our childhood, but they are no longer played by anyone. Being born in a transitional era, I saw a rapid technology change and witnessed its evolution. Starting from these games to today's AI and Virtual Reality, it seems to be a miraculous evolution. Nowadays, virtual reality games are more in trend since they give you a completely different experience from most of our sensory perceptions (especially visual and auditory). 

INTRODUCTION 

Virtual reality is a replacement for our real world with a synthetic or virtual world that makes the user feel his or her presence in a very different world than ours. It is a simulation that creates an illusory world that totally looks real and gives a similar experience with respect to the real world. 

HISTORY 

The concept of virtual reality was first used in the 1930s. In 1929, American inventor Edwin Link created a commercial flight simulator called the Link Trainer. Later in the 1930s, a science fiction writer named S.G. Weinbaum introduced the idea of goggle pairs, which gave an experience of a fictional world through holograms, taste, touch, and smell through a written story. Morton Heilig, a pioneer in VR technology and cinematographer, created a theater cabinet called ‘Sensorama’ which had arcade-style arrangements. It allowed users to see stereoscopic films along with enhanced experiences of seat motion, aromas, winds, and sounds during the show of the film. This immerses the user in the film. Since then, the word VR has become ubiquitous among authors and inventors. 

 The relationship between VR and games started in 1968 with computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed "Sword of Damocles," the first VR environment, at his lab. At the end of the 1990s, mobile devices became the platform for games as well. In the 2000s, the Web browser became another emerging platform for gaming. On mobile devices, it started with entertainment intentions, and today it has become one of the fastest-growing industries. The new era welcomed VR in gaming with Oculus VR and VR gear by Samsung; HTC also launched Vive in 2015. At the end of that year, the value of gaming companies had increased by more than $4 billion. Since then, Virtual Reality in the gaming industry has gained huge coverage and seems to be ever-expanding. 

WORKING 

Virtual reality uses a motion head-mounted unit and stereoscopic screens (a 3D display screen with depth perception) to let players get immersed in the virtual domain and respond to their head movements accordingly. It requires a console, processing device, or computer to couple with the head-mounted unit. 

VR targets five sensory perceptions that users experience. For this, a lot of VR hardware is required. For some of these experiences, a VR suit is required. For other perceptions, a head-mounted VR kit is enough. 

1. Visual: Special kinds of lenses are used in VR headsets. Because of this, users can experience their presence in a virtual domain in 3D and 360 degrees. 

1. Sound: Like real-world sounds one experiences, sound effects are added in the virtual world in accordance with the user’s interaction to enhance the quality of the game in terms of experience. The inputs are designed in such a way that sound is produced parallel to the object’s distance, the user’s direction, and the user’s interaction in the virtual world. 

1. Tactile feedback deals with touch sensation. Basically, vibrations are added accordingly; for example, let us say that when the user is firing a gun, he or she will experience vibrations in their hand while shooting, when they get shot by the bullet, and so on. These vibrations are added at different frequencies and intensities as per the needs of the game. 

1. Smell: Smell perception is quite intriguing to attract new users, but at the same time, it is quite difficult to incorporate it into the game. However, recently, companies like ‘Feel Real’ have tried to implement it by providing masks that can be used with VR sets to give the sense of smell while playing. 

1. Taste: Appending taste sense is another hectic job for game developers. Many scientists from different universities are trying to incorporate it using thermal taste technology; which produces different temperatures on the tongue and activates different taste sensations without using any chemicals. This technology seems to be a future development in the gaming industry, which will attract even more customers. 

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PROCESS USING VR 

A VR developer deals with important tasks throughout the development process.  

1. The development direction: Depending on the requirements of the application (in this case, the game), the direction is decided. It also deals with problems related to the platform for which VR is being developed. The most common platforms are desktop devices, e.g., HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, etc., and mobile devices such as VR gear by Samsung, Google Cardboard, etc. VR applications developed for mobile platforms are for tablets, mobile phones, and smartphones, whereas desktop development targets VR devices like VR glasses and VR helmets. 

1. VR Software: A 3D environment is required to give the user the feeling that he is present in a different world than the real one but similar to it. For making games attractive, a feeling of being involved and inclusiveness are required, as are movements and graphical optimization effects. VR engines like Unity Engine and Unreal Engine provide a wide array of tools, more efficient control over the 3D environment, the provision to import our own created content such as Pictures, videos, audio, etc., program integrity with languages like C#, and in-built gameplay. 

1. VR Content: Content is one of the most crucial parts of VR development, not only for games but for any VR application. Engines provide 3D modeling techniques for arrangement and representation. 

1. Graphics Content: The influence of the game on users is highly dependent on graphics content since it creates a first impression. Most of the content is already made available by the engine’s store: Unity Asset Store for Unity Engine and Unreal Marketplace for Unreal Engine, and many free ones are available. Users can also enjoy the freedom of creating their own graphics content, like graphics images, templates, videos, etc. and integrating it into the VR environment. 

1. Audio Content: Audio effects play a very important role in giving a more realistic feeling to the user. Audio effects and background scores parallel to different situations create a lasting effect on the users. The import of this content to the engines can also be made as needed. 

1. Other Content: Other sensory perceptions like smell and touch are also planned to be incorporated into the VR games. Though not much developed, in the future, VR can prove to be a game changer.  

1. User Interface: The game interface is another important aspect that developers must take care of. UI and UX testing are becoming necessary since they will tell the developer how interactive and attractive it is to users. 

References: 

1. Impact of Virtual Reality on Gaming – (International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology) Vol: 06 Issue: 12 | Dec 2019. 

1. A survey on game development in Virtual Reality – (International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology) Vol 6 Issue 5 May 2021. 

Author: Sayali Sawant

Editor: Anirudh Srivastava

Illustrator: Bristi Paul