Using Virtual Reality

FPS – TPS Model

You’ll forgive me if I only have my head on one subject at a time, I hope.
So I come back to the exploitation of Virtual Reality – this time not to propose interesting application modes – but to work on the implementation.

I’m not inventing anything: all this already exists, and is already developed – usually by video game publishers.
I’ve seen some amazing Virtual Reality gameplay experiences (and it seems that it’s possible to put our pretty heads directly into Virtual Reality – except that, as for me, since I’m putting you right in the middle of a show, that’s not the point at all).
For Altair, it’s not a question of putting controllers in your hands and watching you jump alone in your living room.
It’s about putting you in places where you’ve never been in your whole life… and where you can’t anticipate what you’re going to see.

So, to put it plainly: what are we going to see when we’re under this helmet?

Maybe you know the acronyms : FPS – TPS ; or your children will be able to help you.

FPS : First Person Shooter

TPS : Third Person Shooter.

Simply put, it’s about where you, the gamer, are going to be.

In FPS, you’ll be directly inside your character: you’ll be able to see your hands, sometimes your feet – so it’s as if you’re really the character.
In TPS, you’ll see your character from the back, a few meters away.

Historically, the video game was built around characters played in a TPS, and you could see your little Mario waving his vacuum cleaner, for example – Mario that you were leading.
Then there are the famous FPS-shaped viewpoints…

So it becomes another song in terms of handling and perception of the game. It requires a very good representation of space on your part – an excellent one.
No, I’m not saying that because it took me such a long time to adapt – and I got lost in bushes getting nuked by enemies I hadn’t even seen.

These two points of view are well known to all players and I would like to be able to use them again in the Virtual Reality modes offered by Altair.

– I know, here I am again spending money I don’t have.

From what I’ve seen of the VR offered by Facebook, it’s all about using the TPs point of view – since you create your cute little avatar.
Of the more advanced VR experiments I’ve been able to do, the FPs point of view was used. – and then we put you on a roller coaster train.

If we want to offer several types of sensations in virtual reality, we will therefore have to play on these two modes of representation: first and third person (with avatar – which implies having programmed the avatar in question).

The third person is much less impressive, so I will use it for my splendid new 4th step: with the children / and for the ‘soft’ (novice) level of the first step (the one where you sit in the best seat in the theatre and everything goes very, very normally).
The first person will therefore be reserved for the higher levels – for Extreme Virtuality experiences.

Ok, that was my first point. Let’s see more:

I still have to deal with “the others”: if you’ve followed me these last weeks, you may have noticed that it occurred to me to create virtual experiences for several people at the same time – and thus remove the terrible loneliness of this mode of viewing.

If I go back to my idea of yesterday, for small children and their beloved adult : we will be mostly with the Third Person.
We’ll then propose to the real duo the animal duo that they will “integrate”.
Yesterday I was with owls – let’s keep this example.
This animal is practical – since it flies and therefore doesn’t take up any space on the set: as a result, it will be able to integrate without difficulty into the scenography.
I was thinking of an “almost transparent owl” for the adult’s, so that the child’s vision is not too disturbed – he knows he is not alone – but the other person does not spoil the view.
The child will see “his” owl, in which he knows that he “is” and next to it in transparency that of his companion.
He will be, as in games, a few centimetres behind it – and as it is not a video game, he does not have control of the camera (of his gaze): the director will manage this.
(By the way… well… we’ll see later – but think in the long run about proposing a slightly stronger activity, in the way of a game and control of his ‘gaze’ – will have to be put in place. But this is after having laid the foundations and the bases of virtual reality applications).

For the “crazy lovers” – who allowed me to move on to the step: multi-person virtual reality – we will work more in the First Person mode (no chance of getting me to admit that it’ll be cute to turn a cute real couple of lovers into a despicable couple of unicorns/kittens/teddy bears – it’ll be First Person, no avatars).

For the contents – I have a lot of ideas – it’s not a problem.
For the layout, I have to admit that I beat the countryside a bit – sweetened strawberries – picked nettles: in short, I had a hard time.
What I found was absolutely too kitschy. I had gone on the little white balls of some Virtual Reality combinations – and from there to putting my lovers each in his own little ball, it was only a step – and then Super Monkey Ball in show mode: a horror of kitsch.

And in fact, the solution is as usual: obvious, simple and very pure.
I don’t need to put the pretty face of your lover in a ball on a dancer’s ankle to let you know she’s in that place.
Already because before it starts, you will know what your place will be – and how you will be able to identify your lover.
Then because a line, a circle, a highlight will let you know that she/he is there with you – especially since she/he is normally there next to you for the experience (which is not obligatory – even if, when you are in love, being close, I think, it’s better).

So, for lovers as for all virtual experiences with several people, it will be enough to use a detail of costume or scenery and propose it slightly highlighted (no need to make tons of them, it is not the goal). We are imaginative and empathetic enough to tremble for our lover, even if he is only a highlighted shoe buckle for a few minutes.
On the other hand, it is important to create this look of each other during virtual experiences: this is where we break the loneliness.

I’m not alone when I see you going through the same thing I’m going through.

To sum up

The implementation of Virtual Reality will be done in two modes:
Third Person and avatar creation: for sweet experiences.
First Person: for extreme experiences

Highlighting of the avatar / a light element of scenery or costume for the presence of the other participants in the Virtual Reality adventure.

Without forgetting the important detail: these will be short experiments – there will only be selected excerpts, staged by Altair’s artistic directors.

Step 2: let the spectator control the camera…

That’s it – that’s all for today.

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