Buckle up, virtual reality games are gathering speed and are getting ready to conquer the world. The latest update is the new “free roam” gaming center that just opened in Melbourne, Australia. Called Zero Latency, it already has players hooked and lining up to try it out.
The 4,300 square foot warehouse is equipped with 129 PlayStation Eye cameras. Users have to wear a set of virtual reality head mounted displays, Oculus Rift DK2 as well as a backpack that contains an Alienware Alpha PC, powering the Oculus Rift. As science fiction as this sounds, gamers’ reaction didn’t delay to praise Zero Latency and compare it to “being in a video game”.
Once connected to everything, the players are free to roam in the massive warehouse. As its name suggests, the game was designed to create zero latency, which translates into what the users see in virtual reality games matches up with what they’re doing in real life. By setting such high expectations, it’s no wonder the virtual reality games are already fully booked for the first weeks after opening.
Does this mean we can say good bye to laser tag and paintball? While these kind of gaming centers are only budding here and there, I think it’s safe to say they’re here to stay. If you’re from Melbourne or plan to visit, you and five friends can play Zero Latency for one hour and pay around $65 each.
The game’s description presents it as a totally immersing experience. The creators encourage you to imagine a game that doesn’t feel like a game at all. You control everything with your body in a place where digital meets real life. With each of your movements, the game moves with you. After working on the facility for three years, the makers of the virtual reality games guarantee an experience like no other.
Virtual reality games are not the result of a single man’s work, and they surely didn’t have a linear development throughout the years. With continuous development from the 60s till nowadays, 3D pictures have certainly come a long way.
The simplest way to grasp virtual reality games is to think about them as a three dimensional world generated by a computer. They are founded on concepts like immersion, dealing with data depth and breadth, and latency, the lag time between a user’s change of perspective and the entry of another perspective.
Exactly how much virtual reality will be taking over our lives remains to be seen. While it’s still in its incipient days and it seems limited to games and videos, we’re all eager to take it for a spin and see what it can do.
Roxanne Briean
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