In an interview with VentureBeat , GamesBeat’s sister website, on Tuesday, April 29, Sony Computer Entertainment’s president of its in-house studio–Worldwide Studios–Shuhei Yoshida expressed that virtual reality, be it with the Oculus Rift of Sony’s Project Morpheus, is still very much in its early days, comparing it to how the original PlayStation One was to 3D real-time graphics back in the day–basically saying the the concept still has a long way to go.
When asked why he doesn’t necessarily view the Oculus Rift as a competitor, Yoshida explained that the virtual reality device will have the same effect as what the PlayStation One did several years ago, where–at first–people won’t be sure how to properly use it for videogames. He believes that the concept hasn’t even started in its own way yet, and predicts that it’ll take another two decades of progress for virtual reality to really excel in terms of its technology.
“ I was telling my people that it’s going to be like PlayStation 1 was to 3D real-time graphics for games. PS1 was the very first console that allowed developers to use realtime 3D rendering tech to make games. Initially, they were very limited arcade games, like Ridge Racer or Virtua Fighter , ” Yoshida told VentureBeat. “ People weren’t sure how 3D graphics could be used for games. Some people at the large Japanese publishers were very skeptical about 3D graphics tech. But after 20 years, things have really progressed. We have amazing games like The Last of Us or Journey or Beyond –games that use 3D realtime rendering for a variety of things. ”
“ When I look at VR, it’s still very early. It’s not even starting in a real way, ” he continued. “ When we launch Project Morpheus, or when they launch Oculus as a consumer product, I can see another 20 years of progress for all kinds of things. I feel like what Mark Zuckerberg [CEO of Facebook] is saying–he’s looking more at a future vision of what this can be, rather than the initial or second year. ”
Yoshida continued on to say that developers are still trying to figure out and/or discover what works for virtual reality, and what is required for the hardware technology to fully work. Though he believes the team behind Project Morpheus is getting closer to finding this out, he admits that there are certain things of Project Morpheus that have to be improved upon before it can be considered a good commercial product. He offered up progress on Project Morpheus as an example of this, throwing comparisons between it and the Oculus Rift.
“ We are still really trying to define or discover what works and what’s required for the hardware tech. Our team feels that we’re getting closer, but there are certain things that still have to be improved to make a good consumer product, ” Yoshida continued. “ The Oculus guys are saying the same thing. Even their DK2 [development kit 2] is pretty good, but still, they see some other areas they still have to work on. ”
“ So in trying these things, we are kind of helping each other. For example, DK2 has low persistence. It’s pretty good. We don’t have that. What we have is the 3D audio worked out … how we’re going to mix that and make it much easier, more comfortable to wear, for the PlayStation Move interaction that’s integrated with the headset. The positional tracking. ”
You can read VentureBeat’s full interview with Shuhei Yoshida via the source link below. Recently, the Oculus Rift helped a terminally ill woman cope with her cancer before she passed away. Oculus VR loaned her and her granddaughter a development kit so she could enjoy familiar and unique experiences. This act of kindness sparked an idea that the Oculus Rift could help out in medical applications . In late March, Facebook acquired Oculus VR, and subsequently the Oculus Rift, for $2 billion, and internet was not happy about this.
[ VentureBeat ]