The expansion of VR gaming
VR is one of the things that people are looking forward to the most. Even though it started quite a while back there are still more bumps in the road to conquer and we will be seeing a lot more of it and it will get better. The expansion of VR gaming and VR in general is upon us and we’re lucky to be alive in this age of such technological development.
At the moment we already have great developments in graphics, although we’re not really where we want to be. But what about the other senses? Is it possible to get all five senses when booting up you VR gaming pc and connecting all the necessary hardware?
Well, get ready for some epic VR gaming news! Yes, it is, but it will take some time and adjustments.
The main device used for virtual reality immersion in video games is the head-mounted display. The graphics processing of virtual experiences require power that’s 7-8 times higher than the regular graphics needs. In order to create such high quality content you need high resolution images with zero lag so that people don’t get motion sickness. We’re on our way to making this possible. Out of the five senses this one is the most developed at the moment.
When it comes to sound things get more complicated because people perceive sound in three dimensions. Coordinating sound and picture is a challenge especially since what you see and how you move will also affect sound and you should be able to hear the forest sounds with rivers and trees and animals at the same time as you see them or even before you get closer and grow in volume. Also, in social environments speech recognition is also going to be important.
There’s also a need for tactile feedback. Haptic feedback isn’t common at the moment, there’s not much going on except maybe some buzz-like sensations that you feel through the hand controllers. Experts are thinking about creating a whole body suit for better sensation.
Smells are even harder to imitate because smells are quite different for different people. People are already experimenting with ozone generators, heaters, fans etc, but it’s not going to be easy.
Even taste might be a possibility using sensors to give the structure of food and even feel like chewing, but there are many things that need to be still unveiled.
The industry is going strong and is estimated to reach incredible heights, as in 2017 the gaming market revenue for VR was 45 billion dollars. More and more games that use VR are showing up and some genres are definitely growing more than others.
At the moment we already have some great genres with exceptional VR games. These are the top genres:
- First-person shooters
- Racing games
- Horror games
- Adventure games
- Casino gaming: casinos from UK, tables games
- Exploration games
- Life & social simulation
More and more games that use VR are appearing, but right now it seems that the industry that seems to want to see developments the most and introduce VR asap is the online gambling one. Here, things are getting super interesting and those games really destroy the barrier between playing online and playing at a brick and mortar casino.
In what kind of games do you want to see VR being used more?