Painting with the Full Palette of VR Tools
We commonly hear that Virtual Reality is a mixture of gaming, animation, video, and installation art. These mediums all offer different strengths to the palette of VR tools, from interactivity to photorealism.
When creating a VR experience, I find it useful to think backwards from the goal of the experience whether it be to increase retention while learning neuroscience or foster open mindedness for other cultures.
I thought I would share some slides I put together for students of Academy of Art to encourage them to mix mediums. You might find this useful in expaining VR to a newbie or if you are considering playing with a new element of VR.
First, a little reminder of why we migrated over to this crazy medium:
Think about WHY the experience you are making should be in VR..
Then, we get to the good stuff. Here’s my adaption of Kent Bye’s Elemental Theory of VR, which is amazing if you haven’t already read it.
You don’t always need every kind of presence (and you’re probably not going to get it at this point in the VR game), but it’s important to understand what kind of realism you are looking for at this point.
Following, I’ve provided many examples of the tools you can use to make VR:
The volumetric video options, a very appealing idea as it covers 3 elements of presence, though a lot trickier in practice. More here if you want to go deeper.
I also encourage you play around with alternative inputs and outputs, beyond your standard controllers and A/V input. This is best when creating an LBE or installation based piece as most consumer VR headsets won’t include these additional I/Os.
I hope this is helpful and inspiring to you! I love to experiment with how these tools play together.
