Artists have been creating immersive visual environments since ancient times, with murals in Pompeii showing distant vistas that fill the entire vision. Large-scale panoramas became popular in the 19th century, with 360 degree paintings displayed on a circular canvas called a rotunda. Stereoscopic picture viewers developed around the same time led to the View Master camera, first used in virtual tourism.

Head mounted video displays were developed in the 1950s and 60s, with the term ‘Virtual Reality’ being coined in 1987. After pioneering but commercially unsuccessful game devices in the 1990s, VR development seemed to stop until a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a VR device called the Oculus Rift in 2012. After they were bought by Facebook for a cool $2 billion, every major tech company started working on a VR interface.

Devices

The main difference between VR devices is whether they are mobile, using a smartphone that fits within a headset providing the display and interface, or tethered to a PC or games console.

Mobile VR options include the Galaxy Gear VR, Google’s Cardboard, and new Daydream headset. All of these devices require a modern smartphone to deliver a VR experience. Tethered options include the Oculus Rift, the Playstation VR, and the HTC Vive, which seems to be the platform of choice for serious players.  Virtual is not the only alternative reality, with Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality experiences on offer.

VR

Virtual Reality consists of computer generated worlds, viewed using an immersive headset that sends images separately to each eye and tracks head motion. The exciting thing about VR is it gives an overwhelming sense of going to another space, even though your rational brain knows you’re still in the same place. The most common comment I’ve heard when people take off a VR headset is, “Oh, I’m back now.”

AR

Augmented Reality provides graphical overlays of the world viewed through smartphones or tablets, allowing for location based gaming such as the popular Pokemon Go or interactive maps with dotted lines to follow. There’s some fun AR apps for kids, such as Surprise birthday cakes, or a 3D colouring app called Quiver, developed by the Christchurch Hitlab.

MR

The Microsoft Hololens sits within its own space, offering a mix of Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR). Holographic images are overlaid onto real objects that you can interact with in a Mixed Reality (MR) universe. There’s some exciting MR content being developed by the Magic Leap team at Miramar in Wellington, and I’m really looking forward to playing the Dr Grordbort's Victory Game.

Storytelling

As a writer and animation producer, it’s the interactive storytelling aspect of VR that excites me the most. Noah Falstein, Chief Game Designer at Google was in Wellington recently speaking at the Game Developers Meetup. His talk, VR - a brand new million year old technology, was hosted by Victoria University’s School of Design, followed by an AR demonstration at Southern Cross.

Falstein described the current state of content development for VR as like the Wild West, with few rules and an obligation to experiment. He talked about the challenge of finding the right blend between storytelling and interactivity, and how emotions such as horror or empathy are magnified in VR. Google Spotlight Stories is a series of stories for viewing in VR for a full immersive experience, or on YouTube using directional controls to look around without a headset.

Special Delivery, produced by Aardman Animations is inspired by the classic Hitchcock film Rear Window. It’s a charming universe with side stories to explore before returning to the main action. It’s up to you to pick a path through the world, like the 'choose your own adventure' books from the 1980s. Pearl is a poignant story of a father/daughter relationship told through music, and from the perspective of being in the passenger seat of a car.

The New York Times is leading the way in immersive journalism with NYT VR. Nonny de la Peña (@immersivejourno) has produced some hard hitting VR content, such as Project Syria, which gives a visceral sense of being in a war zone.

Cultural experiences visiting virtual galleries and museums, or 'try before you fly' tourism are likely to become popular, along with virtual meetings, conferences, and events. Coachella is one of the first music festivals to offer a VR experience, and the City Limits festival in Auckland trialled a ‘join the band’ experience this year, to give a sense of being onstage alongside the musicians.

Uptown Garage is a new VR/AR hub in Auckland providing a co-working space for developers and content producers, with ProjectR, a VR/AR complex due to launch in Wellington early next year.

The future use of VR is almost limitless, with entertainment, gaming, travel, education, healthcare and physical rehabilitation. It may even help make ageing easier, with nursing homes starting to introduce VR headsets for the elderly. Architects and designers will be able to inhabit 3D spaces, and view their creations from every angle in the environment they will exist in.

The only limit is our imagination, and as Picasso said, “everything you can imagine is real”.