cyberbarf

VOLUME 15 NO. 12

EXAMINE THE NET WAY OF LIFE

JULY, 2016

©2016 Ski

Words, Cartoons & Illustrations

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Distributed by pindermedia.com, inc.

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VR TREND

The biggest thing to come out of the big electronics show, E3, was that the big console players are going large on virtual reality. New consoles and open source viewers drew the headlines from Las Vegas.

VR is the latest and greatest gold rush craze in the consumer electronics market. Hardware manufacturers, software engineers and content creators are all trying to figure out how to use the emerging technology. There appears to be three primary early focal points:

GAMES

PORN

MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Trying to capture a panoramic, 360 degree world that can be navigated by a head set is a challenge. People are used to the direct 3D screen image and nav buttons on hand controllers to move around fantasy worlds. But putting a person directly into the program, in a Ghost in the Shell concept, is where costly development will hit the road to profits.

Medical science has been using CAT scans to create three dimentional images of organs inside the human body. Next, the field developed real time, moving CAT scans to show how the organs are actually performing in the body. These diagnostic tools are used by doctors to determine how to treat their patients.

In addition, surgeons have started to use 3D printers to print out 3D models of the organs that they are going to operate on so they can practice techniques prior to the operation. This is very helpful when organs are wrapped around arteries or tumors which require delicate procedures for removal.

But augmented, virtual pornography is what some entrepreneurs believe will be the gateway into the American home. Recently in Japan, lines wrapped around for blocks for a VR Porn demonstration. The Adult VR Festival in Toyko drew more than 600 people as the crowd overflowed into the street. More Adult VR events are scheduled in Japan. It is ironic that Japanese youth would be interested in this since the nation is in crisis mode with a negative birth rate, less marriage and sexual relations and an increased acceptance of the NEET culture. It also cuts against the grain of the honorable society with strict traditions and morals for interpersonal relationships.

As we have observed, on-line porn has changed global society. It has made men's magazine pioneers like Playboy turn away from nudity and back to being a normal men's magazine. The free and brazen culture of the internet has made for-pay services and magazine obsolete. The business question is whether VR is so different that men and women will leave the free internet to pay for an enhanced viritual experience. It could be like visiting a theme park rollercoaster - - - you may want to do a couple times during the summer, but not every day or own the rollercoaster itself.

Pornhub has launched a new VR channel which will work with Android and iOS systems, including cardboard Google glasses. Reviewers note that the quality of the programming is blurry and not quite 3D or 360 degrees. Part of the problem for all 3D content providers is that filming a 360 degree space requires new equipment and new techniques in order to obtain the appropriate footage that can be used to fashion a seamless 360 environment. Much of the early adopters are learning on the fly, hit and miss.

But it is just not about porn but relationships. Around Valentine's Day, Chinese conglomerate Alibaba tried to kick start their VR wares by tapping into the lonely Chinese. In Chinese internet and text slang, 520 means I love you. So retailers expect there would be a lot of romantic gift-giving going on come May 20th. Aliababa's affiliate, Taobao, encouraged people to shop via VR headset by offering interactions with a virtual boyfriend or girlfriend. According to CNet, Chinese buyers needed the Taobao app and a VR headset such as Samsung's Gear VR. They simply needed to scan this QR code and then they would link to choose their cyber soulmate. Customers were offered two choices: boyfriend or girlfriend, the former played by popular Chinese actor Yang Yang, the latter by actress Dilraba. They would interact with buyers in various prerecorded point-of-view videos, wherein they would wake the user up and even make them breakfast. The celebrity date was a move by Alibaba to get more people on board with its new VR video player, developed by subsidiary GnomeMagic.

It is not that unusual for Asian celebrities, especially J-Pop and K-pop idol groups, to play up the possibility of romance amongst their fans. Personalized pictures and interactive messages have been used in the past. It would not be surprising that idol group agencies will exploit 3D technologies to give fans a more direct, one on one virtual experience, with their celebrity crush.

But the most E3 press came from the game sphere.

Even though no console announced, Sony decided show many trailers VR titles, including Batman: Arkam, Resident Evil, Star Wars, Farpoint,which will use the PS VR Aim Controller, a device offers direct 1 to 1 tracking, letting you aim in Farpoint just as you would in real life. Sony expects to release more than a dozen games when it releases its VR console in the fall. But since virtual reality is much harder to piece together into seamless 360 maps in real time, the question will be whether game developers will match their near Hollywood blockbuster visuals in normal PC games.

Kotaku reported Oculus has been under enormous pressure in recent weeks over an unexpected decision to prevent competing headsets from playing Oculus games, but the company appears to have reversed course. Games bought through the Oculus store do not natively support Valve and HTC's Vive headset. But a user developed piece of software called Revive allowed Vive owners to buy Oculus exclusive games and play them. In late May, Oculus added a hardware check that broke Revive. It required an Oculus headset confirmation or the Oculus game would not load. This prompted the developer of Revive to modify the software code to sideload games, making Revive ripe for piracy. “We believe protecting developer content is critical to the long-term success of the VR industry,” the company reported, “and weÕll continue taking steps in the future to ensure that VR developers can keep investing in ground-breaking new VR content.”

What is at stake is recoupment of development costs and brand loyalty. Oculus wants its exclusive games to be conected with its own hardware, much like Apple controls both the hardware and software interface of its product lines. But since the VR industry is so new (a kin to early video player days of VHS and Betamax) that it may be better to grow the consumer base of the entire industry than fight over whose headset the games can be used on. In a way, such a split function could increase the development process of the hardware gear and the software game play by allowing smaller developers into the industry space.

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VR IS SICK! ESSAY

The human inner creates balance between the brain's motor skill functions and the nerve connections to the body's muscles. When those bio-electric highways are obstructed or not functioning well, people have motor skill problems, imbalance or the inability to control one's self. Drunkness is an example of the dysfunction of the human body balance system. One can become sluggish, wobbly and sick.

Most early VR demos did not create sweeping motion, mostly do to the cost and high learning curve of building a virtual reality set. But now, game developers are trying to port their high action, first shooter games into the VR landscape.

Bethesda games is rolling out two of its popular titles into VR games: Fallout 4 and Doom. Sony has also announced it has a large catalog coming to PlayStation VR later in 2016. But the gamer media believes the choice of Fallout 4 and Doom is a potential litmus test for traditional gaming experiences in VR because both of these games are direct, first person experiences involving a lot of walking and running around a map world. That kind of locomotion because those the types of VR games cause feelings of motion sickness in players. The primary question to answer is: would the open-world experience be too jarring to the human body to enjoy for more than a few minutes?

It depends on the nature of the game play. CNet reporters played Star Trek: Bridge View VR game and enjoyed every second of the experience. In this game, Ubisoft It puts the player in one of four roles: the captain, the helmsman, the tactical conn or the engineer. EAch player has their own VR headset and must work together to pilot and command a brand-new Star Trek starship. Players can each see each other, talk to each other with integrated voice chat, even gesture to each other if you have a set of motion controllers. The whole game is played as a joint effort. Each player's position has at least two functions that need to have input from another player in order to work. So this Star Trek game is bridge simulation with its foundation being communication between players. For example, the tactical officer cannot fire phasers until the helmsmen gives him a firing solution. The helmsman cannot go to warp unless engineer prepares the warp coils. The chief engineer cannot transport stranded survivors onto the ship unless the tactical officer lowers the shields.

The Star Trek game play involves players at set stations and not moving around in a grid. This helps against motion sickness because the movements between player and the bridge area is small. But if you are running, leaping, grappling, flying and falling like in Assassin's Creed, your brain is not getting the feedback from your actual body muscles to understand the images from your optic nerve.

There were also E3 reports on what it was like to use the current VR goggles. Many players said that one of the things they noticed in time is that there own body movements were much less than the body movements in the VR world. This added to the strange sense of playing the game. One could keep their feet planted in the ground, but hurl a weapon with a mere flick of the upper arm or shoulder. The discconect between how a human throws an object in the real world and the virtual world is significant.

The Wii motion system made players move their actual bodies in order move the players coordinates on the screen. Players of all ages got a lather when air boxing an opponent. Wii was such a popular work out that an entire series of exercise games were created (especially for parents). But current VR game play is not geared toward physical demands (which actually is a bad thing. Would it not be better if a soldier running a mile in a combat co-op actually run in place a mile to see how his real world stamina equates in the game world?)

So one of the major obstacles to VR consumer use, besides the cost, is whether the problem of physical illness will turn off players. Now, there is an old grandmother's remedy for motion sickness: peppermint sticks. Giving a grandchild a peppermint stick would cure car sickness. But it probably a choking hazard to pop a mint longene in your mouth while repelling down a steep canyon to meet your doom in hand-to-hand combat with a dragon.

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THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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