Went exploring an underwater shipwreck with an HTC Vive tonight, complete with schools of fish, sun rays through the water, jellyfish and a huge whale swimming up to me. Was a full room VR demo – I had an 8×8 space to walk around in. What fun! It felt amazingly real from the get go – and boy did the “real” room seem drab after being submerged in a hyper colored world.
The sunlight piercing the water above me was perfectly rendered through virtual waves – it really was just like being about 50 feet underwater, standing on the deck of a sunken ship.
I had fun trying to “poke” the jellyfish that was swimming a little too close to my head for comfort (you *know* it’s virtual…but it’s hard to remember) and it backed off from my hand every time. I’m sure that’s how the developers are dealing with the fact that although I can see it, and walk through it, there’s no real physics going on: I can’t feel any interaction. Although, as per one of my previous posts…there are a multitude of companies working creating physical weight surface interaction in VR.
When VR does get to the point where you are able to reproduce physical interaction, I’m not sure why you’d want to leave to be honest. The world is prettier, brighter, programmable – much better than reality. It feels remarkably similar to what I felt like after watching avatar back in 2011, only better.
No pics of me flailing about in public with the headset on. Probably for the best.
Would love to try this game. I’m not much of a gamer but I think I could be convinced with Virtual Reality. It looks eminently hyper realistic, and if even close to the experience I had with the fishes – a joy to get lost in.