Virtual Reality is tech’s biggest question mark. Could it become a mainstream medium, like movies or video games, or something completely different? A lot of people have tried and failed to answer that question, and while Intel’s VR Happy Hour at the New Museum on Tuesday is no exception, roleplaying as a tree and directing a monster is a pretty entertaining way to spend two hours.
I arrived at the New Museum around the time the event began at six o’clock, and was ushered up to the seventh floor’s posh Sky Room, where among the milling assortment of journalists, circulating waiters, and an open bar were four wildly different VR experiences that Intel was pushing as various Next Big Things in virtual reality technology.
The first, and least impressive demo I tried was Intel’s collaboration with the Smithsonian. Running on an Oculus Rift, the experience had recreated a few rooms of the museum that were navigable by selecting a point on the floor, teleporting to it, and viewing a 360 perspective from that vantage point. In addition to a view of an artwork, the demo could virtually call up an info card, and most interestingly, teleport the user into an experience related to the painting. For one of the Aurora Borealis, you were transported into an arctic landscape. For a relocated statue, you appeared in the statue’s original location. And for a screening of a film, you were transported into the theatre. While all of this was novel, the art was not particularly hi def, which is par for the course for VR as of now, but for an experience based on visual aesthetics I found it lacking.
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The final experience of my night, and probably my favourite, was simply called Tree. In addition to an Oculus Rift, I was equipped with a SubPac tactile audio system and traditional headphones. During the experience, I lived the life of a tree, from the planting of the seed breaking through the soil, through my growth — amongst ants and apes and birds — to becoming the tallest tree in the forest, to finally being chopped down by loggers. I was also bombarded with a scent experience — courtesy of International Flavours and Fragrances — that added an exciting new dimension to my immersion.
Tree was the first VR experience where I forgot, for a moment, that I was anywhere other than a tranquil forest. This experience seemed, more than any others, to understand the limitations of VR, namely that the purely visual experience will only take users so far, so by employing the other senses, one forgets, if only for a moment, where they are in the world.
VR itself is likely years away from becoming a mass market product, barring some huge change in the technology. The headsets are expensive, people get nauseous, and no one quite has a killer app yet. I don’t think I saw one on Tuesday, but the these detours on the way to one are entertaining, and there are certainly some strange experiences to be had.
Source: Gizmodo