Sanya Sood

Assignment 1

Our first class gave me one of my first amplified experiences with Virtual Reality. Although briefly exposed to it while in Professor Elin’s class, I had never before used it myself. The experience was oddly fascinating - reminded of a clip that we, as Film students are shown repeatedly - a group of people in a theatre jumping away from the screen upon seeing an approaching train. Although our reactions were a bit more sophisticated, it did make me realise how we belong to a very tiny percentage of people who are even aware of Virtual Reality as a concept and an even narrower percentage of people who have used it and are thinking of ways to create “virtual content”.

My group and I started off with Google Cardboard. I had never before seen the Google Cardboard and was surprised to learn how it was literally made out of cardboard. Upon using it, I realised I constitute the 5% of the people who feel sick after using VR technology. It made me nauseous and woozy, probably because the head tracking wasn’t as swift as in the Oculus DK2. Although, I was the only one amongst my group members who couldn’t use it for an extended period of time. The others were relatively comfortable and one of the group members had already used it before and hence guided all through the process. Overall, Google Cardboard can be seen as a Virtual Reality tool that is light-weight and affordable. However, discussions were raised about the content being low res, which was surprising since it was a product by Google.

We then moved on to the Samsung VR Gear. Once again, I did not feel very comfortable using the tool for an extended period of time. We were informed how the Gear also uses a phone that is inserted into it. We were not aware of this fact and it was surprising to learn how the same concept gave us almost different experiences - while Google Cardboard made me feel like I was a part of a cartoon strip, The Samsung VR Gear seemed a little more realistic. The resolution was higher than Google Cardboard, head tracking was swifter and having sound accompanying the content made a huge difference. There was no sound while using the Google Cardboard and that is also one the reasons why it did not have a realistic experience. However, in comparison to Google Cardboard, the Gear was bulkier and much more expensive.

Next, we proceeded to use the Oculus DK 1. Obviously of a lower resolution than the Oculus DK2, there were other factors as well that did not impress me as much. It was hard to maneuver around the Star Trek “set”. Because the graphics were not high quality and manoeuvring around was not as easy as in the Samsung VR Gear, it did not resonate well in terms a VR experience. The other group members seemed to agree on the same. However, we were shown a picture of what the Oculus DK 1 looked like just one year prior, and that surprised us. The evolution of the Oculus seems to be progressing quickly and since it can be said to be in its nascent stage, we realised that it would only be a matter of time before a lot the shortcomings are done away with.

The Oculus DK2 by far gave me the best experience. Within the group, I felt that we had mixed opinion about the Samsung VR Gear and the Oculus DK2 being good competitors. With better graphics and better motion control (ability to lean forward), for me, the Oculus DK 2 was a personal winner. The Oculus DK 2 definitely opens up the doors for newer content. For example, using the Oculus technology in theme parks which have 4D screens would be revolutionising.

In the near future, out of the four VR technologies and tools presented to us, it seems as though the Oculus has a good scope - especially after its takeover by Facebook. On the other hand, Google Cardboard, if improved upon, can provide a high-quality VR experience at a reasonably priced value.

An experience that I’d want to try:

An experience I’d like to try would be “Affected” which belongs to the horror genre. Up until I read about and viewed a few clips of the experience, I hadn't really thought about horror being a good genre for the Oculus experience. However, the clips seem intriguing and remarkably gripping!