Last week, I saw Torben‘s poster at VRST about using multiple sensor bars to extend the range of the wiimote. And yesterday, as I was looking around to find out how to adapt Half-Life 2 in VR, I stumbled on his page with nice research on immersive gaming, using Source Engine mods with the wiimote and with face tracking with only a webcam :
I really feel that it’s becoming easier to get a nice VR setup at home. The minimum that we should have is head tracking and one hand tracking. From that point on, we only have to use the mod capabilites of games and play VR!
Hum that’s the theory, practice is another thing, but let’s start trying!
Hello!
I agree on your suggestion that
“we only have to use the mod capabilites of games and play VR!”
Here in Milan, we are using HL2 Source engine since 2005 to build VE, and it gave us a lot of interactional and graphic possibilities…
A good designer, and a good programmer, can easily create a nice environment in a relatively short time.
Taking into consideration also the network features of such engine, you can experience a wide variety of set up.
For example, we created a multi user VE with underground, supermarket, elevators and other stuff, for a research with social phoic patients.
Some screens:
http://flickr.com/photos/mcantamesse/sets/72157601692753270/
That’s a really nice application you have!
What kind of devices and displays are you using to interact with the VE ?
@cb
It’s a really simple installation, focused on convenience and ease of use.
We use an intellisense head tracker on a sony HMD, and a simple joystick for movement… but you can use C to interface any device driver with Source.
Wow, so actually it’s possible now to license faceAPI for non commertial purposes. Very interesting, I must to e-mail this guys.