Carmack On VR Latency

An anonymous reader writes "For a while now, John Carmack has been pushing to bring virtual reality technology back to the gaming world. VR was largely abandoned over a decade ago when it became apparent that the hardware just wasn't ready to support it. In 2013, things are different; cheap displays with a high pixel density and powerful processors designed for small systems are making virtual reality a... reality. One of the last obstacles to be conquered is latency — the delay between moving your head and seeing your perspective change in the virtual world. In a lengthy and highly-technical post at #AltDevBlogADay, Carmack has outlined a number of strategies for mitigating and reducing latency. With information and experience like this being shared with the game development community at large, it shouldn't be long until VR makes a permanent place for itself in our gaming lives."

Comments

Whenever anyone mentions cheap VR headsets....

[robthebloke]

.... I can't help thinking this

The obvious solution!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Surely any dedicated gamer would see the value in simply injecting a thickening agent into the endolymph of the Vestibular system. With careful dose control, that should induce a matching lag in the perception of motion, thus providing a highly realistic experience!

*Ability to walk and/or perform normal ocular saccades not guaranteed, please refrain from the use of industrial silicones in medical applications.

Good VR exists, but it's rare.

[Animats]

Stanford has an elaborate VR lab. The system is 120FPS, and the lag is low, but I'm not sure how low. There's full motion tracking of the subject in a 20 foot by 20 foot space. They have public tours every Friday. Sign up and try high-end VR.

This isn't a graphics lab. It's a psychology lab. Some of the results are scary. They've had kids go through a VR experience of swimming with sharks. A few weeks later, the kids are asked about it, and a sizable fraction of them believe they really did it, adding details that were not in the sim like what they ate while visiting the sharks.

They're always running psychology experiments, and looking for volunteers. Pays $15/hr.

Oculus Rift

[Coolhand2120]

How can they not talk about Carmack's chosen one? This seems to be the best hope for affordable VR for the masses.
http://www.oculusvr.com/

Re:Eerrrr

[dmbasso]

Google Glass doesn't have anything to do with VR. You are confusing it with Augmented Reality.

Something I still remember

[Dogtanian]

I remember when everyone suddenly got excited about virtual reality in the early 1990s. Of course, back then it was more the concept and the possibilities that triggered peoples' imaginations- actual VR systems and games did exist at that time, but were never really widespread, probably due to the limitations and cost of the then-current technology and the fact it was essentially a novelty.

One commentator, however, said something that has stuck with me ever since. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of...

"Eventually the current fad for Virtual Reality will pass, and everyone will forget about it. Then one day you'll look around you and realise that it's everywhere."


(*) If you remember it too, then yes- it really *was* that long ago :-O