Words by Charo Nuguid
Artwork by Sean Eidder
Mention “virtual reality” and the first thing that comes to mind is being in a computer-generated world where everything feels real. We’ve had movies and science fiction novels about this for years. Not long ago, Google released I am Cardboard which is a pair of goggles made out of, you guessed it—cardboard, and uses your phone as the screen. You run a Cardboard-compatible app (like YouTube), insert it in Cardboard, and wear it. You turn around, look up, look down, and you get to see what’s around the virtual world. This was back in 2014.
Fast forward to 2016 and you have better, higher-end virtual reality devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The new VR devices connect to your computer instead of inserting your phone into it which allows the devices to have more horsepower. You really feel like you’re inside whatever world you booted into. Reality is gone. Instead, you’re on a golf course trying to get that hole in one. Or you’re in a forest aiming your bow and arrow at an enemy. Or you’re in a boxing ring trying to bring down Muhammad Ali. All these devices have controllers that would allow you to interact with the virtual world. You can walk forward, backward, sideways, and the virtual world changes as if you’re actually there. And it gets better. Right now Microsoft is continuing development on the HoloLens where you finally get to merge virtual with reality. Imagine people walking around with their laptops in their backpacks wearing a HoloLens and playing Pokemon Go.
Speaking of apps, if you have the HTC Vive, you can go with the familiar and get Fruit Ninja VR. Imagine being able to play your favorite hack-and-slash game with your limbs instead of your fingers. Do you like to draw stuff? Tiltbrush turns your room into a canvas where your can draw and paint from tiny portraits to larger than life sized artwork. These two apps can be found on Steam. When you do a search for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, there are more than 200 apps you can use with those two devices.
There is also a growing number of home-grown apps. A local user group called VR Philippines held the Philippine Mobile VR Jam last June 10-12, 2016. It was a hackathon where people got together and collaborate in teams to create apps for the Samsung Gear VR within 42 hours. The event produced 12 new applications which they presented at the Philippine Virtual Reality Conference last June 25. Here are a few that caught my eye.
Diwata VR – A virtual reality simulator that teaches students how to program the Diwata-1 microsatellite by connecting to an Arduino or Raspberry pi via bluetooth.
Nayong Pilipino VR – An educational virtual tour of Nayong Pilipino, complete with a shuttle ride and a tour guide.
Sky’s The Limit – Climb up and reach for the sky, gathering coins and avoiding killer ducks as you go.
Space Ninja – This is a two-phone app. You’re an astronaut stuck in outer space trying to get back to earth while avoiding asteroids from hitting you. Good thing you’re wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Leaning Tower of Piza – Your aim is to defend your tower and prevent the enemy from taking a bit out of your pizza.
Re-Pair – A two-player game where one player uses the Gear VR to look at the broken robot and describe the piece to their partner. The other controls the virtual drone using another phone and scavenges the virtual area for the missing part. Good communication is the key to repairing and winning the game.
The Philippine VR community is steadily growing as people realize that there are a lot of great apps already available to use. The technology is still pretty young so there’s lots of room for innovation. Virtual reality is here to stay.
