-Ronojoy Sinha

Ok so this was my first experience with VR.I had heard a lot of things about Virtual Reality and how it’d change storytelling forever. The fact that I could pick up a course in VR and learn more about it in Newhouse was reason enough for me to take it. Not a lot of places offer this course, so in a way I’m kind of pretty excited about this opportunity.

When I walked into the innovation lab for the first time, I was really amazed but the things that were in the room - Drones, Headsets and whatnot. There were things I had never seen before. It felt like I stepped into a different world, just like a VR experience.

I started off with the HTC Vive. The first thing I tried was the Google Earth VR experience. I chose to “Travel” to my country, India and see my hometown. I’d say the experience wasn’t that great since it wasn’t 3D. Also the fact that I was getting a bird’s eye view didn’t really engage me much. Yeah sure it was fun for the first few minutes but then it was more like a novelty factor  than anything else. The next place I travelled to was Boston, which was way better than the 2D experience of India. Although the 3D rendering wasnt that great either but it was definitely a step up from the 2D. The buildings looked like blocks with no real detail in them. It was kind of confusing at first.Despite being a 3D experience it didn’t really feel as engaging as I would’ve liked. The handheld controllers were not as intuitive as I had hoped them to be. After I was done with Google Earth VR, I did feel a bit disoriented after I took off the headset.I guess that was because since It was my first ever VR experience.

Next up was the popular game “fruit ninja”. I’d say this was one of the of the fun experiences I had. I’ve played some games on the Nintendo Wii and the xbox 360 with the Kinect; but playing a game on VR feels way more realistic. It literally felt like I had a sword in my hand.Although It did feel right out of a comic book though, the graphics looked cartoonish but didn’t affect me in any way.

I played some other games as well and the games didn’t cause any nausea or feeling of sickness in me, although I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about it. I like the fact that it kinda takes you away from the real world; I for one felt physically present in most of the experiences I tried.

Since there were a lot of people queued up to try the Oculus Headset, I decided to try some 360 videos. I downloaded the NYT VR, Littlstar, RYOT, Discovery & Within VR apps and out of these I really enjoyed some of the content on the NYT,Within & the Discovery Apps. Yes, the engagement level wasn’t as great as the Vive but one shouldn’t have such high hopes from a $15 headset anyway.There were few videos which hooked me though, for instance there was one on the Within app about African rangers who protect endangered elephants from poachers. There was also a video about the Indian river Ganges which was really interesting. 360 videos are indeed more fun and engaging than traditional videos but the quality needs to be consistent in my opinion. There were times when the video looked pixelated and wasn’t watchable at all. I guess that had something to do with the internet connection and not the app itself. I am looking forward to create some meaningful 360 content.

I didn’t get to do all the scenarios but I did some and really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to try them all in class in the coming weeks. I am SURE it will be a lot of fun.

As far as watching other people is concerned, it was definitely very funny. Some guys watched the stranger things trailer and their reaction was pure gold. I never really thought about it earlier but using VR for fictional stories is something that I’d want to try in the future.

I am looking forward to learn and work with this amazing bunch of people this fall. 🙂