Less discussed uses for VR

VR is coming, and it seems clear that FPS games are probably not going to be the dominating application for it. With front runner Eve Valkyrie and several recently revealed games using third person and various versions of fixed perspective, which other uses for VR that havn't been discussed so much might take us by storm a couple of years from now?

One might suggest the obvious MMORPG or MOBA/brawler style games, but maybe more interestingly strategy games, CCGs (Oculus Touch supported?) or even Let's Plays or eSports experienced through VR.

I think there's a market for self-guided tour software. Think of it as a walking simulator in a museum setting where the user can explore and discover beautiful works of art. Or maybe take a guided tour of Highclere Castle & Gardens (the "Downton Abbey castle"). Stuff like that. I can think of a million other interesting natural and man-made locations that would be fascinating to explore in first-person via VR.

This real-world exploration from your living room is honestly some of the most exciting material I'd like to see come out of VR.

All of the above. I really want to take a trip to see the northern lights at some point but I'm hoping that a VR experience will deliver a compelling approximation in the mean time.

I think third person mmo's could benefit and would love to see how blizzard would treat hearthstone.

I have actually been thinking of writing to oculus/valve to see if they have any medical outreach programs yet as my wife is currently on dialysis and I think VR could be great for relaxing while at the center.

Aaron D. wrote:

I think there's a market for self-guided tour software. Think of it as a walking simulator in a museum setting where the user can explore and discover beautiful works of art. Or maybe take a guided tour of Highclere Castle & Gardens (the "Downton Abbey castle"). Stuff like that. I can think of a million other interesting natural and man-made locations that would be fascinating to explore in first-person via VR.

This real-world exploration from your living room is honestly some of the most exciting material I'd like to see come out of VR.

I would love to see it used as a way to experience visiting the Moon or Mars as well. I know there was a book that talked about it but can't remember the details. I just think it would be a great way to fund space exploration.

Honestly, I think the most useful stuff is going to be things like surgery and engineering. Once VR is a common consumer item, you can bet that they're going to get incorporated into places where visualization is already a difficult problem.

That's not exactly a use you'll commonly see in your home, of course. Though I do want to see VR used for 3D modeling.

Badferret wrote:

I have actually been thinking of writing to oculus/valve to see if they have any medical outreach programs yet as my wife is currently on dialysis and I think VR could be great for relaxing while at the center.

There's already research into using VR as pain distraction, particularly in situations where morphine is inadequate. I can definitely see the benefits of incorporating it into situations where patients need to be immobilized for long periods.

Virtual office space. Replace your ugly white walls and poor view of the side of someone else's house with a sunset New York high-rise with floor to ceiling windows. Have a virtual 6 monitor array to work on (ok we need higher resolution VR headsets for that to work, probably)

Your keyboard and mouse are where you expect them to be, so no need to worry about virtual interface. You could probably also swap out your office chair for a more comfortable one.

Forget just the top layer fantasy of having a nicer office though. Picture stepping right into your code or the commercial you're editing or... whatever other things people do at work are. Take a teleconference meeting with a much better human connection than you get over the phone, not to mention being able to actually 'share a screen' better.

Aaron D. wrote:

This real-world exploration from your living room is honestly some of the most exciting material I'd like to see come out of VR.

+1

If I ever buy a VR device, it probably won't be to play games, but to virtually visit interesting, far-away locations (on Earth and beyond!) that I would otherwise never get to see in person.

polypusher wrote:

Virtual office space.

In fact, Heavy Rain put some pretty serious thoughts into applying VR to detective work.

Military application, troop morale control.

Virtual classroom.

I can imagine a point where the technology gets so good that most people will have little reason to remove themselves from an enhanced reality. Live in a crappy neighborhood? Keep the glasses on and replace trash heaps with flowerbeds. As mentioned above, cover up deteriorating walls with virtual interior decorations. Don't like the way your boyfriend looks? Change his face to that of your celebrity crush.

I've wondered what it would be like to wear an Oculus where each screen shows the video input from one of two cameras mounted on poles above your head (really tall viewpoint, with super depth perception?). Or mounting cameras on the roof of a car, or exterior of a jet -- think Riggers from classic ShadowRun.

Other than gaming I can think of a few:

- watching a movie in a theater with friends
- military combat training
- exercise (biking or jogging on a treadmill with VR on)
- board gaming with friends no matter where they physically are
- having a face to face meeting even when the other person isn't there
- various job/school training/classes
- visiting / seeing great things you can't in life (museums, monuments, natural wonders)

Yeah, VR tourism is my #1 interest in VR. Sure, there are some neat gaming applications to VR that are intriguing, but the main interest I have in VR is the ability to virtually visit locations I'll never be able to afford to do so in person (and especially with visiting locations off-planet in VR!).

IMAGE(http://www.ontomax.com/images/multimedia/Demolition_Man-11.jpg)

polypusher wrote:

Virtual office space.

My company has an early edition Oculus Rift and we use it for a virtual tour of a customers potential brewery at brewing trade shows. We've managed to integrate VR into beer.

Nice! I've tested integrating beer and VR... via consumption. I found beer hard to drink with the DK2 headset on, except from a bottle. It's also tricky not knowing where your drink is! I think some kind of passthrough awareness tech will be needed, so you can 'see' your keyboard in virtual space, or your beer so that you can reliably act on real world stuff.

I'm in no way involved in this line of work, but I always though VR would be really useful for architecture. Image being contracted to build a house or an office for a client and being able to actually walk them through it before the ground has even been leveled.

VR tourism is also another huge thing for me, but the awesome thing is that we aren't limited by the places we have on Earth. Let me jump into Middle Earth, Westeros, Hogwarts or Narnia and I will give you all of my money.

polypusher wrote:

Nice! I've tested integrating beer and VR... via consumption. I found beer hard to drink with the DK2 headset on, except from a bottle. It's also tricky not knowing where your drink is! I think some kind of passthrough awareness tech will be needed, so you can 'see' your keyboard in virtual space, or your beer so that you can reliably act on real world stuff.

The Oculus Rift 'Beer Hat' Edition.

Day one buy!

On a more serious note I would like to see more VR used for historical reconstruction of the various world wars. We've seen grainy black and white footage of things like spitfires fighting over Britain and sherman tanks in Europe. But even though I've come closer than your average person to experiencing real combat though simulation games. What I get is still a pale imitation of the real thing. It's definitely a story that should be told and remembered.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/hbwpGTB.png)

I finally got to try the first Oculus dev kit earlier this week. While I was cautiously excited about VR before, I really can't wait to have my own headset now. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Rift all week. Here are a few things I'd like to see from VR:

Games
I'm of course excited about games in VR. I've always loved the first person perspective in games, and VR seems to bring you into the experience even more. Third person games could work if done right too, but I'm most interested in first person perspective games right now. If done well, horror, FPS, and first person exploration games (Gone Home) would be great. When playing through a couple of simulations, I found myself using the traditional WASD and mouse for most control, but fine tuning my aim by actually looking. I found this to work quite well.

Exploration
Like many others have already mentioned, I'd love to use VR to explore locations I'll never get to explore in real life, or maybe the VR experience will make me want to go there for real. I'd love to explore cool architecture, castles, space stations, etc. Exploring fictional lands would also be cool. I'd be all for exploring places from the Harry Potter universe.

Rollercoasters
I have mixed feelings of them in real life, but would find them easier to ride in VR.

Tool to Help Visually Impaired
Being legally blind myself, and working with blind and visually impaired people in my career, I can see lots of cool uses for VR here.

There are currently devices called video magnifiers/CCTV's that magnify paper documents, objects, and even distant objects like a whiteboard or PowerPoint presentation. Some of these are stand-alone desktop devices. Others are handheld and about the size of a large smart phone. Others are in-between and often connect to laptops or tablets as their displays. I'm wondering if the Oculus could be connected to a small head mounted camera, so the person could do the same as a CCTV for close and distant objects. There was a product called the Jordy, that used to do this, but it's no longer made any more. The problem this device had, was that you still had to look through the device to actually see the image, like if you were looking through a pair of binoculars or through a tube of toilet paper. This extra bit of distance before the image made the Jordy not work for me, but with VR screens, like in the Oculus, the image is right in front of the eye. I'd really like to figure this one out...

Another cool use would be to explore locations ahead of time in VR, so you know what an area looks like. This could be especially helpful for the visually impaired. I've used Google Maps Street View in this way before. Imagine not being able to read all of the signs around an area in real life, but being able to virtually explore somewhere first. Someone could learn a walking route, see what stores and other points of interest are along the way, and actually see what they look like ahead of time. Even if the locations weren't live, but archived, it would be cool to virtually explore an area ahead of time. Something like this could be useful for tourists planning a trip too.

Education
Virtual field trips, historical events, observing animals in nature, etc. I'm sure there are all kinds of educational uses VR could make possible.

It will be interesting to see how all of these hardware manufactures get VR headsets into stores and other places for people to try. Like everyone keeps saying, VR is hard to demo on a flat screen, and it's something you have to experience to really understand. If people are able to try VR, and the prices are reasonable, I could see people caring about VR a lot more than the 3D gimmick of recent years.

I can't wait for the retail devices to ship, along with real software. I'm equally interested in games, exploration, and educational uses for VR. I'm both excited and worried about playing horror games in VR and a good surround sound headset.

I think what we're being told is VR will have some applications much in the same way motion control has applications. Some big bright minds will make a lot of money, some smaller minds will ooh and ahh, and the status quo will continue more or less unperturbed because that is what is most profitable.

In time we will see some more significant breakthroughs in VR to a point where it's not just a nascent technology everyone is fawning over for lack of something shinier. That could be decades down the line, and possibly not even intended for our limited sentience. I think that'll really change things, but had I the ability to imagine what ways those could be, I'd be heavily invested and sipping out of a fancy drink on a sunny beach somewhere.

Possibly on drive D.

South D.

polypusher wrote:

Nice! I've tested integrating beer and VR... via consumption. I found beer hard to drink with the DK2 headset on, except from a bottle. It's also tricky not knowing where your drink is! I think some kind of passthrough awareness tech will be needed, so you can 'see' your keyboard in virtual space, or your beer so that you can reliably act on real world stuff.

I like how your example is, "I can't keep track of my beer." This is valuable information! Alcohol and VR are a match made in heaven.

Tamren wrote:

On a more serious note I would like to see more VR used for historical reconstruction of the various world wars. We've seen grainy black and white footage of things like spitfires fighting over Britain and sherman tanks in Europe. But even though I've come closer than your average person to experiencing real combat though simulation games. What I get is still a pale imitation of the real thing. It's definitely a story that should be told and remembered.

http://i.imgur.com/hbwpGTB.png

That image seems a bit OT, but it was still pretty hilarious.

merphle wrote:

I've wondered what it would be like to wear an Oculus where each screen shows the video input from one of two cameras mounted on poles above your head (really tall viewpoint, with super depth perception?). Or mounting cameras on the roof of a car, or exterior of a jet -- think Riggers from classic ShadowRun.

I like the idea of mounting the camera above and behind my head so I can control myself in third person.

A lot of cool ideas in here. The things I'd like to see are an expansion of the tourism stuff.

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective. And being able to do the ol magic schoolbus where you can become really small and explore the human body or even something mundane like your living space Honey I Shrunk the Kids style.

BNice wrote:

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective.

Oh god that would be amazing. Imagine being able to feel like you are actually attending some of the biggest games in the world without having to spend the many thousands of dollars required to get to and get into them.

pythagean wrote:
BNice wrote:

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective.

Oh god that would be amazing. Imagine being able to feel like you are actually attending some of the biggest games in the world without having to spend the many thousands of dollars required to get to and get into them.

Although to watch them you'll probably have to subscribe to ESPN-VR.

Gremlin wrote:
pythagean wrote:
BNice wrote:

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective.

Oh god that would be amazing. Imagine being able to feel like you are actually attending some of the biggest games in the world without having to spend the many thousands of dollars required to get to and get into them.

Although to watch them you'll probably have to subscribe to ESPN-VR.

Which'll cost you an arm and a leg.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Gremlin wrote:
pythagean wrote:
BNice wrote:

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective.

Oh god that would be amazing. Imagine being able to feel like you are actually attending some of the biggest games in the world without having to spend the many thousands of dollars required to get to and get into them.

Although to watch them you'll probably have to subscribe to ESPN-VR.

Which'll cost you an arm and a leg.

Virtually or literally?

This is currently kinda of ugly, but you can definitely see the potential. I can't wait until we are participating in or watching GWJ lead D and D sessions.

MeatMan wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:
Gremlin wrote:
pythagean wrote:
BNice wrote:

Being able to experience pro sports from court side, above or maybe even from a player perspective.

Oh god that would be amazing. Imagine being able to feel like you are actually attending some of the biggest games in the world without having to spend the many thousands of dollars required to get to and get into them.

Although to watch them you'll probably have to subscribe to ESPN-VR.

Which'll cost you an arm and a leg.

Virtually or literally? ;)

First one, then t'other.

Wow, a lot of amazing ideas and perspectives.

Though, let's really not kid ourselves; as SpyNavy may have hinted at up above, there's probably a tiny little thing called adult entertainment, which might have an interest in and, maybe, an interested audience as well in VR...

Well, someone had to say it.

Tripmo wrote:

Wow, a lot of amazing ideas and perspectives.

Though, let's really not kid ourselves; as SpyNavy may have hinted at up above, there's probably a tiny little thing called adult entertainment, which might have an interest in and, maybe, an interested audience as well in VR...

Well, someone had to say it.

Synced up fleshlight and/or Hitachi Magic Wand could make for some pretty epic haptic feedback