Most practitioners in the VR industry can expect that virtual reality will overturn the entire world in the next 10 years. There are many killer use cases for VR in healthcare, education, social networking, training, movies, and games. However, the VR industry seems to agree that there is currently no real killer application. A few days ago, RoadtoVR interviewed Nick Whiting, technical director of Epic Games VR/AR department, on this issue. The following is a summary of the interviews.
Whiting is responsible for Unreal 4 virtual reality business development. In addition to VR games such as Robo Recall, Bullet Train, Thief in the Shadows, Showdown and Couch Knights, he also assisted in the development of the War Machine series, including Gears of War 3. And "Gears of War: Judgment."
What qualities do you think VR killer applications require?
For me, the killer app should be something that can only prove the media. It needs to be an application that can attract people to the VR ecosystem because there is no other way to get the same experience in any way. This is the most decisive feature!
Now, VR is still in a very early stage. Like other media, we are in a period of imitating other media to a large extent. For VR games, we are largely mimicking the specifications of 3D games that have evolved since the 1990s. As far as entertainment is concerned, we have largely adopted the techniques of the film industry, but have made small adjustments to accommodate VR.
There is no innovation in this! You can see the same trajectory in the development of the early film industry, which at the time was largely imitating drama or public events. It is easy to forget that the grammar we now know is actually taking decades to develop to the point where it is today! Before the real start of a new field, the game imitated sports, comics and movies for many years.
Epic's Unreal Engine 4 is one of the most popular tools in VR game development. "Robo Recall" was developed using this engine. This is our first "complete" VR game and is expected to be released in Q1 2017.
The rise of the wave of consumer VR has only been around for more than a year now, so I think we have a little time left to develop concepts that are unique to VR media. I don't know exactly what they are, but I think we can guess based on their strengths.
If we are honest enough with ourselves, the experience on the market today is largely dependent on the novelty of the hardware. We all know that when you put on your head for the first time and you can look around, you will feel amazing. However, in the absence of fascinating content, this novelty will quickly fade and these experiences will not look so special. To maintain its charm, we need to determine what makes the medium unique and find out how to use it.
For me, the most important function of VR is "immersive interaction." This is similar to a sense of presence, but more often means that you can be truly represented in the world and your direct actions. Not only can you look around, you can reach out and grab objects in ways that are not comparable to pre-animated games. You become part of the plot, but this creates a magical feeling of presence. Therefore, I believe killer applications must include interactions using motion controllers. This enhances the immersive vision of VR and complements immersive interactions that can really make you internalize and become part of another world.
I think that another very powerful extension is the social element. The social experience in VR is very tempting because we can trace the real human movement. So, if I nod to you, your brain can recognize the meaning of this action, and you will feel that there is another person in this shared space. This is something that 2D video can't do, and it's also a unique strength of the media. Outside of VR, this level of intimacy can not be reproduced when multiple people share the same virtual space. With the development of tracking technology, this may become truly revolutionary.
Which area of ​​VR do you think will have the first killer application?
Depending on how you define it, "killer" applications may already exist in the corporate world. In terms of cost savings, we have seen a huge victory in enterprise applications, which has also led to a steady increase in the use of VR.
A simple example can be given from the construction industry. When a customer requests the construction of a multi-million dollar house, the architect needs to let the customer know what the final product will look like before it starts. Although rendering and pre-visualization can give you an idea of ​​the architectural style and aesthetics, it lacks some "human factors" and you don't know what this space feels like. Therefore, once a large-scale project starts and the customer can stand in this space, it usually takes a large amount of money to redesign and reform. Smart architects have realized that if you let customers walk in the VR scene and let them better understand the final product, this can greatly reduce costs. Because you can make changes before you start construction, instead of modifying it when it's built.
You can easily extend into many other areas of engineering and design. The concepts and ideas in these areas need to go through many different teams before the final results are achieved. If you can visualize a product in the early planning stage, you can help ensure consistency from design to hands-on to training before you start manufacturing. This can greatly save cost and time. Taking into account the popularity of VR in these industries, I think this can be called a killer application.
Do you think there will be VR killer applications in 2017?
Of course, because "Robo Recall" will be released in the Q1 quarter of 2017! But honestly, I'm still a bit optimistic about a killer application in 2017. Excellent content, there will certainly be. But killer apps are on the shoulders of countless lessons learned from applications that preceded it. Although we began to see many good content slowly appearing (mainstream market's attention to "Resident Evil 7" and "Rez Infinite" is a good illustration), but we need to remember that good content usually takes 2-3 years The development of time.
Consumers have only started to make large-scale listings last year. It is only a matter of months. Therefore, many traditional forces that created killer content began to enter the game only a year ago. This means that many projects that have just taken the first investment still have a period of about one year to develop. Therefore, I think we will begin to see a series of different developers launch more kinds of excellent content in 2018. We hope our killer applications will also appear.
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