One of the major drawbacks of VR gaming and experiences to date has been the lack of a true multi-player and location-aware solution, to give the user an experience in which he or she really feels like she is interacting with friends or other players in a VR game or experience.
That’s all soon to change, if an exciting new piece of VR tech is anything to go by, with the new Vicon Origin system being showcased at SIGGRAPH 2018 this month.
Location-based VR experiences in major shopping centres and so on are becoming increasingly popular around the world, which is why VR content developers and gamers alike are pushing for this type of technology to deliver ever-better multi-user experiences.
Hence Vicon has created its Origin technology, a location-based VR tech system combining its tried-and-tested tracking system with a selection of tools for VR centre operators.
The Origin system comprises three pieces of hardware, plus dedicated software developed for the system. Vicon has worked with VR experience creators such as Dreamscape Immersive to create Origin.
Location-based VR experience industry set to boom
“The location-based VR industry is poised to explode, but for fans and developers to really embrace it, the experience needs to be flawless,” said Dreamscape Immersive co-founder and CTO Caecilia Charbonnier. “When Vicon first approached us about working with them on Origin we demanded the highest level of precision, and Vicon did not disappoint.”
So what does it mean to the average punter? Basically, multiple customers can appear simultaneously as characters in the VR environment, represented as fully-animated avatars, with incredibly accurate tracking in real-time.
Players wear ‘Pulsar’ marker clusters to provide accurate tracking, and tools and props in the virtual space can also be marked to enhance the sense of total immersion.
“We have decades of experience creating the most precise and robust optical motion capture systems in the world, so the expansion into LBVR was natural,” said Vicon CEO Imogen Moorhouse. “Origin has been perfected over the last few years, built upon the foundation of our proven solutions, and designed to meet the current and future needs of this exciting industry.”
Vicon is showcasing the Origin system at SIGGRAPH 2018 at its booth, where attendees can see an interactive demo of the system created by Dreamscape Immersive. SIGGRAPH 2018 runs from 14th-16th August – see more over at the official SIGGRAPH website.
Via VRFocus.
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