The new generation of consoles is already defined. Many were wondering how it would be this new jump and end the industry has decided to throw a more conservative and breakthrough, for now, is a small graphical update that some we know little.
Leaving aside the mainstream, Oculus Rift does propose a different change for this generation. Betting for a virtual reality system that is reliable and able to make a difference. At E3 we had a chance to try it but before it, there were many failed attempts.
Virtual Worlds and the Eternal Dream of Looking At These
For decades we have explored all virtual worlds: we have saved princesses, we have put in the shoes of our favorite athletes … We’ve always done from afar, from a framed screen that reminded us that what surrounds us is real.
A crystal that we could not cross, beyond the fiction that has proposed through its fantasy we dive and be partakers of those adventures. However, there are more than printed words, but the technology is still struggling to get something similar.
And at that point between the real and the virtual, Virtual Reality was born. Or what is the same: to simulate virtual experiences in a real environment to create the illusion that we are stuck squarely in that game, but knowing full well that we in the real world.
This dream began many years ago, a thought that was born when the technology was still asleep, which still was not able to make the cut and truly become a reliable, in a reference. Nevertheless, the ambition of dreamers never ceased.
If we talk about virtual reality system applied to the game, during the 90 attended a small boom with several alternatives. This time turn coincided with the jump from 2D to 3D primitive home consoles with Games like Virtual Fighter.
From Sega VR Virtual Boy, the Broken Toy Box
In the early nineties, SEGA was involved in a titanic proportions pulse with Nintendo. For most gamers, a special of Real Madrid / FC Barcelona where the war for being the first was constant. Competition, innovation, unique…
Beyond the consoles, the company’s blue hedgehog was engaged for some time in the creation of gaming machines and by extension was aware of how it worked more powerful hardware that allowed go beyond what was offered at the time SEGA Mega drive.
In their attempts to create realistic experiences, born SEGA VR. A virtual reality helmet that never came out of the magazines of the time. A futuristic prototype was quite attractive aesthetically. The proposal already know: dive into the 3D gaming was in its infancy and it was so rough.
The idea did not quite jell and a year later they left the first reports, in 1994, SEGA decided to reverse to park the project and focus on other fronts as SEGA CD, 32X and Saturn later, which is also rumored that he would to have a virtual reality system but eventually came to nothing.
While not quite SEGA start with the launch, Nintendo decided to jump with Virtual Boy. His proposal was quite ambitious: virtual reality glasses 3D system. He put all the meat on the grill: a lot of publicity (especially in Japan and the United States) in addition to the support of its major stars like Gunpei Yoko.
The thud of the Japanese was tremendous. Few units were sold; there are several reasons for its failure: the public was not interested in this technology, its performance was somewhat inconsistent and experience offered was far from what we had been promised.
The damage has made the film, and films such as The Lawnmower high expectations placed on a technology that in fiction was much more advanced to what in reality could. And so many other cases, such as domestic system had Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
Returning to virtual reality, with SEGA and Nintendo, many other companies were foundering in the virtual ocean: VFX1, Jaguar with his failed project 3D, the Z800 3D PC with its attempt to revisit the issue a few years later and recently Carl Zeiss with OLED Cinemizer.
Oculus Rift, Present Virtual Reality
And the years pass, the virtual reality projects happen until crowd funding appears on the initiative of a young Californian. Rift Oculus expectations Kick Starter breaks and closes a round of two million dollars when looking only $ 200,000.
Everyone has had the same fate: oblivion and drown in a world of much higher expectations than promising technology that walked far behind. However, this also drowned manufacturer is that in twenty years the technology has come a long way.
Time passes and the first prototypes are to be seen in shows such as CES and E3. The opinions of the specialized media, including our colleague Antonio Ortiz, succeed and all speak of a new phenomenon. From something really groundbreaking in the world of video games.
The graphical leap, online capabilities or the number of polygons and not enough to warrant a generation leap. We, now that technology allows, play differently. Dive into the Call of Duty, Portal and company to live all of a more realistic way.
Oculus Rift wants to be the ultimate dream, that they were looking for 20 years, a lot of engineers. This helmet is the result of a technology that has continued to advance to meet up again and show that, now virtual reality is serious.
There are still many steps to follow to reach the store shelves but for now it looks like Oculus Rift will be the first virtual reality headset, redundant, real.
