MichaelAbrash
Latest
Facebook lays out its vision of our communal VR future
After all the new products were announced and surprise features revealed at Oculus Connect 6 on Wednesday, Facebook Reality Lab (FRL) lead Michael Abrash took to the stage to discuss the future of VR, AR, and the company's leading role in their continuing development.
Valve's VR guru jumps ship to become Oculus' head scientist
As it turns out, not everyone is bummed that Oculus VR will soon fall into Facebook's gaping maw. Valve's Michael Abrash -- one of the most notable names in the company's ambitious VR group -- just announced that he's joined Oculus as its new chief scientist. After long stints as a developer (he worked on Quake and Windows NT, among other things) and technical writer, Gabe Newell finally convinced Abrash to join Valve in 2011. It didn't take long for him to start dishing out the good stuff, either. Since then, he's been tackling the difficulties of making VR truly work... and trying to deal with the very real possibility that VR would never be as pervasive or as meaningful as it could be. But now? He's confident that VR can become "the Final Platform -- the platform to end all platforms." And it's all because of Facebook. "Facebook's acquisition of Oculus means that VR is going to happen in all its glory," Abrash wrote. "The resources and long-term commitment that Facebook brings gives Oculus the runway it needs to solve the hard problems of VR -- and some of them are hard indeed." While we may never get that Oculus-friendly version of Minecraft, at least one brilliant guy thinks we're on the verge of something great. We'll soon see how right he is.
Watch Valve's vision of our virtual reality future (and other Steam Dev Days talks) right here
We did our best to break down and explain talks given by Valve's virtual reality leaders at Steam Dev Days, but there's no replacing the real deal. As such, we'd be silly not to share news that Valve's published to YouTube all 28 talks given at its first-ever developer's conference -- including the two virtual reality talks from Michael Abrash and Joe Ludwig, not to mention Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey's talk. We've embedded all three of those below, but the whole shebang is available right here for your marathoning pleasure.
Valve: The future of Virtual Reality is just one year away
The most exciting aspect of contemporary virtual reality is its implications. Even using Oculus VR's early duct taped-prototype, most users immediately "get it." You're transported to, say, Tuscany, or an underwater exploration vehicle, or a space fighter, and that experience is enough to trigger a flood of ideas for other potential interactions -- interactions that are dramatically heightened by employing a VR headset. How about deep-sea exploration in 4K? Or maybe Mars? And we're not talking just video games, but experiences. Valve VR lead Michael Abrash detailed that notion in a recent talk: "Not only could VR rapidly evolve into a major platform, but it could actually tip the balance of the entire industry from traditional media toward computer entertainment." Abrash believes that VR headsets so vastly outperform other interaction methods (TV, theaters, etc.) that how folks absorb media in general may be impacted by the coming wave of head-mounted displays. His concept of our potential future may be distant-sounding, but the beginning of consumer-grade, extremely polished VR headsets isn't far off: 2015. At least that's what Abrash and Valve are targeting as primetime for VR, and they're laying the groundwork right now.
Stay seated: Valve's Team Fortress 2 ported to virtual reality
If Valve Software's Team Fortress 2 is anything, it's versatile. The company's demonstrating that versatility once more in porting the game to virtual reality goggles, which could result in some serious psychological trauma. Kidding aside, a Game Developers Conference blurb today revealed the internal project -- part of Valve's ongoing wearable computing efforts -- which says the talk, "will describe lessons learned from Valve's porting experience." In another talk, Valve hardware man Michael Abrash is diving into the possibilities he sees in the future of VR, as viewed through his own company's experience. It isn't clear whether Valve is using the much-loved Oculus Rift technology (seen above); the notes of the second talk only detail a general exploration of VR's weaknesses and strengths as they pertain to current technology. One thing is clear: both talks aim to educate game developers on what some Valve employees see as a burgeoning new frontier in game development. We welcome this bizarrely sci-fi future with open arms.
Valve employee spills the hardware beans: wearable computers, ahoy
When Michael Abrash started working for Valve, he expected the higher-ups to hand him a pile of work and tell him to hop to it. They didn't. Instead, he was told to figure out the most valuable thing he could do for the company, and then do it. So, Abrash wound up kicking off an in-house R&D project for wearable computers, and according to a recent blog post, is looking to expand his research team. More than me-too mice and gamepads, indeed. Abrash is quick to put a lid on rumors of "Steam glasses," however, and warns readers not to expect any big reveals at E3 -- this is just an "initial investigation into a very interesting and promising space," he says, and is more "research than development." Rearing to give Google's Project Glass a run for its money? Or maybe you're just itching for a detailed narrative of employee and employer? Either way, you'll find what you're looking at the source link below.
