Virtual Reality

Read a selection of Science Fiction stories about virtual worlds, and you’ll soon discover that the following are inevitabilities:

• True intelligence will emerge from the hideously complex machinations performed by the virtual world engine, with unnerving consequences for human morality.

• Unscrupulous people will transfer their consciousnesses into hardware in order to live forever, muahahaha.

• Virtual worlds will be experienced through virtual reality interfaces so good that the virtual will be indistinguishable from the real.

The first two of these are not of immediate interest to the designers of virtual worlds, being somewhat distant prospects at the moment. Virtual reality (VR), however, while as yet nowhere near the quality envisaged in speculative novels, is far more accessible. Why not create a virtual world with a virtual reality interface? It would attract media attention, if nothing else.

For a virtual world with a closed user base, a VR interface is indeed a reasonable proposition. A small academic research community or a large industrial or military training establishment would be able to experiment with the idea and get fruitful, worthwhile results.

For an open user base, though, VR isn’t yet an option. It’s simply not value-added enough for developers at the moment, that is, the costs of putting it in outweigh the benefits. Until the technology improves ¹ and the installed base reaches some critical mass (whether because of computer games, 3D movies, 3D video cameras, or something else), VR would be available to but a few, lucky or wealthy players.

There is an argument, though, that VR access to a major virtual world could itself be enough of a draw that people would be willing to acquire the necessary hardware to play. Of course, for this to happen VR would have to bring something quite special to the virtual world experience.

So what would that be? It depends on the set-up, of course, but in the first instance the chances are that a basic VR kit would mean full-vision headsets with surround sound and orientation detection, plus gloves incorporating movement sensors and some degree of positive tactile feedback. Using such an interface, the virtual world could:

• Let you see it in 3D ²

• Let you hear it in 3D

• Tell in what direction you’re looking

• Tell what your hand is doing

• Deliver sensation to your fingers

• Accept speech input

What advantages would accessing a virtual world through such a VR interface confer over the traditional mouse and/or keyboard approach?

There’s some convenience in being able to control what you see and do by means of head and hand movements, countered only by the slight inconvenience in having to sport the equipment needed to support it. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that a player using a keyboard and mouse would be at a serious disadvantage compared with someone kitted out in the modest VR set-up described here, at least in terms of their ability to control their character in a virtual world.

Speech as an input form seems, at first glance, to be an attractive proposition. It wouldn’t be all that great in command mode, because speech recognition software still has a long way to go before it could be of genuine utility. In conversation mode, though, it would be much more effective—but only if it could be completely disguised. Again, although voices can easily be distorted using today’s technology, it’s likely to be some time before they can be altered so well that they don’t sound altered. But why is some form of disguise necessary anyway?

One of the main attractions of virtual worlds is the ability to be whoever you want to be; anything in the virtual world that anchors you to who you are in the real world is a disincentive. When you hear an elf in the middle of a sylvan wood speaking a New York accent, or a mighty-thewed, bare-chested barbarian who sounds like a schoolmarm, sadly reality is intruding a little too much. If voices aren’t disguised, players aren’t disguised, and then the virtual world is just another aspect of the real one.

3D vision and sound, and to some extent tactile feedback, are the real gold for VR. They make the virtual world more persuasive, which helps players immerse themselves in their (virtual) surroundings. The change won’t be to everyone’s taste—some people are always going to prefer text, for example, on account of how it speaks to the imagination rather than to the senses—but it’ll help anyone who gets on well with graphics ³. That said, flat images are already quite capable of immersing players into a virtual world, and they don’t have to cut off great swathes of the real world to do it. Players like being immersed in virtual worlds, and will happily ignore negative cues if they get sufficient positive ones that they can will themselves to suspend their disbelief. You don’t have to trick them into it; they’ll go for it anyway. Giving them more ‘realistic’ visual and auditory stimulation will provide additional signals, but are they mere luxury? Designers can and do encourage immersion by many other means ⁴.

So, would VR merely amount to a marketing ploy to attract newbies?

Cynics might suggest that this is all that adding graphics to virtual worlds ever did, but even they would have to concede that it worked. The allegation is unfair anyway, in that a graphical interface to a virtual world does actually make a tangible difference. If, for example, in a textual virtual world you happened on a gathering of 50 characters, you’d have to read 50 names to see if there was anyone there with whom you wanted a chat. Spotting a friend from among 50 faces in a graphical virtual world is far, far quicker ⁵. Would a VR interface add some genuinely useful feature that flat graphics and two-point stereo don’t?

Frankly, probably not. Unless the virtual world has very counter-intuitive physics (for example, the further away an object is, the bigger it appears), you’re not going to learn much more about it from experiencing it in 3D than you can already figure out from the perspective and motion conventions of 2D.

Unless…

Unless designers can exploit the extra capabilities that a VR interface imparts. Instead of clicking where you want your arrow to land, you raise and point your bow, then release the string—with true depth to your vision, you can now judge trajectories. Instead of running to attack the lightly armed man, you flee—you can now see he’s a giant. Instead of walking in the gaps between well-spaced trees, you push through dense forest—the tree trunks no longer merge to look like fences when they’re close together. VR really does offer new prospects.

Unfortunately, virtual world design is not yet sufficiently developed to make the best of this. Game designers still have to make more use of sound as a gameplay element, so it seems unlikely that virtual world designers will successfully embrace VR the moment it becomes available. There may be some centerpieces that show off the technology, but that’s likely to be all. When you catch a movie on TV and notice that people seem to be pointing or throwing things toward the camera a lot, pretty soon you realize you’re watching an old 3D movie in 2D. Directors never really came to grips with 3D in movies. Will designers fare better when VR comes to virtual worlds? Or will it be a case of, “Aww, man, not the guys with pikes again!”?

The theory is good, but the practice may take some time to measure up to it.