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Until recently, virtual reality had been something of a fantasy for storytellers and technologists. As long ago as 1935, American science fiction writer Stanley G Weinbaum described something like virtual reality in a short story called Pygmalion’s Spectacles.
“But listen – a movie that gives one sight and sound. Suppose now I add taste, smell, even touch, if your interest is taken by the story. Suppose I make it so that you are in the story, you speak to the shadows, and the shadows reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it. Would that be to make real a dream?”
Technologists might still be working on smell and taste, but Albert Ludwig’s “magic spectacles” eerily foreshadow the current prominence for headsets and 360-degree games, videos and virtual worlds.
Virtual reality for the masses is here. But do the masses want VR?
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Since Ludwig’s magic spectacles found their way into print, there have been decades of experimentation around virtual reality, from the first head-mounted VR system in the late 1960s to the first commercial products in the 1980s – not to mention Hollywood’s interpretation in the1992 film The Lawnmower Man, which shaped mainstream perceptions of virtual reality, or VR, for some time afterwards.
The current age of virtual reality began in 2010, when American teenager created the first prototype of a VR headset that would evolve into the Oculus Rift. Two years later, he launched a $250,000 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to commercialise it – and $2.4m of pledges later, the tech industry’s interest in VR was reborn. Two years after that, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, liked the Rift so much .
Palmer Luckey of Oculus VR helped kick off the current wave of VR excitement.
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Palmer Luckey of Oculus VR helped kick off the current wave of VR excitement. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Several competitors have emerged since then, from the HTC Vive and Sony’s PlayStation VR to smartphone-powered headsets such as Samsung’s Gear VR and Google Cardboard. Meanwhile, hundreds of developers are making VR games and apps, film-makers are exploring the potential for documentaries and animation, and Facebook and YouTube have jumped on the bandwagon with 360-degree videos.
But if you’re new to virtual reality, where should you start? In the absence of a passing professor with magic specs, here’s everything you need to know about hardware, apps and games.
The basics
The most important piece of a virtual reality kit is the headset, a device like a thick pair of goggles that goes over your eyes. The more expensive, higher quality headsets need to be connected to a computer to run apps and games, while some cheaper ones use a cellphone clipped to the front of the headset.
All headsets need to be used alongside a good quality pair of headphones, and there are other optional accessories from hand controllers to treadmills that are all designed to enhance your simulated experience of being in another world. Hand controllers translate your real-world gestures into whatever game or application you’re using, although standard gaming joypads can also be used.
VR devices have their own app stores, similar to smartphone app stores, where you can browse and download games and apps. Some of these stores are accessed using the device itself, while others – the VR section of the Steam digital games store, for example – can be browsed on your computer.
High-end headsets
The Oculus Rift is now on sale across the world.
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The Oculus Rift is now on sale across the world. Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris/PA
Oculus Rift
Four years after its first crowdfunding campaign, the first commercial version of Oculus Rift launched in early 2016, sold initially from the Oculus VR website and gradually made its way to retailers around the world.
Until now, you needed a powerful PC to use the Oculus Rift. The minimum specs for an Oculus Ready PC are on the official website, with Dell, HP, Alienware and Asus all offering VR-ready machines. Oculus VR has also launched bundles of Rift with a PC, such as the $2,050 Alienware bundle.
That said, Oculus has just announced that thanks to some technology it has dubbed “asynchronous spacewarp”, the Rift will now work with PCs costing as little as $500.
Best for: early adopters, and anyone keen for a first-hand view of how Facebook will make virtual reality more social.
Verdict: Oculus Rift kickstarted the newest generation of VR and has an inventive community of developers making games and apps for it – even if a few have ditched it in protest over its founder’s political activities.