Local multiplayer demo shows the possible future of virtual reality
Those who enter virtual reality usually isolate themselves from the outside world under their large headset. But what if you want to play VR games together, preferably in the same room? An impressive demo shows what this could look like in the future.
In an almost five minute long YouTube video, the game studio "Thrust Vector" shows a VR demo for two players, which was developed within only eight days. The kicker: here both players are in the same room and play together in a co-op shooter in virtual reality. The demo was already developed in September 2018, but could only be released now.
But not only are both players in the same room, thanks to the recently launched Oculus Quest, which works wirelessly without a PC connected, both players can move freely. But the developers at Thrust Vector didn't limit the gaming experience to just one room, but used the floor plan of their own office as the basis for the VR environment.
This also only works thanks to the Oculus Quest's ability to freely track players and map environments without external sensors. And so both employees walk through the offices with their VR headset and find themselves in virtual reality on an alien spaceship and have to compete with approaching hunters. Even a small "puzzle", in which both have to enter a code at spatially separated terminals, has to be solved.
Full-fledged game could land with Kickstarter
According to Thrust Vector's Chief Technology Officer, the whole demo is still a "homemade brand": this applies to the measurement of the space, the import of the 3D model into Unity and the 3D model of the space station. The software for the synchronization between the two headsets was also developed in-house and the calibration took only 30 seconds.
Thanks to the massive positive feedback from the VR community on Reddit and other platforms, the studio is currently considering financing the game and the software to implement its own premises via Kickstarter and making it accessible to users.
With the expansion of such a technology and the availability for developers and end users, completely new possibilities arise in virtual reality. Here the room for movement could be expanded enormously and a major shortcoming of current VR equipment could be eliminated: the lack of freedom of movement. Of course this is also possible thanks to the already good tracking of the Oculus Quest.
Would you also like to turn your whole apartment into a VR playground?
Via: Mixed Source: Thrust Vector (YouTube)
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