During the first week of presentation the presentation that stuck out to me the most was the one about VR chat. I have seen videos on VR chat and had been interested in trying out the experience. The presentation reminded of the subject and re sparked my interest into the subject.
VR chat is an app on steam that allows users to interact with each other while using custom models as their "skin". These player interact with each other and form relationships depending on how they role play. The game also has custom made games that players can play using their custom made models. This game allows people to live out their fantasy and escape the harsh reality they actual live in.
VR chat feels like something out of science fiction. The game reminds a lot like ready player one, where people lived inside a VR world were people made a living use skins to hide who they really are. VR chat does this in more of simple way. The problem with read player one is that people stopped living in the real world and forgot what it was like to interact with and people lived in horrible places to get the best connection to the server. This is a scary situation were people are willing to sacrifice for something that is fake. VR chat is a far off from this situation but it could be a serious issue that could happen in the future.
VR chat was also very popular on twitch for a while. It allowed streamers to interact with people in their community allowing them to interact with their favorite streamer. I think that this was really cool. Twitch has always had the ability for streamers to interact with their viewers via chat, but now it finally allows some to see their favorite streamer almost like they were there in person. Twitch is a perfect example to show that VR is a popular subject among those in the gaming community.
VR chat can also be used for those who are unable to actual interact with people on the outside world. This app could help sick children interact with others while they are in the hospital. Hospitals could set up private servers allowing the children to interact with each other. This would help patients with diseases that don't allow them to interact with other kids because of their poor immune system.
I think VR chat is takes great steps into bringing VR into the public eye. I just worry that this might replace human interactions and complete change the way people live their lives for the worst. However I think that VR could be a huge help with allowing the community to interact with each other in a way that has not been done before. It also could prove viable to help those who are not able to live normal lives. It would give them a chance to meet people that they would be unable to. I think VR chat will do a wonderful job incorporating VR into people lives, I think that at one point it may need to be moderator to prevent a situation like in ready player one.
During class one of the examples shown was the game Resident Evil. Me and my friends grew up playing these games and needless to say this presentation caught my eye. At first glance this game doesn't seem to break any new grounds with VR equipment, it seems to follow the same pattern as other first person VR shooters do except this one has a horror aspect to it.
One of the first things i noticed is the difference with the intractable in the VR and non VR version of the game. In the non VR version of the game, the character can interact with objects with small pre rendered cut scenes that shows the character actual using the object or examining the object. In the VR version, they cut this completely and has the user touch things without any type of cut scene. Another thing the game does is in important cut scenes it flashes black and the character loses all control and is put into a pre scripted cuts scene. This is meant to stop people from experiencing motion sickness, however i would have liked it more if it stayed consistent through out the game and used the in game engine for these cut scenes instead allowing the player to maintain full control of the game. This gives the user a sense of realism, however i think it makes the game look less polished. These cut scenes in the actual game look really nice when compared to a disembodied hand grabbing something in the VR version, which leads me to my next point.
The non VR game uses a fully developed model that can be viewed at when moving the camera straight down. The VR version of the game replaces this model with two hands that act accordingly to the controllers. I don't know why they decided to use two disembodied hands instead of a full model. They may have had issues with the hands moving correctly when attached to arms, but because of this the VR game looks even less polished then the non VR version. The issue i have with this is that other games allow for full character models. The other presentation i covered was VR Chat, which allowed this and is also a free to play game. This just makes me feel like the developer was lazy and didn't want to spend the time to get a working .
I think the VR version of the game does a better job of getting the player more immersed and scaring them much easier. The game has plenty of jump scares and the VR version does a great job of having things pop right in front of the user. This is were the game does a better job without the use of in game cut scenes. The non VR version of the game has the same jump scares however the scares don't just feel as real as they do in the VR version.
I honestly think the non VR version is a just more polished version of the VR game which is sad since the VR version came out afterwards. This doesn't mean the VR game is bad, I think VR is great for games that use horror and I think that Resident Evil does a pretty good job using it to scare their customers, i just wish the game didn't have to take such a hit to the graphics.