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Reddit mentions of Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society

Sentiment score: 2
Reddit mentions: 3

We found 3 Reddit mentions of Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society. Here are the top ones.

Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society
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Found 3 comments on Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society:

u/nateight · 6 pointsr/oculus

Great story. I love the vindication element of everyone in this key market considering the Rift a toy without even giving it a try. What's amazing to me is that arch viz is something we've known would be a killer app for VR since the '90s, there's an extensive section in Howard Rheingold's seminal book about the research that was already well underway at UNC Chapel Hill by the time the book was published. Rheingold describes how architects used comparatively crude VR tech to experience exactly the same kind of foresight when planning a new campus structure, but the architecture industry never really caught on to the idea due to a combination of extreme costs, unsatisfying hardware, and lack of administrative vision. The real trick Oculus has pulled is solving the first two challenges, not just the second - all we need now is leaders who can see the technology for what it is.

I've said it before and been shouted down, but I still believe it: Architecture firms that don't embrace VR in both their creative workflow and their customer relations within five years won't be architecture firms in ten.

u/faduci · 5 pointsr/oculus

> but did the masses really have the ability to render decent 1008x1024 pictures in 1994?

The Amiga 2024 from '88 actually took four consecutive images from an Amiga 500 (about VGA size) and assembled them to one large picture, requiring special display drivers. So it was technically impossible to display more than 15 frames per second or any decent animation, not even in 2D. The mouse pointer was flickering during movements.

But even in 1994 there was nothing outside the workstation world that could render 3D in high resolutions. The 3dfx Voodoo Graphics released in 1996 was the first 3D graphics hardware accelerator for PCs, and it came as an add-on to your 2D card. The Playstation 1 was way ahead compared to PC graphics back then. The expensive graphics card I mentioned had no 3D acceleration at all.

One of the primary reasons for me and my flat mate to connect our machines via Thinwire-Ethernet was to play the just released first version of Doom, which was the first game to smoothly display a complete virtual environment in 3D @ 320x200. Without 3D hardware acceleration, using 2D sprites and a lot of trickery from John Carmack's Id Tech 1 rendering engine. And here I am, 20 years later, still relying on Carmack's genius to bring me the best VR experience possible on current technology.

If you used an N64, you were actually using a graphics chip developed by Silicon Graphics. VR in the early 90s almost always involved Silicon Graphics workstations, the kind you see in Jurassic Park. A Crimson with RealityEngine graphics would cost you about USD 100K, there was nothing faster on the planet and whatever smartphone you have today could easily wipe the floor with it. Add a VPL EyePhone for USD 50K and one or two DataGloves for USD 9K each and you are set, but be prepared for a rocky experience, because rendering even untextured stereoscopic VR with 720x480 per eye was quite taxing for this machine.

The earliest VR systems from 1968 could only dream of this kind of graphics power. VR back then was black and white and rendered in wireframes. Nonetheless it was VR, immersion worked. People broke into sweat when they crashed in early flight simulators, which basically meant that the blue part of the screen (sky) was becoming smaller and the green part (earth) bigger. This is still relevant because it shows one thing: Virtual Reality happens in your head. Your brain makes it real, even a very primitive version.

And something has actually been lost with the current iteration of VR. We are discussing DK1 resolution vs. DK2 and CV1, screen door effect, black smearing, low persistence, all important aspects for improving the experience. 20 years ago there was no way you could to get close to photorealism. You had to work with the mind, which lead to some pretty fucked up experiments. I remember one where you were placed inside the body of a crab, and the extra legs of the crab were mapped to your fingers in the DataGloves. Within a few minutes people "forgot" that they had fingers and were naturally walking around with their new legs. I doubt many people felt they were a chicken in "Chicken Walk" just because they picked up corn by nodding their head.

Outside the "Sightline" demos I haven't seen a lot of software for the Rift that actively messes with your perception. And this is why I am kind of sad when I see comments that "the old guys are just jealous they missed the boat". I feel more like begging everybody to take a look at the great work that has already been done, partly even triggered by the restrictions of the hardware, because todays focus on the technical improvement and "getting more real" ignores so many great opportunities to have your mind blown.

For a great introduction to VR from the past I recommend Howard Rheingold's Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society from 1991, a used copy of which you can pick up from amazon for a few cents.

u/cjdavies · 3 pointsr/virtualreality

Remember that VR as a research topic dates back to at least the 1960's & covers a lot more areas than you might realise. I recommend you read this book, if you haven't already, as it will give you a better understanding of quite how many different areas are involved & thus how many different paths you can take.

http://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Reality-Revolutionary-Technology-Computer-Generated/dp/0671778978

As a graduate of Computer Science myself, now doing a PhD that involves some use of the Rift, my advice would be to look for Computer Science degree programs that have module options that you think might be useful for VR. The program I took, which is fairly typical, had the option of modules like HCI, graphics & game design/programming in addition to the more 'traditional' 'hard' CS modules like programming language/compiler design, computational complexity & all sorts of Internet technologies, distributed programming, etc.

What you don't want to do is start on a 3 or 4 year course (maybe more!) dedicated to a specific aspect of VR, only to realise 2 years in that you actually want to focus on a different aspect. And don't hesitate to get in contact with whoever is in charge of admissions for any programs you like the look of to discuss your options, they will be more than happy to talk things through with you.