Virtual reality is getting some attention over the past few years thanks to immersive games and experiences, although it still feels very much in flux, with headsets coming and going rather quickly. With huge consumer bases, a multitude of platforms for development, and the absence of a lot of games and experiences in virtual reality, smaller startups and massive corporations are investing massive amounts of money in developing content for the sector, which could very well help VR finally get the worldwide acceptance that it has failed to get in the marketplace for years. The market is estimated to be worth $16.8B, with a potential reach to an astounding $160B by 2023. Source Seventy-five percent of Forbes Worlds Most Valuable Brands created virtual or augmented reality experiences for consumers or employees.
The VR industry uses advanced technologies and specialists to design virtual reality games. There are basically five types of VR that you can experience as if you are living the actual life with a virtual reality headset and other equipment. Virtual reality experiences on headsets with lower budgets utilize two-dimensional assets within 3D environments.
Virtual reality helps people experience things that they normally cannot do in real life. Augmented reality allows a user to experience the virtual world while being absorbed by the real one, via the phones screen. The best example of augmented reality is Pokemon Go, in which the Pokemon appears on a screen, as if they were in front of you. It is a Mixed Reality experience, meaning that the user is still standing in the real world around them, and they are seeing that, but they are also engaging with something virtual, which has never been done before.
This mixed-reality tech makes it possible, for instance, to see virtual objects in the real world, and creates an experience where the physical and the digital are practically indistinguishable. An example of a non-immersive virtual reality is Dota 2, in which the game VR environment is interacted with via the characters, but not directly. With the use of headsets and motion tracking, virtual reality allows you to walk around in the virtual space like you are really in it, or play a game like you are really inside of it.
In fact, one of the earliest Virtual Reality devices is considered by many to have been called the Sensorama, a machine with an integrated seat that played three-dimensional movies, gave off smells, and generated vibrations in order to make the experience as immersive as possible. Released in the mid-1990s, and known as the Virtual Boy, the Virtual Boy was a 3-D video game console with a 3-D vision system that was set up in such a way as to make it feel as though it was a Virtual Reality. Similar to SEGA, Nintendo had a vision of producing a virtual reality headset for the consumer market, too.
You might not get the best experience using a VR headset that is mobile-compatible. The Windows Mixed Reality Store does not offer nearly as many compelling VR experiences as Oculus Rift S and the PS4-compatible PlayStation VR Store, although you can use SteamVR games on Windows Mixed Reality headsets, though that requires a bit of a software struggle.