In the past three years, Zero Latency, a start-up in Melbourne, Australia, has been working hard to improve its VR amusement platform. The platform currently has three games that support up to six players simultaneously. The company plans to upgrade to a level that will allow eight people to experience at the same time before the end of the year.
The idea came from the company’s co-founders Tim Ruse (current CEO) and Scott Vandonkelaar (current CTO), who had this idea when they met the Oculus Rift for the first time while working at the online agency Roadhouse Digital.
“Oculus Rift has just been launched. At the same time, the movie “Patient Zero†from IRLShooter has appeared. It contains real actor and zombie-themed story lines. The idea is to fuse the two and create a kind of terror. New entertainment experience, explains Ruse.
Afterwards, the two men left the stable job and instead launched a crowdfunding project to support their creativity. In Pozible's crowdfunding project, they received $30,000 in funding in July 2014. Ruze said that although the money is difficult to raise, crowdfunding can indeed make the startup team aware of the VR fanatics' ideas. They are very eager to enter the virtual world and fight with their partners. And crowdfunding also opens the door for traditional VR industry investment.
By August 2014, the company had a 2,200-square-foot venue that allowed two players to get a completely wireless multiplayer experience and use pistols. A year later, the team upgraded the system and six players could use assault rifles to counter the VR version of the zombies. The game content is "Outbreak" developed using the Unity engine.
To date, the company's development team has created three new games: Survival, a fortress-defense zombie shooting game that includes squadrons of reloading fighters, and Singularity, where players play A group of Starfighters battles robots on huge space ships; Engineerium is a puzzle-solving exploration game where players need to explore anti-gravity ancient alien worlds.
There are more than a dozen people on the Zero Lantency team developing games, and there are also some contractors developing new games and developing DLC ​​for existing games. Vandonkelaar said that it takes about seven to nine months to develop a game. There is also a new game that will land on the platform in August this year. This game will make the zombie concept game more exploratory.
"We have now become a one-stop developer," said Vannonkelaar. "Although we are not game designers ourselves, we have also entered the local game developer community. And we have spent a lot of time developing and exploring the free-roaming VR experience. Our goal is to create 15 to 30 minutes. The content of the experience will allow all levels of players to have fun and to keep people informed of the system."
By June of this year, Zero Latency will open 10 theme parks around the world. By the end of the year, this number will reach 24. These include Orlando, Boston, Philadelphia, Wisconsin and Poconos in the United States. The company has several self-owned amusement parks, including venues in Melbourne, and has also authorized its platform through cooperation with companies such as Main Event Entertainment. The company opened a Zero Latency VR theme park at its Pointe Orlando Playground and Recreation Center.
Experience Zero Latency in person
I had the privilege of experiencing three existing Zero Latency games in Orlando, called VPlay Reality. Before the experience began, I met the game administrator. He explained all the equipment information to me and then became my guide in this 4,000 square foot area. It took about eight minutes for game administrators to introduce vests and backpacks (including an Aliware alien game computer), as well as the OSVR HDK2 headphone and Razer's headset, and later began to introduce assault rifles held by both hands ( It took another 7 minutes.)
Although still far from the real rifle in weight, this rifle is still sturdy and has a button on the bottom for reloading ammunition. There is a button on the side that can be used to switch four different guns in the game. Two of these guns are automatic rifles, while the other two require filling operations after each shot. The guns in the latter two games (the gun in each game is not the same) will make you feel numb in the arm the next day, because in the game, when the zombies flock, or the robot and the drone When you fly, there really is a lot of exercise. However, using this shotgun-like weapon in the game can get more points than an automatic rifle.
Vandonkelaar said that these custom firearms use a combination of optical and sensor tracking, allowing each gun to be controlled individually on the field. This patent-pending technology uses more than 100 cameras and motion capture devices to track each player's movements in real time.
"You can exchange firearms between different players, and you can even use two guns in the game," Vannonkelaar added. “Before this, as part of our crowdfunding project, we have also used two pistols. However, considering security, we began to focus on the use of rifle programs. If you let players pistol, they may wave A pistol hurts other players."
As mentioned in the pre-game introduction, the radar system will issue a warning when any two (or more) players in the game are too close together. The radar system will provide video signals to show the positions of other players, so it is easy for players to walk away from other players to prevent them from hitting other players in the midst of a fierce battle.
When your six-person team is fully dressed, you can enter this huge experience area. The experience area is basically an empty house, and the game manager will use a flashlight to guide you into or out of the game. In the experience area, you can put the gun on the ground in front of you, and then you can wear VR headset and headset. The game administrator starts the game and you can see and pick up the rifle. Next, by selecting your name on the screen, the game will start loading.
After playing a large number of Oculus Touch and HTC Vive games, it would be strange to see your hands in VR games. This platform focuses on the shooting experience and allows you to walk around and even run, but you don't have any form of gloves to bring your hand into the experience (at least not yet). And for those players who have played at home on many Oculus and Vive platforms, the VR content produced by the Unity engine can only be said to be unsatisfactory. The screens of these first-generation games are of course very consistent, but there is no improvement.
Vandonkelaar also said that their platform will support the Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine and other non-Unity development technologies. And Zero Latency is still developing the SDK, allowing developers to create original games for the platform.
What really sets this multi-person theme park experience apart from other types of VR experiences (whether it is the VR experience in the home or the experience in other VR theme parks) is that there is a game administrator role in the game scene. Ruse said that when the company recruits for this position, it will select passionate, technically pure, heavy game players, while being friendly enough and familiar with customer service.
“In the past, we found out that these people are necessary for experiential content because the players will have one-on-one contact with them and the game administrator will bring the player into the game,†said Ruse. "We want to give them more control, for example, so that they can really control your destiny, like the old Dungeons & Dragons game. These game administrators are very familiar with players, know the level of players, and You can adjust the game by making different choices to cater to specific players."
Zero Latency has already tested the concept for its regular customers in Melbourne, so it is only a matter of time before this approach is pushed to stores in other parts of the world. I personally witnessed the changes that this customization brings to the game. When I experienced Singularity for 30 minutes in Orlando's VR theme park, in 15 minutes, there were five players who played against me and only one player was interested in the robot.
Before we entered the game, our game administrator warned that the scene in the game would be quite crazy, this game is designed for six players. If she adjusts something, the game experience will be more interesting. Although I was not dead at one time due to teamwork and a complete team of six when I was playing against zombies, but when I and Enrique experienced the game designed for six people, I died 19 times and he died. Times.
All three games are different and suitable for replay. I personally prefer to play zombies because you can't go wrong. In the night, these zombies will come to you from the destroyed cities. When these monsters attack you from all directions through the fortifications, you have some time to repair the fortifications. Zombies move quickly in the game and are confined to a fixed area around your fortifications. There are also two sets of elevators. The sniper can get a higher perspective to kill the enemy. But I have been standing on the ground throughout the entire experience (to the end, all players have taken military helicopters to escape this group of zombies).
Singularity is the longest game in three games (up to 30 minutes) and is the most expensive game ($40). When six players play at the same time, they can get more fun. Everyone can fight crazy with robots, drones and AI. What's interesting about this sci-fi shooting game is that walking around in the VR world is very simple because it also moves around in the real world. By using elevators, narrow corridors and movable platforms, you do feel like you're moving in this large spaceship until you kill the boss. There is also a bizarre and zero-gravity walking experience on the wall, as well as battles that can cause dizzy cliffs. The game will also divide the players into two teams in the process and regroup them together in the final decisive battle.
A puzzle game that is not suitable for fearful players
Speaking of vertigo, the latest game "Engineerium" is not suitable for players who are afraid of heights. The game scene is located above the alien world. The route and platform you need to explore will turn in any direction. Even sometimes you head down and you need to get used to it. You are heading upwards in the real world. This is indeed a very different and will make you think about some confusing experience.
The most impressive aspect of the platform is the seamless experience of shooting or exploring during the game experience. Your mind can completely focus on having fun in the game world without worrying about meeting other players. Zero Latency is constantly working on these first-generation games (such as adding some kind of tactile feedback to the vest). I can see the evolution of this game experience. You used to see such scenes in science fiction.
The team is expanding the number of players supported and will increase to eight in the future. Ruse said that currently 16 people can interact in the theme park in Melbourne at the same time, but considering the security factors, in order to ensure that there is enough space for activities in the game, they are also controlling the number to ensure that every player enjoys the game. fun of.
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