56 |^ |^ March 2020
Join us as we take a look at the current
state of virtual reality in gaming and
beyond. By Christian Guyton
irtual reality keeps
coming back, like a
bad smell. Or a nice
smell; a pleasing
scent of sandalwood
for the proponents
ofVR,astheyinsist that it’s ‘the
futureofgaming’ or ‘the next level
of immersion’. Some are completely
sceptical, while others think VR just
hasn’t quite hit its stride yet. There
are applications beyond gaming,
too, with virtual reality headsets
now being used in medical and
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The problem is that there have
already been a few ‘futures of
gaming’. First it was webcam
body-tracking, then it was motion
controls, then it was touchscreens,
then it was motion controls again,
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chips in them? Yeah, we don’t know
what ZDVJRLQJRQDW1LQWHQGR
when it dreamed up the Amiibo, but
the point is that gimmicks have
been a part of gaming for a long
time, and most of these fads haveeventually fallen apart. Virtual
reality has stuck around for longer
than most, with the industry
currently in its third ‘phase’ of VR
products. The technology is
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newer headsets, such as the Vive
Cosmos and Oculus Rift S, claiming
to offer superior motion tracking,
JUDSKLFDOÀGHOLW\ and immersion.
The amount of money being
poured into VR projects has
certainly risen in recent years, with
even Facebook swooping in to buy
up big VR business Oculus for a
staggering $2.3 billion in 2014.
Where is VR heading, though?
Examining the history of the
industry demonstrates a lack of
innovation since the initial
introduction of modern VR
headsets. While the hardware has
improved, the way VR works hasn’t
really developed, and there’s yet to
be a killer app that makes VR
headsets a must-have product. So,
we’re left asking: What’s next for
virtual reality?V