Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/639267
46 cgw j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 6 I f you haven't heard of virtual reality…. Okay, wait a minute. I don't believe that's possible, not for anyone reading this magazine. You can't avoid it. It's the headline story in almost every Web page and newspaper, and featured in dozens of TV shows and movies. As many predicted, VR was the featured topic at last year's SIGGRAPH, and suddenly all those other hot young things from a few years back have cooled down. For years, we have argued that there is a practi- cal consumer market for 3D content creation because the tools are so hard to use. That is changing as the tools are changing, and it's the makers who are changing it. But, I would argue all that is nothing compared to the change that is being wrought by VR. No matter how the huge surge in interest plays out in the long run, VR is stimulating con- tent creation in 3D, and content is what it will take to make the technology successful. What propelled VR into the headlines was the $2 billion ac- quisition of Oculus by Facebook. "We're going to make Oculus a platform for many other expe- riences," said Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg while announc- ing the deal in 2014. "Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world, or consulting with a doctor face-to-face – just by putting on goggles in your home. This is really a new communica- tion platform." Some people are skeptical about Zuckerberg's vision. In general, people don't like to wear goggles or glasses in their homes. It's one of the reasons 3D televi- sions have never taken off. Nonetheless, one of the reasons VR is getting so much hype is because it has trac- tion – there is infrastructure for content creation, there is a base model in games and VR adds value (for some gamers), and perhaps even more important, VR is stimulating the develop- ment of new media forms. In addition, content creators are finding VR to be a useful tool to create content, and last – but absolutely not least – interest in VR is broad and crosses many markets, from games, to movies, to design, architecture, and manufacturing. Predictions of the size and expanse of the VR market all indicate phenomenal growth and opportunity in all types of entertainment markets. M O R E T H A N E N T E R T A I N I N G VR isn't just for entertainment, although that's certainly going to be the most attention-getting use, and potentially the most dangerous for disappointing the consumer and having them turn away from it, as they did with stereo 3D. VR is not new, which most people know. It has been employed in non-consumer applications for decades, and still is. However, the volumes have been small and the sys- tems specialized and usually expensive. But the people and organizations that bought and continue to buy those VR systems – the professional-use cases – did so because VR solves real problems, primarily as a tool for exploration and sometimes inspection. One major use of VR, espe- cially by industry and defense contractors, is the visualization of large, expensive projects by many people, all at the same time and all looking at different parts. Big-budget projects can be explored virtually without investing in physical prototypes. Using the basic models devel- oped in CAD systems, engi- neers, managers, and contract administrators can see how the project will look. This is not new, as visualizations and animations have been used for years to test designs, find conflicts and in- terference from adjacent parts, It , s Here! VIRTUAL REALITY ISN'T COMING; IT'S ALREADY HERE, WITH NEW APPS, NEW HARDWARE, AND NEW USE CASES ARRIVING EVERY DAY BY JON PEDDIE THE RIFT HEADSET GOT GAMERS EXCITED ABOUT VR, BUT MANY OTHER INDUSTRIES ARE INVESTED IN THE TECHNOLOGY.