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Hands-on: Why virtual reality IS the next big thing in tech

The current version isn't even the upgraded, HD one due shortly - but it's the single biggest 'Wow' in tech in years. Sony rushed to reveal a rival, Project Morpheus.

Hands-on: Why virtual reality IS the next big thing in tech

When Mark Zuckerberg bought virtual reality headset maker Oculus Rift, various wags chipped in with ideas of ‘Virtual Facebook’ - mainly involving virtual meetings with now-obese classmates, which sounds so hilarious that if someone makes that app, it'll be worth the $2 billion ‘Zuck’ paid on its own.

But Zuckerberg’s ideas - virtual chats with doctors, virtual tours, virtual holidays - suddenly seem less like PR guff once you put the new prototype version of the VR glasses on. It feels real.

Zuckerberg is staying 'hands off' - so the games in development now will still come out. When Rift arrives, expect your entire IT deparment to call in sick. Possibly forever.

 

[Oculus Rift lets you train with the England Rugby team]

 


The current version isn't even the upgraded, HD one - that's due shortly - but it's the single biggest 'Wow' in tech in years. Sony rushed to reveal a rival, Project Morpheus - and revealed it has worked with NASA to allow PS4 owners to holiday on Mars.

Forget all you know about early efforts at VR - it's like comparing a Game Boy to a PS4. This is the real deal - 3D, immersive, and controlled simply by moving your head.

Google Glass gets a lot of headlines - but it doesn't do much. Having tried it, the best bit's the sat nav by far. You can't even Google search. I defy anyone to try the new underwater Rift demo, and not do a Keanu-esque ‘Woah’ when the Manta Ray swims past.

When a blue whale swims silently past your side, you stare helplessly - looking at the surface as if there is a ‘way out’. Early, excitable reviewers likened it to The Matrix - and I am beginning to see their point.

Apart from putting Sea World out of business, though, Rift has the potential to be the biggest leap in computing since mice and graphical interfaces.

The 3D is far better than any in the cinema or on TV sets: there are two screens, not one, so your brain doesn’t have to cope with ‘crosstalk’ between the two images. On Rift, virtual worlds are as solid as the real one.


The control, again, is simple: movement, using an accelerometer to move your head inside the world. It feels as instinctual as looking around an office. Naturally, geeky start-ups have raced to bring out treadmills (so you can walk in virtual worlds) - and plastic swords.

VR could offer a way to navigate emails, files, and programs that’s like the real world - not a flat screen. Virtual spaces don’t need to be replicas of real ones - they can be libraries, video stores, anything on a PC, which we usually see as flat.

But Oculus Rift is for tinkerers, tech fans - geeks who like to play with ideas - so far, it’s been living in the strange world of game developers, not the world most of us inhabit.

The Gadget Show’s Jason Bradbury says that the big news is Sony joining in: “Rift is great - for geeky guys like me. But with Sony, it’s VR for the masses. You can go into Currys, or whatever High Street store, and there it is: virtual reality. That, for me, is it. It’s taken more than two decades since Lawnmower Man, but it’s here. VR for everyone.”


 [World's fastest lawnmower man]


Sony revealed it has been working with NASA scientists on its Morpheus headset to create a “virtual” Mars that PS4 owners can explore - hopefully at slightly higher speeds than the Curiosity Rover, which tops out at 300 feet per hour…

The first demos are clearly aimed at demonstrating this gizmo can earn money - I tried on a horrible shirt, virtually, in what seemed like gale force wind - and other demos allow designers to build in 3D, and children to learn design virtually.

The next thing after mobile? Perhaps that’s pitching it too hard (you can’t walk around wearing Rift, or you’ll die, whereas smartphones fit easily into our lives) - but this is exhilarating, blow-you-away stuff, whereas Google’s sat-nav specs aren’t.

When you exhale and see bubbles in front of you, you think, ‘Yeah.’ The key to Rift is it dosn’t rely on anything new - it’s built on the accelerometer in every phone, and the HD screens we look at, just built to create worlds. When I first played space shooter Eve Valkyrie, I practically had to be tasered to get me off it. It’s that good.

Gamers naturally felt that ‘Zuck’ had taken their secret thing and turned it into tech for normals. But they’re missing the point. Everquest Next is going to ‘go Rift’ - and that’s basically a ticket to Narnia, which for many may be one-way.

Zuckerberg isn’t a dictatorial type, either. His meetings are called ‘hackfests’ - or were until someone in legal suggested that might be tactless - and he’s promised to be hands-off.

Another reassuring presence for gamers is John Carmack, creator of Doom. Sure, brands are going to dive in for ads, for conferencing, and for training. But 3D worlds came from the world of gaming in the first place. There is no way that Mark Zuckerberg is going to turn his back on that. Especially not when ‘nerd rage’ is such a potent force in commerce it made Microsoft U-turn on Xbox One in just days…

Mark Zuckerberg is many things, but he’s no fool - and he knows geeks aren’t to be trifled with.