Whatever Happened To... Virtual Reality?

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Why are we not all wearing giant vr headsets by now, and imagining we are walking on the moon while simultaneously posting to ILX?

Andrew L, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread 'inspired' by 'The Lawnmower Man', a film so bad that Stephen King got his name taken off it! And this is the man who directed 'Maximum Overdrive'!

Andrew L, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

haha *we* are, why are you not?

mark s, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I played a virtual reality game once. It was sort-of exciting but very difficult to do anything, and the headsets were very chunky and uncomfortable, i.e. fine for 5 mins in an arcade but a nightmare if you were doing it at home.

I think what happened to it is that people realised it wasn't very good and wasn't likely to be very good for a while and the technology is no doubt still being developed somewhere. Also people realised that outside of maybe the military it wasn't very useful either - 'virtual sex' would invariably involve putting electronic circuitry you didn't want to get wet right next to bits of you that you did; 'virtual meetings' were pointless compared to teleconferencing; the internet came along and revolutionised communications anyway. etc.

In the gaming world it was a casualty of the gradual realisation that realism=boredom when you get beyond a certain level. People are still trying it - at Game On there was a 'demo' of some art project that had tried to create a virtual reality of a 'vibrantly multicultural East End market' which was unspeakably poor.

Tom, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Andrew is right: it has virtually disappeared!

Martin Skidmore, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It seems clear to me that none of you have seen Virtual Sexuality

N., Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Graham, have you any plans for an anti-italic-fuckups feature on ILXor?

RickyT, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

or just a general purpose anti-dastoor feature?

haha it's called nicole, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It wouldn't be ILXor without renegade HTML.

Dan Perry, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone I used to live with appeared wearing a gimp suit in Virtual Sexuality.

Anna, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Dastoor will be barred.

Graham, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(and I'll do something about bad HTML too)

Graham, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Can I just say that on that occasion I'm sure it wasn't my fault? Sommething went weird with line breaks or something and my tag got destroyed.

N., Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

one of the best virtual realities i've seen is char davis' "osmose" which looks excellent:

http://www.immersence.com/osmose.htm and the followup http://www.immersence.com/ephemere.htm

(nice navigational gimmick too but probably won't run on my Celeron...)

i always thought virtual realities should be abstract - if i want to walk around an east london market i'll go to east london. i want acid trips without the acid 8)

the equipment reminds me of bondage gear too. and that may be one reason it didn't catch on - the need to trust everyone around to unstrap you afterwards and not to dick around when you couldn't see them.

that and looking like an idiot swiping at things nobody else can see.

andy

koogydelbbog, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

This reminds me of that one dream of Lisa Simpson's when money would be used for her school to get VR sets. Phil Hartman as Genghis Khan = genius. "You'll eat what I eat! Conquer what I conquer!"

I recall that one Oliver Stone did that Wild Palms miniseries back in 1993 and that VR was a big part of it. Silly boy.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyoevents/384/pics/multimedia.jpg

Ron, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

By the way, that's "eat who I eat," which is even more classic. And I don't think it's Phil Hartman, but I'm not sure.

Simon, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...
Long distance lovers to virtually share a drink

The end is nigh.

Alba (Alba), Thursday, 9 March 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

I had a college roommate in 1993 who talked incessantly about how "virtual reality" would take over and you would be able to fuck Pam Anderson or Cindy Crawford inside a video game. Estimated time for this? The year 2000.

-- Pleasant Plains /// (pleasant.plain...), April 5th, 2005.

(I bet that he's still waiting.)

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and I saw Virtual Sexuality

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

You don't hear so much about cyberdildonics anymore.

jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

it's a wonder man can eat at all

ken c (ken c), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

What happened to that dude with the dreads? He represents early 90's virtual reality to me.

andy --, Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

i'm totally listening to virtual insanity on repeat. thanks guys.

ken c (ken c), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

extra fun: when the dude with dreads went on Nightline the night that "Wild Palms" first aired. Gotta love corporate synergy.

kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

ihttp://lsiit.u-strasbg.fr/sites/img/dogmerv.jpg

andy --, Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

LOL watching lawnmower man right now - I MISS JEFF FAHEY

homosexual II, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:43 (sixteen years ago)

"You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby" by The Smiths was on iTunes when I read that and I heard it as "You Just Haven't Earned It Jeff Fahey"

latebloomer, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:51 (sixteen years ago)

four years pass...

still fucking waiting

http://www.gizmag.com/eyes-on-oculus-rift-virtual-reality-ces/26225/

ledge, Thursday, 14 February 2013 16:18 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAC5SeNH8jw

gr8 tr∞lls i have known (forksclovetofu), Monday, 15 April 2013 22:55 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/03/how-oculus-rift-will-change-the-world-beyond-gaming

I do feel like oculus rift has everybody doing the lawnmower man v2.0 shuffle, but I WANT TO BELIEVE

i didn't even give much of a fuck that you were mod (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 6 July 2013 16:29 (eleven years ago)

To answer the question in the thread title, Virtual Reality only ever existed within virtual reality.

Aimless, Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:45 (eleven years ago)

i dunno why ppl would wear something like that on their face no matter what it was showing you. i'll hold out for google contacts i guess

you live your life on the floor (sleepingbag), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:49 (eleven years ago)

two years pass...

https://twitter.com/NoodlecakeGames/status/629347202146693120

let's not get too excited w/ the ouches (forksclovetofu), Friday, 7 August 2015 09:51 (nine years ago)

Always wanted to know what would happen if you mix Google Glass technology with Google Deep Dream

9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Friday, 7 August 2015 10:11 (nine years ago)

two months pass...

http://shop.mattel.com/product/index.jsp?productId=71529026

a llove spat over a llama-keeper (forksclovetofu), Friday, 30 October 2015 06:10 (nine years ago)

Haha

welltris (crüt), Friday, 30 October 2015 09:51 (nine years ago)

really, how good are these things? heard of this going for £30: http://www.immerseheadset.com/

i'd love to be able to recreate one of these things on one: http://www.lifetools.com/lightandsounddevices/mindlabproteusletter.html basically flashing lights at different speed, but great for relaxing/meditating

NI, Thursday, 5 November 2015 20:07 (nine years ago)

I tried a Gear VR last week. It was basically a Samsung phone strapped into some VR goggles. It was really cool. I was in an aquarium with a bunch of fish swimming all around me. At one point I watched a whale dive way down and swim underneath my feet, which was amazing. Later there was a 3D version of Breakout where I aimed with my eyes and tapped the side of the glasses to shoot. It was very cool!

My eyes did start to hurt after a while though, and it drained the battery like crazy, which was fine.

All in all I was really impressed, and it was pretty low budget technology. Can't wait to see what they do in the future.

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 5 November 2015 23:17 (nine years ago)

It was basically a Samsung phone strapped into some VR goggles. It was really cool.

Read that in a sarcastic tone. Proceeded to laugh heartily at the rest of the post.

austinato (Austin), Saturday, 7 November 2015 00:14 (nine years ago)

ok this stuff is really really good. might prove to be a daft gimmick and i get bored of it in a week but doubt it.

spent hours reading up on this and best thing to do is order one of those google v2 cardboard kits (£15) and a velcro headstrap (£3). oh and a decent smartphone, im using my galaxy s5. don't get the plastic headsets, they aren't as good as the cheaper cardboard ones. not tried gear vr or zeiss one but they're supposed be decent, both around £100. but yeah, try out the cardboard kits, costs a pittance and one of the most exciting things i've tried all year. getting a ton of these in for xmas presents.

loads of free apps, some amazing stuff like this vrse thing which puts you in a completely 360 new york street, and this horror game called sisters that i can't get more than halfway through because it shits me up too much.

NI, Thursday, 12 November 2015 19:26 (nine years ago)

the NY Times is in

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/google-cardboards-new-york-times-experiment-just-hooked-a-generation-on-vr/

skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 12 November 2015 19:30 (nine years ago)

Hell yeah. I was really surprised at how immersive it was.

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 12 November 2015 21:30 (nine years ago)

vr died while inside a vr

(remember vrml? yahoo even had a vrml version at one point. it was just polygons.)

aaaaablnnn (abanana), Thursday, 12 November 2015 21:45 (nine years ago)

the box sucks btw. NYT app is impressive tho!

i made a scope for my laser musket out of some (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 November 2015 21:53 (nine years ago)

one month passes...

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-open-on-jan-6/

Does that make you mutter, under your breath, “Damn”? (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 19:33 (nine years ago)

three months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jx2YWzxvbs

ulysses, Thursday, 21 April 2016 14:39 (nine years ago)

two months pass...

my friend has an htc vive that I tried today, it was super fun. def the future of gaming, I don't even love pc/video games but would absolutely buy one of these if you didn't need a souped up computer system.

iatee, Saturday, 16 July 2016 21:51 (eight years ago)

ten months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMml5UCd_fQ

Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Tuesday, 6 June 2017 17:21 (eight years ago)

jfc clean yr room loser

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 6 June 2017 17:37 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

tried the new VR room that opened recently in Vancouver (Evolve). Free 15 minute trial; the forest meditation was super relaxing and pretty zen. the james bond style game was unreal tho, stuck in front of a window on a high rise in which one needs to break. In front of me was a pistol, window spray and casing device (to cut glass). Definitely dropped the gun many times and to the onlooker probably looked like a tool as I bent over to pick it up. Anyway there is nearly 100 games I think and 2 hours is 25 dollars before 6 PM. Definitely cool

transcendental headache (Ross), Tuesday, 31 July 2018 21:00 (six years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhwWoMveqJs

We Met In Virtual Reality

Tracer Hand, Monday, 11 July 2022 20:42 (two years ago)

Yet again Ilxor's "two years pass" and "four years pass" etc says as much as the content. The internet has a problem expressing negative space, anti-hype, uninterest, emptiness. It's a white noise blizzard of anti-content. I have a book in my possession called Virtual Worlds, by a chap called Benjamin Woolley. It was published in 1993 - I think it was a tie-in with a BBC TV series, because it rang bells in my mind when I bought it.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71H97FQ7H5L._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_.gif

I thoroughly recommend it because it digresses all over the place. It has a cynical tone despite coming up just after the VR boom of 1992. The author points out that the technology is clunky and a lot of the people evangelising it at the time had a track record of failure, of lofty ideas, or they were just hypemongers who latched onto the latest trends, viz Timothy Leary.

And as this thread demonstrates the tech industry occasionally tries to push VR, but it never catches on. It was dwarfed by 3DTV, and even that didn't reach critical mass. I've noticed an odd tendency whereby if you criticise e.g. Half-Life: Alyx or VR in general people get angrily defensive, as if you're kicking a puppy. As if they think you're destroying an industry and putting people out of work, and you should agree to keep quiet and not spoil the fun. I would give some examples but I'm literally making it all up.

I mean, my first ever memory of being impressed with a video game was Battlezone in the arcades. I remember playing the stand-up cabinet where you had to look through some goggles. It blew my mind. I wondered if you could drive to the mountains in the background. It felt like the future and made every other game look ridiculous. But even I have never felt a need to stop a helmet to my head while at home. It would just be incredibly impractical. Until we get ports in our necks it's doomed to be a niche. As a niche it will get limited funding. It will never benefit from economies of scale, and so it'll remain a niche.

Ashley Pomeroy, Monday, 11 July 2022 21:17 (two years ago)

dumbfounding that they didn’t call the doc We Met In The Metaverse tbh

Tracer Hand, Monday, 11 July 2022 21:34 (two years ago)

good call on Battlezone as the first VR experience

Tracer Hand, Monday, 11 July 2022 21:35 (two years ago)

The milkman the paperboy
Evening tv

We were clothed, except for Caan, who was naked. Don't know why. (Neanderthal), Monday, 11 July 2022 21:37 (two years ago)

I don't think VR can ever overcome the stumbling block of physical sensation to be truly satisfying. You have a 180 degree viewing field and surround sound in your VR headset, but you're still holding a controller and feeling the air conditioning in your living room instead of the heat of an alien desert planet. Porn can't lead the way as it did with so much other technology because no matter how much you can zoom in, it's still the viewer's hand around the viewer's dick.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 11 July 2022 21:38 (two years ago)

Until Quark's holosuites are real, new VR attempts are going to flop every 10 years until we can't spare the electricity to bother.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 11 July 2022 21:39 (two years ago)

The milkman the paperboy
Evening tv

Just ctrl-f'd to see if anyone had made that joke yet

Vinnie, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 02:19 (two years ago)

Google Glass the flying car
And 3D tv

Vinnie, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 02:24 (two years ago)

also VR makes people wanna barf if they play for more than 20 minutes

frogbs, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 02:24 (two years ago)

well, just for the record, I've been having a blast for a long time now with various driving VR games. This is one area I believe that it can work extremely well, with good coding of course, because you're stationary in body and just looking around with your head.

Using a steering wheel too helps with the immersion. I'm totally addicted to trucking sim.

Ste, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 10:42 (two years ago)

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-and-nfts

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 21 July 2022 08:55 (two years ago)


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