Idea Inspirations from trying the Oculus Rift
I got to try the Oculus Rift for the first time this week at a local IGDA meeting in Minneapolis. I wrote about my first experience and first impressions on my blog, but the experience was also very inspiring creatively.
Obviously there are going to be many first-person games, in particular FPS games, for the Rift. But I think there's a lot of potential for other applications, and that's what excites me more. Think of being an eye floating above a 3d abstract puzzle game, whose environment you are a part of. Think of playing a 3d sidescrolling platformer, but instead of playing it on your TV, it is like you've moved inside of the screen and you now occupy the same space as the characters you control. You could watch a 3 inch tall Mario walking, running, and jumping his way through a model-sized game level laid out in front of you.
Imagine yourself a few years in the future when the Rift has a resolution beyond the "Retina" display densities of today. Let's say resolution of the Rift has reached maybe double that of your current laptop screen. Now sit down, put that laptop in your lap, and then put on your Oculus Rift. Your laptop is outputting its display in realtime into the Rift's simulation where there is a virtual laptop displaying your screen's contents. Your arms are being tracked, so you can even look down and hunt for the home row keys if you need to. Now you can program a game, write a grad school paper, or code up a web page inside of the simulation. You are no longer sitting at a desk in a cubicle. You aren't sitting on the same boring couch in your living room. You can be anywhere. You can laptop on a beach. You can laptop on the moon. Bottom of the sea. Whatever. Indulgent? Bit creepy? Only because it is actually going to be possible. And soon. And at tablet prices.
Let me walk you through another imaginary experience with an Oculus Rift. One that wouldn't necessarily have to wait for some future super high resolution iteration. Ok, grab a real SNES gamepad, and now put on your Oculus Rift. You've just entered a 3d simulation of your living room. And there's your TV in front of you, a virtual 2d display embedded in the 3d simulated environment. Pop your Zelda: A Link to the Past cartridge into your Super Nintendo. You are playing Zelda and controlling Link with the gamepad, but you are watching it on a virtual TV instead of a real TV. You enter the Lost Woods. The graphics on the screen are those familiar tiled-based green trees with that pixel fog you loved so much as a kid. But something is happening now that has never happened before. The drywall disappears and trees move in. Grass grows over the couch you were sitting on and also the floor beneath your feet. A fog fills the room. You are sitting in a 3d Lost Woods now that surrounds you. Your TV set sits on top of a hollow log, and you are still playing Zelda: A Link to the Past for SNES.
I think that'd be pretty damn cool.
Obviously there are going to be many first-person games, in particular FPS games, for the Rift. But I think there's a lot of potential for other applications, and that's what excites me more. Think of being an eye floating above a 3d abstract puzzle game, whose environment you are a part of. Think of playing a 3d sidescrolling platformer, but instead of playing it on your TV, it is like you've moved inside of the screen and you now occupy the same space as the characters you control. You could watch a 3 inch tall Mario walking, running, and jumping his way through a model-sized game level laid out in front of you.
Imagine yourself a few years in the future when the Rift has a resolution beyond the "Retina" display densities of today. Let's say resolution of the Rift has reached maybe double that of your current laptop screen. Now sit down, put that laptop in your lap, and then put on your Oculus Rift. Your laptop is outputting its display in realtime into the Rift's simulation where there is a virtual laptop displaying your screen's contents. Your arms are being tracked, so you can even look down and hunt for the home row keys if you need to. Now you can program a game, write a grad school paper, or code up a web page inside of the simulation. You are no longer sitting at a desk in a cubicle. You aren't sitting on the same boring couch in your living room. You can be anywhere. You can laptop on a beach. You can laptop on the moon. Bottom of the sea. Whatever. Indulgent? Bit creepy? Only because it is actually going to be possible. And soon. And at tablet prices.
Let me walk you through another imaginary experience with an Oculus Rift. One that wouldn't necessarily have to wait for some future super high resolution iteration. Ok, grab a real SNES gamepad, and now put on your Oculus Rift. You've just entered a 3d simulation of your living room. And there's your TV in front of you, a virtual 2d display embedded in the 3d simulated environment. Pop your Zelda: A Link to the Past cartridge into your Super Nintendo. You are playing Zelda and controlling Link with the gamepad, but you are watching it on a virtual TV instead of a real TV. You enter the Lost Woods. The graphics on the screen are those familiar tiled-based green trees with that pixel fog you loved so much as a kid. But something is happening now that has never happened before. The drywall disappears and trees move in. Grass grows over the couch you were sitting on and also the floor beneath your feet. A fog fills the room. You are sitting in a 3d Lost Woods now that surrounds you. Your TV set sits on top of a hollow log, and you are still playing Zelda: A Link to the Past for SNES.
I think that'd be pretty damn cool.
