BA5: Contextual studies research features of VR headsets

Potential experiences:

In this document are we look into potential experiences that people may receive from the headsets and how with the VR headset it can open a window into different experiences that many people can enjoy and not just gaming.

Religious experience:

One recent experience of artless rift seems to be very far away from the traditional gaming point of view of this technology. Recently Rev Christopher Benek took a Christian experience with the Oculus rift from his ministry in Florida. He talked about the possibility of using the Oculus Rift in worship and education he said "Personally, I think that as technology like Oculus Rift becomes more developed, immersive, and available to the general public, we may soon be able to easily develop virtual worship and Christian education experiences."  he claims that technology like this will allow the church to outreach to homes  making it easier for churchgoers to have their experience even from the comfort of their own home

Car safety:

Toyota have teamed up with the minds behind Oculus Rift to create a new applications of doctors teach people how to avoid distractions on the road and also teaching them how to drive safely. with Toyota being very concerned about distractions from phone calls or text while driving posing a real danger to young drivers takeover Toyota decided to try and use a modern method in order to teach young people the rules of the road. Toyota have a whole campaign dedicated to to young driver safety called teen drive 365. This campaign includes competitions and also helpful advice on learning techniques to stay safe. The corporate marketing director for Toyota Marjorie Schussel claims of this experience they would allow teenagers to experience crashes and devastation in a safe controlled environment allowing them to fully understand the impact of an actual crash he was quoted as saying "By putting on the virtual reality glasses, you're doing it in a really safe environment and you're really seeing the impact of distractions like texting or picking up your phone would have in a real driving situation"  Toyota will bring this safety simulation to all of the future shows and hope it will be their spearhead in their new safety campaign for the future and hoping to reach the younger audience in teaching about road safety.

exploration

safety programs for cars are not the only vehicle reality application for the oculus rift. Victory motorcycles have teamed up with oculus rift creates one of the first virtual tours of Sturgis well-known to to host an annual motorcycle rally. the company have created a full motorcycle video of a first person perspective on a bike riding  through Sturgis. there is an example image from the video

afterward motorbikes they are unable to be drivenin the winter months as it is often too dangerous because of ice and snow buildup box with the power vacuous wrist this will allow bikers to experience some time rides all the way through the year the general manager of the victory motorcycles said that "It's tough to do this during the winter months in a cold climate, but not impossible. By combining VR with the physical elements of a ride, we're able to transport riders for a few minutes into a sun-filled summer Sturgis ride. It's unlike anything motorcycle riders have experienced and proves the exhilarating performance of Victory Motorcycles in a different way."  this highlights  that not only VR headsets can explore environments but they can also add  environmental weather effects to enhance or even hardened and experience.

Bibliography

Christopher Benek

February 20, 2015 "Personally, I think that as technology like Oculus Rift becomes more developed, immersive, and available to the general public, we may soon be able to easily develop virtual worship and Christian education experiences."   Get Ready for Oculus Rift to Deliver a "Christian Experience"

Marjorie Schussel
February 20, 2015 "By putting on the virtual reality glasses, you're doing it in a really safe environment and you're really seeing the impact of distractions like texting or picking up your phone would have in a real driving situation, and it's also a lot of fun" Toyota is using Oculus Rift to educate drivers about distracted driving

Rod Krois 
February 20, 2015 "It's tough to do this during the winter months in a cold climate, but not impossible. By combining VR with the physical elements of a ride, we're able to transport riders for a few minutes into a sun-filled summer Sturgis ride. It's unlike anything motorcycle riders have experienced and proves the exhilarating performance of Victory Motorcycles in a different way" Oculus Rift and Victory Motorcycles are Taking People on First-Ever Virtual Rides In Chicago

BA5: dumpster model Renders

using the render engine key shop is able to take some screenshots of my model in a high-quality render engine and also do a VR suite which allows people to view the model village and 360° to HTML link.

Link: https://e37925b2ca99076111c16eaf46609b8090e9e906.googledrive.com/host/0B99epi0bABPRdlBjc0hBWExkMWM/Rander_Dump.html

BA5: dumpster model specular map

here are some image of the specular maps placed upon the model

BA5: dumpster model texture

here is the texture that I created for the model along with the actual image and UV snapshot of the model.

BA5: dumpster model with high poly normals

as I learned how to use axe normals I was able to take the high polygon objects put them into axe normal and sport the normals and then place it on a normal map  I then ran the texture for the model through crazy bump and applied the normal normals taken from x normal on top of it here is the final results.

BA5: dumpster model

here are some screenshots taken from within mire of the model dumps that I have created

BA5: Art test 2

for a second artist were asked  by a company owned by Sony called gorilla to create an asset from a piece of content.they gave us that would be used within one of their titles on the PlayStation Vita. The game is a limit of 1000 polygons bop pastels if we could keep the limit underneath 800 and told as to recreate the model as close as records of the conceptual image that they gave us shown below.

 were also asked to create the texture for the asset creating a column at the normals and also a specular map to go with the asset. It was last to create a low polygon variation of the assets that could be viewed from 10 meters or more and also a high polygon model that could be viewed 10 meters or closer.

BA5: Contextual studies research VR applications

VR applications

In this document I will look into the potential applications that VR headsets offer to not only the gaming industry but also technology industry in general. Will be going over what VR help sets can help people achieve and also what it can help them experience.

Helping disabled people:

VR headsets are not just for gaming they can offer a wide variety of uses to even the disabled. Allowing people with disabilities or maybe even amputated limbs they may not be able to leave their house these headsets may allow them to experience the outside world giving them an opportunity that they would otherwise not be able to have.

   Experiencing environments or scenarios:

with the  VR headsets they offer the opportunity for all to experience new scenarios that were impossible with conventional monitors.

Simulated world: this will allow users of the VR headsets to explore a fantasy world in a first person and myths of fashion that has never really been done before allowing the players to explore every knock and cranny  of this world and become fully a minister and experience what has to offer.

Historical visits: This will allow use of the VR headsets to experience past events of great significance in a similar first person perspective allowing them to Leon and also experience what it was like to be in that past scenario.

Environmental discovery: this would allow users to maybe explore part of the world that they have not been to or maybe cannot get too yet allowing people to see somewhere that they may want to go and visit while giving them a taste of what the place may actually be like which would be impossible to do without a VR headsets.

Better immersion within games:

VR headsets could offer new situations within games that could improve storytelling  for example if the story was told in first person where characters within the game would interact with your character that face-to-face this would offer an almost personal conversation with the character  allowing for more meaningful conversations within the game even further

New game features:

the new game features that could be added to future games that are integrated with VR headsets is almost an endless possibility of features. new features could be things like in-depth discovery of an environment this would mean that players would have to scour and environments for example a room for clues of information about a certain person  almost like a detective game or a feature like face-to-face conversations with other characters the list of possible game features could go on for a long time but it would appear that we will have to wait until game companies get their hands into VR game features

 Educational features:

educational features of VR headsets is similar to the other features that are discussed within this document such as scenario or historical tours into different part of history for example experiencing things like the signing of the declaration of Independence in almost a first person view allowing students to almost experience the events  giving them a more hands-on approach to learning may also involve studying different architectures from different countries without even visiting the maybe leaving planning the structure of buildings through a 3-D viewer. it seems that the educational possibilities the VR headsets are as vivid as the imagination 

BA5: Contextual studies research VR competitors

VR competitors

Though the oculus rift was the first to be our heads are to be announced for the companies did not just sit back and allow the oculus rift to take over the market with  Sony and Microsoft both throwing their hats into the ring with their own Vr headsets oculus rift is surely going to face some stiff opposition from these other companies.

Oculus rift:

Oculus rift started out as a projecton the website kickstarter asking many people to donate money to see the development of a virtual reality headset. The device instantly became a success on the site raising the $300,000 it needed to begin its production was the goal was met the developers created the DK1 set aka development Kit one and also for people who donated the money to the site of a certain are over there are also given a prototype of this headset. this was back in August 2012 since then the oculus has appeared at many different events showing updates different modifications and also new features included into the device. Most of the features have been only for the development kit and also the development kit number two this is really for the company to give the device out to content creators that they can develop for this device they have been non-official public releases of the device yet both recently atand Expo the creators of oculus wrist have confirmed they will bully be releasing a customer version of the device next to the general public.

Oculus riffs of main demographic would be PC players as the device would acquire specialist GPU technology from Nvidia and AMD only found within the new cards to support the dual screen technology within the device as most standard  GP use do not have to do function with two dual monitors and device drivers may not be compatible with old GPU technology. With oculus is unique selling points of virtual reality while gaming  and being mostly designed to be played with most mainstream games not requiring much movements from the player I think oculus wrist has gone past been a gimmick and more into a mainstream idea to improve the nation and experience within PC gaming and I think this is where oculus goes past all the gimmicks like the PlayStation Move or the connect from Microsoft and it may generally have a future within the industry as the go to the ER headsets.

Projects Morpheus:

Project Morpheus is Sony's chance to throw their hat into the ring of the VR game. Being announced in 2014 Project Morpheus has very little details released about compared to the oculus rift that has been no set release date for the Morpheus. with new details set to be released in 2015 on the Morpheus some speculate that will be a PlayStation dedicated the are set working for PlayStation for PlayStation three and even the PlayStation Vita allowing unique options for PlayStation users only.

Microsoft hollow lens:

with Microsoft announcing in January 2015  its PR headsets that hollow lens.  the hollow lens offers to promise full integration into the new window 10 OS and also projective holograms onto the environments which the user is viewing. This headset boasts to be its own computer difference to project Morpheus and the oculus rifts this headset will work independently of being attached to a machine with its own CPU and GPU and even an new HPU which stands for holographic processing unit. this headset primarily will be focused as a way of bringing Windows 10 to a new perspective and a new audience it will not be primarily focused as a gaming utility.  Microsoft are hoping to change the landscape in which users will interact with PCs with this product often with Microsoft products such as the kinnect  by often promise and under deliver.  as very little details are released about this headset is not much is known about the internal components or the level of detail of the screen.

BA5: Contextual studies research The history of VR

The history of VR

Though many believe that the Oculus Rift was the first attempt to introduce virtual headsets into the gaming industry they would be mistaken. One of the first attempts to introduce virtual reality headsets into the game industry was by Nintendo and what a product called Virtual boy. Unlike the virtual headsets of now this was a full console that was more in Kent to wear helmets. Here are some images of the Virtual boy.

Due to Nintendo's marketing tactic that the not ship the Virtual boy to America abd Europe straight away when the product was released on July 21, 1995 and predicted where a higher sales figures that were possible and after months of being available in Japan eventually shipped to America and Europe. But by that time support for the console had dwindled with Nintendo finally cut not support the Virtual boy not even a year into its release on 22 March 1996 with the last scheme of 3-D Tetris being its final release. Due to the lack of support for the Virtual boy it quickly died soon after with very little prospect of coming back. 

Though there are similarities today with the oculus rest and the Virtual boy the Virtual boy was sold mostly at its own console and its own platform  in which Nintendo could market a whole range of new games and I think this is what ultimately led to its downfall that it had to establish itself not only hours of VR headset but as its own custom platform while the oculus rifts nowadays is more seen as a extension onto many different platforms like the PlayStation 4. Xbox one or PC and I think this is where oculus rest has an advantage that it does not have as much pressure to succeed as the visual boy does giving it a stronger chance to succeed within the games industry with Virtual boy failed.

BA5: Contextual studies research

VR (Virtual reality)

For architectural studies project we have been asked to choose from multiple subjects about upcoming trends within the games industry and how the industry is dynamically changing the different events. the subject that I chose to look is a virtual reality and VR headsets effect on the games industry within the next few years and also the future. 

In the last few years virtual reality headsets mostly Oculus Rift have come onto the game industry seen in a big way with prototypes being demonstrated our expos such as E3 2014 and CES 2015 (consumer Electronics show) and also in previous years.  these demonstrations are often used to promote new features that are coming to the headset such as the release of development kits number two and also sneak peeks into the consumer greed products and what it will contain.

CES (consumer Electronics show) 2015 from a video by Linus Tech tips

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0bVakyvZB8

 E3 2014 from a video by Tested 

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcFQ5sQIwRs

BA5: learning how to bake normals

before this project I had very little knowledge on what normal  maps where and how they affected the look of a model. I'd use them prior in other projects but not  in a significant way. When we introduced to the concept of using normal maps to create extra detail using models I had to start from scratch and win the basics of what normal is where.

In one of our lessons we were introduced to the software X normal is this is a software package that allows the user to export to models one hi Polly and the other low poly and allows you all the detail to be transferred from the high poly model onto the low poly model using the method of making the normal is as in essence it would simply take all the detail from the high polygon model layer onto an image and then allow that to be placed onto the  low polygon model giving the illusion that it had more detail than actually did. 

I have never use this software package before in my life and had no knowledge on how it functions. so to learn how this software where I looked for tutorials on YouTube on  how to use this piece of software.one of the first videos I came across  was a simple tutorial on how to export the models and in what way they should be exported into the ex-normal software.

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq_3URQjYxs

so after watching some tutorial videos I went straight into my to create some high polygon structures and then  put them through the process of acts normal. I mostly did this my second project as a way to bring out more detail within a limited polygon structure. Here are some images of the high polygon assets than conveyed through acts normal is into plain 2-D images and then placed upon the model.

Bar

Normal on model

 High polygon model

Buttons

Normal on model

High polygon model

Wires

Normal on model

High polygon model

Pipes

Normal on model

High polygon model

Cover

Normal on model

High polygon model

Light

Normal on model

High polygon model

Control button

Normal on model

High polygon model

Cover door

Normal on model

High polygon model

Battery

Normal on model

High polygon model

Switches

Normal on model

High polygon model

Connecting pipes

Normal on model

High polygon model

Holding door

Normal on model

High polygon model

Here is the entire model with all the normal maps placed upon it