14 DAY TRIAL // Michael Abrash, the leader of research and development at Valve, believes that solid and consumer-oriented virtual reality headsets will make a big commercial impact by 2015 as long as developers have access to the resources they require.
VG247 quotes the developer as stating during the Steam Dev Days that the entire way we experience video games and other entertainment will be significantly changed.
He explains that, “It’s the sense of being someplace else while in virtual reality; many people feel as if they’ve been teleported. Presence is an incredibly powerful sensation, and it’s unique to VR; there’s no way to create it in any other medium.”
Abrash adds, “for latency and bandwidth reasons, presence can only happen with a head-mounted display connected to a device capable of heavy-duty 3D rendering, so there’s no way that TV, movies, streaming, or anything that lacks lots of local compute power is up to the task.”
During the Steam Dev Days, Valve explained that it had conducted a lot of research into virtual reality and the technology required to make it commercially viable.
But the company has no plans to launch its own consumer devices and will work with Oculus Rift to promote a commercial launch.
The Oculus Rift was first created using money offered by fans via Kickstarter and has since secured significant backing from investors to create a more advanced version of the device.
The Crystal Cove was first shown recently and the tech it incorporates solves many of the problems that gamers had with virtual reality.
It is not yet clear when the consumer version will be out officially and what video game developers are currently implementing VR in their own products.
Sony is also rumored to be working on its own solution, which is set to be linked to the PlayStation 4 home console.