For eons we've wondered what it would be like to walk around in a bona fide
Virtusphere, and at GDC last week we finally got our chance. The large plastic cage can turn and roll in any direction, and once replete with a wireless head-mounted display and fake gun, we were ready to take on some polygonal alien baddies. Getting into the cage is surprisingly easy, but unfortunately once we had a screen strapped to our head our well-honed sense of balance was right out the window, and we found ourselves staggering around a bit as we got used to the motion of the cage. The real military versions have a motion sensing gun controller, but we had to do all our aiming with our head, which didn't help. After a minute or so we got used to the "momentum" involved in moving the cage, which felt pretty great, but we'd say our favorite part about the experience was just being able to turn in place to confront baddies -- there's something about a few well placed steps that really blows away a left or right tug on our 360 controller's analog stick. At the end of the day the sheer size, cost, and ultra-dated graphics has us hardly pining for one of these in our living rooms, but with a bit more work on the gaming end (and a working gun pointer) we could see this as the arcade experience to beat. Check out a video of our harrowing experience (from outside
and inside) after the break.
posted March 19th 2010 1:26PM
LOL, imho, it looks wack.
@AlexSanchez Paul, I want your job!
@AlexSanchez No looks like the best way to play Katamari EVER!
@AlexSanchez Why wasn't this a caption contest?
Do want!
@Paul Miller Dude, you had two cameras, you should have filmed this as follows: one camera on the whole sphere, one on the video game feed. The inside-the-ball camera wasn't really very helpful.
Make it bigger so I can run around in circles riding a motorbike!
@Bort Simpson dammit, i read that in his voice...
@MisterSquared
Haha I did too
cool
Now if we could just get some dirt bikes flying around in there...
You looked adorable!
Worst review, he sucks at shooting games, and looks like a 5 year old trying to please his daddy.
Wanted to see if you can move sideways, run, maybe aim better... Dude wasted my time
@Reaper0ne dude you need to chill out...i'd like to see you try and play hampster in that giant ball with a tv strapped to your face...i'm sure it's not as easy as you think...
This looks like something the kid from Disney's "Blank Check" would have bought for his living room.
(not so) SUPER MONKEY BALL!
They had one of these at PAX the second or third year, tried it out myself. Doesn't work very well. Moving forward isn't so much about "pulling" at the floor with your feet so much as "shifting weight so the thing moves." And it keeps moving for a second, so there's a bit of drunken-lag-staggering .. turning immediately is nice, but you can't _change directions_ immediately, and you can only move fairly slowly. Not immersive.
@oGMo
They had this exact demo at IITSEC this past December and I agree it was still quite limited. It's a babystep in the right direction though. The funny part is watching most people stumble when they first get in it and try and walk.
Cool idea, but seems it would limit you to a flat virtual world. What about obstacle jumping, ladder climbing, etc? Being a sniper-whore, I like finding the high ground in a map.
@unclepain There's some very basic physics problems that make virtual climbing and jumping very difficult to solve. It's the same reason that the stair-stepper machine is always easier than climbing actual stairs: you never actually gain any potential energy, since you're never much higher than where you started. Similarly, you can't accurately simulate a 6-foot drop without actually dropping 6 feet.
Having said that, they might be some ways to give you some approximation of the experience: you'd have to wear a full body harness, and it would have to pull down on your torso as you work against something under your feet to simulate climbing, and similarly it would hold your torso up while pulling away from your feet to simulate jumping. The actual things under your feet would be pads on the end of robot arms, constantly tracking your body to simulate the environment you're in contact with. You could have other robot arms providing points of contact for your hands and other parts of your body. Of course, programming this setup would be rather tricky, and errors could be hazardous or even fatal without proper precautions.
@unclepain I assume they could put an accelerometer in the gun or goggles.
They need a bunch of rear projectors and to make the sphere out of polycarbonate. Basically, they need to lose the headset. 4 projectors, 4 high end video game consoles with photorealistic graphics, and that would be something.
I'm still waiting for the SEGA360 type space war (Star Wars?, BattleStar Glactica?) type of game.
@rcappo All sounds possible but I've heard we pretty far off still from photorealistic graphics.
@rcappo Now that would be awesome! The headpiece has always been the death of full immersion!
Your main objective testing this ball should be EXPLORE the map WALKING, not twist and shoot.
I remember when VR came to the arcades first time around in 1991. It came 15 years too early, as the graphics were 486/pentium quality at best, making it a sour experience. With the power of modern systems, this should've been in the arcades by now.
I think it would be easier to play games like this with augmented reality. that will take the place of these kinds of sims I think. Much easier to wear goggles with a camera so you can overlay things on the real world. I think the easiest way to start those kinds of games would be to outfit a laser tag arena with a grid of markers so that the software can keep itself aligned. Then you can run around with your laser gun and shoot the virtual enemies overlaid on your screen as you run around in real life. It would feel like real running because you are. Better yet, just use other people but overlay stuff on them and draw the laser beams or whatever as the overlay. You could do this with today's tech although it will get cheaper as small computers get more powerful. I'd hate to have to hold a big laptop or mini tower's worth of hardware in my backpack while playing. Maybe external processing and wirelessly sending the image data back and forth to the goggles.
@jerbear ...or you could play paintball. just sayin'.
@InspectorEngadget Yeah, but yo urealize we are discussing a crazy tech demo here. I just was sharing my own idea for a tech demo that would be easier to do and more realistic. Not saying it's gonna replace real games like paintball, tag, or even home video gaming anytime soon.
@jerbear Understood. Just a funny observation based on the kinds of stuff you were talking about.
These Guys were on the U.S. version of Dragons Den, Shark Tank trying to sell percentage of their busniess, no one could see any profit in it so they didnt get anyone to buy.
Imagine playing MADDEN on that thing!
I think I saw this on dragons den. They said it could be used with other games so maybe even the us armies training game.
yea inertia of that thing will probably scrape you to the death (and damage the head gear) when you decide to change the direction you're running in if you are running...
@NIMBUS needs to be motorised and VERY fast reacting indeed. but then, it would be awesome :) (oh, and silent, those motors should be, of course)..
so the ball turns according to the (natal processed) movement you do to fit the floor.
and the pieces of the balls are like tetrisphere pieces that can be pushed towards the inside, to make you do steps on a stair.
all motorized, all silent, and all very fast responding, of course
but it would be cool :)
@davepermen Noisy motors wouldn't matter I think, you would be wearing high quality noise isolating/cancelling headphones along with the eye goggles I'd assume.
I can design a seriously better virtual reality system than that, that doesnt even require a headpiece.
This tech is outdated seriously.
@kaasinees Get on it, then! The world awaits! :-)
Cool, but I'll stick to a mouse and keyboard, I would probably be tripping over myself in something like that. :P
need i point out that the same effect could be produced without a giant ball?
that's stupid.. i want to see the game feed... the camera inside the ball was pointless.. if you are in there, then you have the goggles on, so you wouldn't see what the hell he is video taping anyway...
Reminds me of the 'Lawnmower Man' movie kinda.
What if your too fat to fit inside? Do they have a XL size avalabile?
@Spiky haired boy
If your that fat, then i think wondering if there's an XL size is the least of your problems. Plus they would probably need to reinforce the sphere... carbon fibre? titanium struts?
this was in Shark Tank.. and all the sharks shot it down!
This should be the new Wii Fit.
Looks fun but impractical apart from an arcade/theme park set up.
I still say a pico like projector fixed to the top of your head (as silly as it sounds) that has a wide angle projection is the way to go. With 'off body' motion sensing such as trackIR/Natal/We/Move then just turning your head would pan the image you see so if the image projected from the top of your head was say 210 degrees or whatever peripheral human vision amounts to then you would experience it as if it was a 360 degree wrap around screen.
@Poita
Good idea, but it wouldn't be very well defined(low lux and pixel output) and it would shake with your movement. how about the sphere being lined with a giant flexible display, that would be very cool.
@Neon11234 actally it would have zero shake. Well, the only thing tht would shake would be the extreme edges of the screen but you wouldn't notice that. If there was an item such as a tree or person on the screen then when you moved your head that item would not move from its position on the wal at all, it would just move relative to your view just like things do in real life.
With todays pico size projectors it would be a bit of a dim picture though. If you were in a room that was totally dark with walls that were coated with highly reflective, projector friendly paint it would be ok though. Just need to make a small, light, head mounted projector that could throw a 210 degrees wide screen up.
@Poita
Chillax, sorry maybe i should of been a bit more clear. It would shake on your head, the projector therefore would pretty much have to be strapped/bolted in place as a small slip/slide on your head would be amplified onto the screen, and to be fair i think the user would prefer to be comfortable. but whatever, it's still a cool idea.