THE BRITISH TECH NETWORK

HTC VIVE

14 Mar 17

Following on from my previous post about my recent visit to Immersive VR in Norwich and my review of the Hololens I thought I’d knock up a review of the other bit of tech that really impressed me, the HTC VIVE.

Now I’m sure I don’t need to go into the specifics of virtual reality with you guys so I’ll get right into the review.

Up until now apart from a foray into the 90’s arcade versions and the odd Google Cardboard experience I have never been that impressed but that opinion was about to be changed when I got to play with proper tech made by proper developers and they were all in the same room.

The reason, which I have explained before, why I am visiting VR companies is that the university is already looking at the possibilities for its use in the future of teaching.

So I had a couple of choices. I could experience some medical or technical schematics VR, or, I could play a game where the Nazi’s have taken over a pyramid, opened a portal in time to the prehistoric age and brought dinosaurs back to win the war. Oh and you have a f*** off big gun to shoot them with. Guess which option I chose.

This game is in development so I cannot go into major detail but I can give you the basics. Initially you are teleported in the pyramid and are instantly attacked by Velociraptors. Before I put the helmet on I was told not to apologise if I swore. Me being me thinking I’m a cool dude and that would never happen to me. I was so wrong. I’ll go into that later.

The initial experience of the VIVE was really impressive. The headset even though it’s the size of a toaster is quite comfortable but it was the controllers that I was most fond off. They are quite simple in design and have thumb pads and triggers and a circular sensor on the top that track the movement of your hands. Even better when I looked down at my right hand I actually saw a gun which reacted exactly to my movements, it was quite surreal. My left hand had not been completely coded so it just appeared as a VIVE controller in the VR space.

Now back to the sweary bit. Like I said I was going to be cool. I was so wrong. What they didn’t tell me is that my gun wasn’t actually loaded with any bullets and I was about to be set upon by massive reptiles. I then had to move across the room, which with the VIVE is great because as you walk you physically move in the game space. I then had to bend down, pick up a magazine and load it into my weapon. I was terrifying and I won’t repeat what I said.

The experience was so immersive and the graphics were awesome, so far away from the disposable VR experiences I’d tried in the past.

The next demo they showed me and my favourite of all was an underwater experience. I found myself on the seabed with fish surrounding me. The landscape was breathtaking with valleys and real depth. You were then overwhelmed with a school of jellyfish, thousands of them and it was absolutely intoxicating. And with the VIVE controllers you could also interact with all of the elements of the simulation so you could tap on the fish and they would react. It almost felt real. I thought that I would be happy to spend the whole day in there.

Like I said before, with the VIVE you can walk around and you move in the virtual space, but there is always the worry that you’re going to bump into something. But this is not an issue. The VIVE has sensors set up that map the room and if you get close to something like a sofa, table or a wall it shows you an outline inside VR so that you know if something is in front of you. It was totally amazing. My mind is completely changed about the world of VR.

For more information check out this week's BIG Show for a deeper dive and if you get the chance get your hands on this kit as soon as possible.

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HTC VIVE

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