#Omnidirectional treadmill

[lampadions-pickle]

The corridor is confirmed to exist, as of last night, by other parties that aren't contingent upon my direct processing to understand them (eliminates personal bias). It's a fixed point, stationary and unmoving, I just superimpose a destination onto it to travel. Technically I never have to leave it, so I can be in as many destinations at once as much as I can consciously process being in.

[ckret2]

The second dimension has burned, all its neighbors are burning, Bill's mutated Dimension Zero into some sort of non-euclidean horror land where he's setting up a ghoulish undead kingdom and pretending that he's fine, and every five minutes the Axolotl sees something new he's gonna have nightmares about for the next billion years.

Naturally, the gods of the multiverse have got to do something:

Make sure the non-euclidean horror land complies with local construction codes.

Here, have a fic. 

This is part 4 of a series about the Axolotl—and various local gods—trying to figure out how to deal with the aftermath of what will one day be called the Euclidean Massacre. Here are parts one, two, and three.

####

As the Time Giant inspected Dimension Zero, she took a dizzying array of measurements and performed several tests on the unstable cosmic foam that seemingly made up the dimension. To the Axolotl's untrained eye, the tests looked more like alchemy than engineering. She even momentarily popped out to a point in her timeline when she was in her office to pick up some more specialized equipment.

Dimension Zero operated like an omnidirectional treadmill, the Axolotl discovered; if you flew far enough to the left, you ended up looping around to the right, far enough up and you ended up down, far enough forward and you ended up in the back. The distances were vast, certainly, but finite. Which meant that finding the "edge" of Dimension Zero to escape it was near impossible—it had no edges. The Axolotl was amazed at his luck in having successfully found an exit the last time he was in here. Locating the border of this impossible dimension was like navigating a four-dimensional labyrinth.

But apparently the Time Giant was very good at navigating labyrinths, because again and again she effortlessly located Dimension Zero's border. It was like a thin layer of incorporeal cellophane you could move straight through without leaving Dimension Zero; but if you looked at it just right, from just the right time and place, it became real, and you saw through it into the neighboring dimensions. She spent a long time grimly examining the burning first and second dimensions "above" Dimension Zero—and a long time inspecting the places where the neighboring dimensions had already been incinerated completely, and Dimension Zero bloated out toward the third dimensions like an overfilled trash bag. 

And meanwhile, the "Magister Mentium," de facto ruler of this grotesque domain, decided that while he was waiting for news, the most magisterial thing he could do was returned to his party.

To the Axolotl's amazement, the triangle did actually seem to be dancing with his people. There was still some intelligence in some of the living and the dying-but-never-dead shapes.

Some of them knew a dance that involve interlacing their fingers, right hands to right hands, and whirling together around their joined grip, then switching to lace their left hands together and twirl the other way; and the triangle couldn't be puppeting them—not all of them, not all the time—because sometimes his dance partners were the ones who got the steps right while he fumbled the timing. The Axolotl watched as he missed grabbing a line's hand because he'd somehow gotten slightly skewed into the third dimension and his hand went over hers instead; she teasingly jabbed him in the side with her point, and in retaliation he knocked into her with one of his lower corners and snapped her in half; with a wave of his hand she was repaired and bewildered. In his shock, the Axolotl hadn't seen it the last time he'd been here—but the triangle's eternal dance party was both the horror of a root system digging deep into rotting flesh, and the hope of a flower blooming from an unmarked grave. How many of the dancers were voluntarily dancing forever? 

He didn't have an opportunity to find out. When the Time Giant had finished her inspection, she waved over the triangle again. (Not that she needed to; in spite of being back at the party, he'd also somehow remained at the Time Giant's elbow the whole time, watching what she did without blinking.) "All right, I've got the verdict on your dimension. Do you wanna start with the bad news, the worse news, or the ugly news?"

"Ease me into it," the triangle said. "So what's the matter with my dream realm?"

"The matter."

"That's what I'm asking."

"The matter's what's the matter with it."

"What?"

"Every reading I've taken indicates there's a dimension's worth of matter in here. The mass is here for it, all right. I'm picking it up no problem. I just can't find your matter." She gestured out at the infinite dance party, the swirling colors, the twinkling faraway lights, "Everything visible adds up to so little matter that I didn't even bring any tools sensitive enough to register it. It doesn't account for all the mass I'm measuring."

He surveyed the view warily. "So you're saying my place's mass is... what, invisible?"

"Invisible, stuck in pocket dimensions...  Y'all said any rubble left over from Dimension 2 Delta would've fallen in here, right? You got it hidden away somewhere?"

His eye lit up. "Oh! Are you looking for this?" He pulled a tall black hat out from seemingly nowhere and reached his arm all the way down into it to pull out a speck of dust: radiating blinding light in every direction, but so dark that staring into it made the Axolotl feel like his eyes were being sucked out of his skull into a black hole. "This is 2Δ's matter."

"Is that all that's left?"

"The whole shebang!"

"Then nah, that's not it. If that had all the matter of a dimension, and it was that small. it'd be the nuke of nukes. The seed of a Big Bang. All it'd take is a dimension's worth of energy to thaw that turkey, and pfft! You've got a baby dimension on your hands." She gestured dismissively at the speck, "No way a mortal could handle an object like that without its gravity crushing you—never mind have the energy to move it."

The triangle stared down at his little pearl of matter. "Huh." It was an oddly intense stare for just a fleck of dust.

"If you don't know where all the hidden matter is, then ten to one odds, you've got a dark matter problem," the Time Giant said. "Nasty stuff. It'll exponentially speed up the heat death of your dimension. You'll have to get a specialist in here to see if there's anything you can do about that dark matter. You want referrals?"

He was silent for a moment, still not looking up; then he said, "No, no—I don't need them." He stuffed the speck back into his hat, tossed aside the party hat he'd been wearing, and put on the black one. "I'm a DIY kind of triangle! I'll figure out what dark matter is."

The Time Giant snorted. "Suit yourself. Problem two: this dimension's a singularity. A really big, spread out singularity, which by the definition of a singularity is impossible—"

"We like impossible around here!"

"Uh huh, I can tell. But it means things that should be separate things are crushed together into one thing—including the landscape and the mindscape. Dreams and reality are occurring on the same level of existence. There's no clear distinction between facts and fiction."

"Okay," he said. "So, is that a problem, or...?"

"For starters," she jerked a thumb toward the distant-and-yet-somehow-ever-present dance party, "it means that the dead and the living are on the same plane. Can't separate life from an afterlife here. And it means anything could happen just by imagining it too hard. Some traumatized vet gets war flashbacks? The war's actually happening again. Have a nightmare about your wife dying? Your wife's dead. If everyone stops thinking about a building for a moment, it could stop existing. Contracts are useless—what you think you remembered them saying becomes what they actually said."

"So, is that a problem, orrr...?"

She paused. "Shoot, it's your universe. If you're fine with it, whatever."

"I call it the dream realm for a reason!"

"Issue three's the ugly one: this dimension's completely unstable," the Time Giant said.

"Yeah, I know," the triangle sighed. "The electromagnetism..."

"The electromagnetism ain't the half of it. I mean it is really unstable. I don't know how it's lasted as long as it has. I can see half a dozen ways the dimension could completely collapse on itself in the next ten minutes."

"What! Where?!"

She pointed. "For one thing, a whole pillar of spacetime right there is about to implode and form a wormhole."

He zoomed over to the pillar, multiplying into a dozen copies to examine it from every angle. (He looked the same small size as always, but the Axolotl realized that with the distance the pillar was at, he must be lightyears across to be visible from here—either that, or somehow he hadn't gotten any further away. The triangle shouldn't even visible when the light from his position shouldn't reach them for thousands of years. A realm that operated on dream logic.)

While he inspected the unstable structure, the Time Giant said, "Nothing about the structure of this place is self-sustaining. It should've collapsed back into a singularity as soon as 2Δ fell in. I got no idea how it just keeps propping itself back up..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it," the triangle snapped.

The Time Giant paused. "What?"

"I'm working on it! I'd be working on it right now if you hadn't dragged me away from the party!" The nearest iteration of the triangle groaned, dragging his eyelid down with his hands. "I've been spending ages trying to keep this stupid leaky balloon inflated, and now look at this!" He gestured in exasperation at the pillar preparing to wormhole itself. "I have to start again! Do you know how many times I've tried to fold the... the dumb... the plane?" He tried to pantomime the act of folding something with his hands; as he did, apparently without noticing what he was doing, he folded himself up, like a triangular origami paper. "Fold it in a way that'll get it to stay put? And it just won't! It keeps flopping over! It's driving me nuts!"

"The 'plane'?" 

He unfolded himself with a sharp snap. "You know what I'm talking about! The plane! The plane that everything's made out of! The..." Frustrated, the triangle grabbed a wad of existence itself and shook it in the Time Giant's and Axolotl's faces. "This stuff!"

"The fabric of reality?" the Time Giant asked, flummoxed. "You can detect the fabric of reality? You can interactwith it?"

"Is that what it is?" He flung it down in disgust. "Well, it won't stay put when I fold it!"

"Yeah, fabric tends not to do that."

"Right. Right." Grimly, the triangle said, "I need the starch of reality."

"Don't starch reality."

He flung up his hands in defeat. "Well, I've tried everything else!"

Softly, the Time Giant said, "Huh." As if she'd just figured out the answer to a question she hadn't even had a chance to ask.

On the other hand, the Axolotl just had more questions. He may not know very much about the fabric of reality, but... well, that was just the thing. He didn't know much about the fabric of reality. Sure, if he ran into a fraying timeline he could tie up the loose ends and snip off the damaged threads; he could summon up his pocket afterlife at any time, opening a liminal space into his tank from anywhere in the multiverse; but that was the most complex thing he could manage by himself. He certainly didn't know enough to do anything as complicated as keep an unstable dimension from imploding on itself.

But he did know that he didn't know nearly enough for it to be safe for him to even try... and he at least knew what the fabric of reality was. For someone even more ignorant than him to try it...

The Time Giant asked, "Didn'cha... say you're a mortal?"

"Yeah?" the triangle said defensively. He didn't even waste time looking at them; his full focus was back on the pillar, which was beginning to twist around itself. "Last I checked? And?"

She held up her hands. "S'fine. Nothing wrong with that."

Just before the pillar could fully transform into a wormhole, the triangle muttered irritably to himself and snapped his fingers. The pillar inverted like a flower bud turning inside-out. There was an infinitely vast creaking groan—but nevertheless, this immediately solved the pending wormhole issue. And also promptly caused four more things to go catastrophically wrong.

The triangle let out a strangled scream of frustration as half the firmament inverted colors and the stars glowed black. "No no no no no—!" He skidded across existence to the reversed sky, a thousand hands trying to twist the stars back on before the damage spread; another copy of him was knitting closed a rapidly unraveling corner of reality with his own arms as the thread; and the Axolotl wasn't sure what the other dozen shining yellow triangles he saw whizzing by were doing, but a ringing sound he hadn't previously noticed suddenly stopped.

Throughout Dimension Zero, there was a grinding, rumbling noise that filled all of existence. The Axolotl and Time Giant both flinched at a couple of great, splintering cracking noises, so deep that they were felt rather than heard. From every direction, the Axolotl could see soot and souls rain into the dimension. The Time Giant watched the grisly rain, jaw slack in amazement.

The Axolotl saw black hands catch the souls as they fell.

In a moment the triangle was back, looking a little worse for the wear: twitchy, dazed, eye dilated too wide, clearly even more distracted than he'd been a minute ago. He didn't look exhausted, per se—the Axolotl thought he should look exhausted—but it uncomfortably dawned on him that, if the triangle was powerful enough to knit the fabric of reality back together despite not even knowing what the fabric of reality was... maybe he was too powerful to get exhausted.

Where had a mortal gotten that power?

The triangle let out a heavy sigh. "Okay—"

And then a nearby star immediately collapsed into a black hole and started slurping down the raw fabric of reality rather than any of the regular matter hovering just outside its event horizon.

He froze a moment, eye squeezed shut in an expression of pure agony; and then he was zipping across the dimension again to fix one more crisis.

All this time, the Axolotl had thought the triangle was inebriated. He wasn't inebriated at all. It was pain. He had to be near delirious with pain, struggling to control everything without a moment's rest. Weaving back and forth and popping here and there across the dimension as he tweaked and fixed small crises before they became large ones, trying to convince himself that he was at a party as he danced frenziedly with his ever-dying people even as he simultaneously knit and taped and stapled existence back together with his own body. Every time they'd spoken to him, he'd been distracted. They were distracting him from keeping his entire reality from falling apart.

The Time Giant watched him zoom around with her thumbs hooked in her belt and a grin across her face. "Man. I wanna set you loose in an infinite hardware store and see what you do with it."

The triangle gave her an unamused, dead-eyed look. (And somewhere else, he was also picking up the black hole, eyeing it tiredly, and finally just punting it in a random direction. Existence rumbled again.)  "Hey, if you know a hardware store that's got whatever it'll take to keep this place from falling to pieces, and you think you can babysit the dream realm until I'm back...

Her smile faded. "Don't think that's gonna work."

He was immediately on his guard. "Oh?"

"That's what I was trying to explain: it's not just your dimension that's unstable; it's destabilizing all the dimensions around it, too."

He flung up his hands exasperatedly. Pale blue flames ignited around his hands. "Yeah, I know!" He hastily shook out the flames on his fingers as he said, "Tell the neighbors to keep their stupid pants on, I'm working on getting this place stable—" (The Axolotl stared at his hands long after the flames were gone.)

"No, you don't get it," she said. "Trying to stabilize it is what's destabilizing the other dimensions."

He paused. "What are you talking about."

"This 'dream realm' is supposed to be a singularity in an empty void at the bottom of everything. The dimensions above are designed to support the higher dimensions weighing down on them without collapsing. They're not structured to take pressure pushing up on them from below." The Time Giant gestured around at Dimension Zero, "And that's what we've got now! Your renovations have filled up the void. That's where that grinding when you 'move' is coming from: every time you try to prop up this dimension, it crashes against all the neighbors—and they push back and destabilize you again. Just based on what little I saw when I was checking the place out, the other second dimensions must be taking heavy damage. We're talking planes fracturing apart, physics destabilizing, wormholes, temperature fluctuations from absolute zero to near Big Bang-level heat—"

"And fires," the Axolotl said in realization, remembering the ashes he'd seen raining into Dimension Zero when the triangle had fixed the wormhole. "The dimensions that were around 2Δ are burning. Nobody could figure out why we couldn't get them under control. It was you."

All of Dimension Zero fell several degrees colder.

The music faltered. The distant dancers that could stop did, shaken out of their trances to look around for their magister. For a moment, the Axolotl could hear the dimension's hissing background radiation almost clearly enough to understand what it was saying—whispers, they were whispers, the Axolotl hadn't been imagining that they sounded like voices. They really were.

He thought he could hear screams in the whispers.

The triangle stared at them, eye wide and empty.

The Time Giant gave him a moment. "You good?"

"No, I— Yes, of course I'm good! I'm great!" He squeezed his eye shut and rubbed it harshly between his thumb and forefinger. He did not look great. "I'm not destroying any dimensions, that's insane! You're insane!" His voice was rising toward a shriek. "Nothing's on fire! I don't know what you're talking about! How would you know?! I heard you out there early, the rest of you are—what, what are you doing, arguing about whose district the ashes are in?! Trying to shift the blame to each other instead of doing anything? And meanwhile I've been here all this time! I'm the only one fixing anything! I'm the one who's been liberating my people from their stupid flat little dimensions before the apocalypse can reach them, so—what do you know about anything here!"

"'Liberating'?" the Time Giant said. "What in the multiverse are you talking about?" The Axolotl's stomach sank.

"You think I can't see out of this place?" He drew them closer and closer as Dimension Zero moved around them and grew larger and larger as he spoke, forcing them to look up at him. "You think I haven't noticed my people out there dying while you big shot so-called 'gods' stand around and watch?! I can see through all their eyes! I see everything! I feel it when they die! I've been the only one saving them!"

As clear as if it were real, the Axolotl saw his memory of Dimension 2 Epsilon burning. (The Time Giant sucked in a breath—the way the mindscape worked here, could she see his memory too? Could the triangle?) The shapes spontaneously combusting and plummeting into Dimension Zero. Reality seeming to twist around them, grasp them, crush them. He saw a frightened green triangle—except for the color, a triangle so like the Magister Mentium as he'd been on the day he met the "eclipse," young and small and terrified of the cosmic forces around him—crushed and burned in the folds of the fabric of reality. Only the shapes were taken—none of the creatures around them. The triangle's people. "You're not saving anyone! You're the one killing them!"

The triangle blazed red in rage.

Everything ignited. Searing, white-hot pain. The fire was on the Axolotl's skin, in his eyes, in his gills, inside his body. He felt the voices in the cosmic radiation screaming.

Everything unignited. The Axolotl was unharmed. (Was it a hallucination? A dream? Had it been too brief to leave damage?)

The Time Giant was holding the Axolotl in front of her chest like a big plushie shield.

The triangle was small and black and still. White light traced his edges like the halo around a black hole. He didn't say anything.

He was staring at the Axolotl's memory. And the Axolotl could see the triangle's memory: from above, the plane of Dimension 2 Epsilon melted and folded around a small frightened green triangle, crushing and burning it within the fabric of reality; from below the plane, a trembling black hand reached up, stretching into the fabric of 2Ε like it was a glove, trying so hard, so carefully to catch and cradle the other triangle before it fell, confused when the fingers opened and once again all that was left in the palm was ashes.

Both memories burned up and vanished.

The Axolotl shook himself free of the Time Giant's grip and cautiously swam closer to the triangle. "Magister...?"

The universe quietly moved, carrying the Axolotl and the Time Giant away and rotating around the triangle so they were placed behind him. Okay, fine. He'd wait.

When the triangle finally spoke again, his voice was hoarse and flat. "I can't just stop fixing the dream realm. It'll collapse on us." He turned slowly to face the Time Giant. His color was starting to come back. "You've got some kind of... divine home renovation crew that can repair everything?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. I still had some hope for this place when I thought it was banging against the neighbors when it was collapsing. But if fixing it is what's breaking everything... There's nothing we can do."

"Some god," the triangle muttered ruefully. "So... what are we supposed to do."

"Honestly? This void was never built to support a dimension. Best idea is to leave and set up your dancing hippie colony somewhere else," the Time Giant said. "The third dimension next to where 2Δ used to be is swarming with refugee services; if I were you, I'd talk to the guy with the planets to set you up somewhere until you can move into another dimension."

That snapped him out of his funk. "Are you kidding? I'd rather keep fixing this place for an eternity! We sacrificed everything to reach our paradise. We're not about to ditch it now!"

The Time Giant took in the wretched floating dance party huddled together in a lonely, landless, kaleidoscopic void, and silently mouthed, paradise. She shook her head and moved on. "Well, you can't keep this place even if you wanna. It's impossible to get this place up to cosmic construction code."

"Who cares about the code!" He zipped up to her face, hands outstretched to her beseechingly. "Can't you let it slide? I am willing to bribe you. Just tell me what it'll take!"

"Buddy." Her voice took on a steely edge. "The cosmic construction code defines how every dimension in the multiverse has to be built. It exists because any dimension that doesn't meet the code could destroy all of existence." (His eye widened.) "Your 'paradise' doesn't fit in the crawlspace beneath dimensions. One of two things will happen: eventually, you fail to stabilize it, it collapses in on itself, and everyone in here ceases to exist... or, you do stabilize it, and it destabilizes every dimension built above it, and the entire multiverse collapses in on itself—including your 'dream realm.' You like either of those options?"

The triangle's hands drooped helplessly. "I... But th... After all w... I can't..."

He fell silent. His light sank back toward black.

This triangle had made himself the leader of these people, he couldn't abandon them now. The Axolotl wasn't about to watch him lose himself in despair.

"Would you let your people die like that?" He circled behind the triangle, forcing him to turn to face the Axolotl—and face his people at the same time. "You said you liberated them." As misguided as he had been—and even if few of them, maybe none of them, were actually his people—it had to be an act of love, didn't it? He had to care about them, didn't he? "After everything you did to save them, do you want to lose them now?"

The triangle glanced at the shapes, and quickly looked away. "I..."

"Look at them," the Axolotl commanded. 

He looked at them.

Slowly, he floated over his eternal dance party. To the Axolotl's surprise, several of the clear-headed ones who had stopped dancing—the haggard, the ever-bleeding, the newer arrivals that were ever-burning—stretched their hands up toward him.

The triangle flinched, ever so slightly—just a twitch in his hands—and then he reached down to them in return. The line that the Axolotl had seen dancing with the triangle earlier brushed his fingertips; he stopped to squeeze her hand as he passed.

The Axolotl could see the guilt radiating out of the triangle.

He didn't know how he knew it was guilt. He didn't even know how he could see it—it had no color, no shape. Nevertheless, he saw it. The guilt spread out like ink in water, poisoning Dimension Zero, clinging to every surface. The Axolotl's skin was unusually sensitive to toxins; the guilt made him queasy.

One of the shapes asked the triangle something; the Axolotl couldn't hear the question, just the triangle's quiet answer: "Nah, don't worry about those losers. A few higher-dimensional beings got mad we liberated ourselves. They hate to see the second dimension winning. It's fine, I can kick their bases if they try to make any trouble."

(The Time Giant snorted. The Axolotl wasn't sure it was an empty threat.)

"Now why isn't everyone dancing! C'mon, chop chop, this is a celebration! I wanna see everyone shaking their sides! Talking to you, Graham!" The triangle raised a hand, threateningly preparing to snap his fingers; before he had to, all the shapes were dancing again, as enthusiastically/fearfully as ever.

He watched his people for a moment longer.

And then turned to the Time Giant and the Axolotl. "Okay," he said. "I'll talk to the guy with the planets."

####

(Thanks for reading!! If the art lured you in and this is the first chapter you read, this is part 4 of a 7-or-8 part fic that keeps getting more parts, about the Axolotl in the immediate aftermath of the Euclidean Massacre. I'll be posting one chapter a week, Fridays 5pm CST, so stick around if you wanna watch the Axolotl slowly discover just how much of a monster that silly triangle he likes really is.

It's ALSO chapter 64 of an ongoing post-canon post-TBOB very-reluctantly-human Bill fic. So if you wanna read more of me writing Bill, check it out. If you're not sold on the idea of a human Bill fic, I've also got a one-shot about normal triangle Bill escaping the Theraprism if you wanna read that.

If this is NOT your first time here and you already knew all of the above: the great thing about this plot is that almost every chapter has a new terrible reveal about what Bill's up to! Looking forward to hearing y'all's thoughts on this latest bunch of revelations. Depending on how I split things up, next week might be another more low-key chapter to set up further horrors.

Nobody asked but the line Bill was dancing with is named Lynn Segment, and the Graham he spoke to is a quadrilateral with two older siblings: Perry, Lilo, & Graham. What's the point of making geometric shape characters if you aren't giving them pun names.)

[thephloxbayou]

It's really wild having read the books, watched the Tencent adaption, and now watching the netflix adapation.

Im only working through episode 2 right now but thoughts so far:

If you want to get into Three Body Problem, the netflix adaption isnt it. Tencent did a really good adaption if you need the visual media before reading the books or just to have a good idea of what's up in the books (tencent only covers the first). Netflix is, from what I heard and what I'm seeing, taking all 3 (or 2 of the 3) and cramming it, mixing what is supposed to be thousands of years in timeline between different characters and instead placing them all at the same point in time. It's running at breakneck speed, and each concept is barely getting time to sink in. In fact, none: they throw it at you and it happens then we're on to the next thing.

But what I DO like, if I'm viewing this as a little bonus add on rather than an honest recap, which is really what I'm doing (also a teeny but hate watch but mostly what I'm about to say lol), is seeing how the higher budget is used for particular scenes. Dehydration was gnarly as shit and great. Tencent got the concept, but didn't have the budget. (Tencent NAILED the boat scene tho imo, but I haven't seen in here yet either). I also like that we are getting it more established that the game immerses you physically. That wasn't covered in Tencent. Now, Tencent went with what we can ACTUALLY do which included the headsets and the omnidirectional treadmill, which is rad. In the book, you are physically immersed via a headset and a suit. Conceptual, but reasonable enough to reality. Netflix jumps past reality, but does bring in the immersion part. It's just a headset (likely alien tech, I believe), but when you put it on, they have a bunch of good visual cues/actions from the actors to show they can feel/taste/ etc the environment. I felt that was important to show, because then the stakes of figuring out the stable eras become higher: you don't want to feel like you're fucking burning up or freezing to death. (One character... lets say doesn't seem too concerned but it was hilarious lol )

Something that is interesting but I don't feel is objectively a point for or against either show is the acting. It's really cool to see the differences between Eastern and Western methods! This is especially apparent in the scenes based in China as they are the most similar between the book and the shows. I'm an animator so this is also something I'm always processing, consciously or not. At different points I find myself preferring one or the other. Overall, the more subtle acting of Tencent (Eastern), although there were times it felt wooden to me. At a few points, Netflix (Western), but it's lead to some hilarious over-reacting at some points, that I don't think I would have recognized (as an American raised on Western media) if I didn't have the Tencent comparison. Specifically, Ye Wenjie doing hard labor and THROWING herself dramatically to look at the sky for relief, which made me laugh out loud. Or her reading the book under the covers, eyes getting EXTRA wide and biting her lip to show "oh wow I am reading interesting forbidden media!" Less hilarious and more groan inducing is her and the reporter having to have sex in the netflix version as a shortcut to show "oh an now when he betrays her that's showing you just how bad it is!" when I think they had done a good quick job of showing their mutual disdain and desperation and the destruction of the planet and the closeness of having that "outside" view and the secrecy of it brings them from the way they showed that and a simple hand holding scene they did. If they kept with that, dropped the sex, and then when the betrayal happens have him go in on her viciously like he does in the book (and recreated in Tencent), it would have worked fine and taken the exact same amount of time (instead he just stands quietly in a corner during that scene looking ashamed). All in all, I know I prefer more subtle acting per my animation preferences, but regardless it's just a really fun thing to see.

TLDR: Don't watch the show to learn about 3 Body. If you already KNOW 3 body, my recommendation at the moment is watch if you just want to see some scenes done with a better budget, I do find it really fun to see how some of these things (between both Netflix and Tencent and just for books to visual in general) are adapted and if they match up with my mind's visual of the events :)

[madeforunkownpurpose]

I feel like this has been said before but couldn't they have just put SCP-173 on an omnidirectional hamster wheel treadmill type deal?

[effetechnology]

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At EFFE Technology, our focus is on delivering innovative solutions that optimize performance, drive customer satisfaction, and propel business growth. Whether you’re looking to enhance employee training with realistic virtual simulations or create an engaging AR experience to captivate your audience, we are here to help you stay ahead of the competition.

A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Reality Technology

Ever wanted to visit the moon, ride a rollercoaster from your couch, or walk through a dream home that hasn’t been built yet? With Virtual Reality technology, all of that—and more—is possible. But what exactly is Virtual Reality, and how does it work?

Whether you’re a curious user, a business owner, or someone just dipping your toes into the tech world, this beginner’s guide to Virtual Reality services will walk you through everything in simple terms. No tech jargon—just real talk.

What is Virtual Reality, Anyway?

Let’s start with the basics. Virtual Reality is a computer-generated environment that completely replaces the real world. Unlike Augmented Reality, which adds digital elements to the real world, Virtual Reality software services transport you to a totally new space—like a jungle, a spaceship, or the inside of a human body.

This immersive world is powered by Virtual Reality development services and hardware like VR headsets, hand controllers, and sometimes even full-body sensors. When you wear a headset developed through Virtual Reality application development services, your senses are tricked into thinking you're somewhere else. The effect can be so real, you’ll likely try to touch things that don’t exist!

How Does VR Work?

Creating a Virtual Reality experience isn’t magic—it’s a blend of innovation, engineering, and creativity. Here’s a quick breakdown:

1. The Hardware

Virtual Reality services rely on devices like VR headsets (HTC Vive, Meta Quest, PlayStation VR), motion sensors, and sometimes gloves or omnidirectional treadmills. These devices enable full Virtual Environment Creation and help track user movement, allowing for interactive VR experiences.

2. The Software

Here’s where Virtual Reality software services step in. Developers use engines like Unity and Unreal for VR gaming development, simulations, and Virtual Reality application development services. This area of software development focuses exclusively on creating immersive, real-time experiences.

From mobile games to enterprise training modules, every application built using VR app development services aims to mimic reality while enhancing engagement.

What Makes VR So Special?

Virtual Reality is more than just cool gadgets—it’s immersive technology development at its best. With Virtual Reality development services, users can:

Interact with realistic 3D environments

Learn complex skills via virtual simulation

Explore real estate with 3D Virtual Walkthroughs

Experience computer-generated simulations for education and training

These applications allow for Virtual Reality services that go beyond entertainment and provide tangible business value.

Real-World Uses of VR

VR isn’t just about gaming anymore. Companies across sectors are adopting Virtual Reality software services to address real problems and offer unique experiences.

Healthcare

From surgical simulations to therapy sessions, Virtual Reality development services are transforming the medical field. Trainees use realistic digital simulations to practice surgery, and mental health professionals use custom VR solutions for exposure therapy.

Architecture & Real Estate

With Virtual Reality services, clients can explore properties before a single brick is laid. Architectural visualization, 3D modeling, and Digital 3D walkthroughs turn static blueprints into immersive experiences. This is where Virtual Reality application development services really shine for property marketing.

Retail

Try-before-you-buy is now digital. Through Virtual Reality development services, customers can try on clothes or see how furniture looks in their homes. These custom app solutions are redefining the retail experience using VR-enabled online platform creation.

Education

From exploring ancient civilizations to navigating the human bloodstream, Virtual Reality services have turned learning into an unforgettable experience. Schools are using interactive 3D tours and virtual space exploration powered by VR application development services to spark curiosity and retention.

VR + Mobile & Web = Future-Ready

Modern Virtual Reality software services are not confined to bulky equipment. With mobile app development and web-based VR solutions, users can now experience VR from smartphones and even browsers.

Teams focused on iOS & Android app development are creating VR-compatible smartphone applications that sync seamlessly with headsets or standalone platforms. On the web side, progressive web apps and cloud-based app development are making Virtual Reality services more accessible than ever.

Both mobile & web app development play a critical role in expanding the reach of Virtual Reality development services to everyday users.

Blending VR with Other Technologies

Virtual Reality becomes even more powerful when combined with other digital tools:

3D designing tools help create detailed virtual assets

Digital product design brings interactive prototypes to life

3D modeling & rendering breathe realism into virtual spaces

Combined with AR software development, we get XR (Extended Reality)—a seamless fusion of AR, VR, and the real world

These integrations supercharge Virtual Reality application development services, allowing for more dynamic and cross-platform experiences.

Why Every Business Should Care About VR

Whether you're running a training institute, a design studio, or a product-based business, Virtual Reality development services can help you stand out:

Build immersive digital app creations for learning or marketing

Add VR tours to website designs and enhance engagement

Launch web-based collaboration platforms for global teams

Deliver futuristic web solutions powered by interactive 3D sites

By investing in mobile software development, cross-platform app development, and native & hybrid VR apps, businesses can deliver rich, engaging, and user-centered experiences.

In Conclusion

Virtual Reality is no longer just a futuristic trend—it’s actively changing the way we work, play, and learn. Thanks to rapid growth in Virtual Reality application development services, businesses now have access to powerful tools that bring their ideas to life.

Whether it’s a real estate virtual tour, VR gaming development, or a realistic 3D rendering, the possibilities are endless. With the help of Virtual Reality software services, immersive digital worlds are just a click (or a headset) away.

As more industries adopt Virtual Reality services, the only question left is: Are you ready to create your own virtual future?

[tremendousmothergoat]

*A magazine arrives in the mail for toriel, with the logo of the company her gaming cabinets are from. Clearly, it must be a seasonal thing she gets as a customer. When perusing it, she notices the next big thing they're promoting, being an immersive VR setup, coming with it's own omnidirectional treadmill, and a custom, fit-to-measure bodysuit with haptic functionality, meaning the wearer can really feel everything happening in-game.*

Well! She doesn't remember subscribing to a magazine, but....she can't turn down stuff like that! And a special discount for a frequent user like herself? Well, hmm. She has some savings laying around, so...

A few days later, she can be found down in the gaming room, as it is now, all suited up and with the headset on... Why isn't any of it working, though? Does she need to do a command? She tries to push buttons on the controllers, but nothing is happening..

....Off to the side, the power plug for the headset isn't plugged into the wall.

[metasoilverse1]

Virtual Reality Gaming Platforms: Transforming the Future of Gaming

Virtual reality (VR) has revolutionized the gaming world, creating an immersive experience that transports players into fantastical realms and lifelike environments. Unlike traditional gaming, VR provides players with a 360-degree experience that feels more like stepping into a game rather than merely playing it. This article explores the evolution of Virtual Reality Gaming Platforms, the leading platforms available today, and the future they promise for gamers worldwide.

The Rise of VR Gaming

VR technology has been around for decades in various experimental forms, but it wasn’t until the 2010s that it started making significant strides into mainstream gaming. Companies like Oculus, HTC, and Sony were some of the first to recognize VR’s potential and began developing hardware and software to bring these immersive experiences to life. As a result, VR gaming platforms have become more accessible, with technological improvements enhancing graphics, motion detection, and affordability.

Leading VR Gaming Platforms

Several companies dominate the VR gaming platform landscape, each bringing unique features that appeal to different kinds of gamers.

Oculus (Meta): Perhaps one of the most recognized names in VR, Oculus (owned by Meta) offers a range of VR headsets and platforms that appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers. The Oculus Quest 2, for example, is a wireless headset that allows for immersive gameplay without needing a high-end computer or console. With titles like Beat Saber, Half-Life: Alyx, and Vader Immortal, Oculus offers a diverse library that includes everything from action and adventure to horror and fitness.

HTC Vive: Known for its high-quality display and room-scale tracking, HTC Vive has been a favorite among serious VR enthusiasts. The Vive Cosmos and Vive Pro series provide an immersive experience through high-resolution displays and ergonomic designs, offering precise tracking and motion-sensing capabilities. HTC Vive has also partnered with platforms like SteamVR, giving users access to thousands of VR games across genres.

PlayStation VR (PS VR): Sony entered the VR gaming scene with PlayStation VR, an extension of its PlayStation console lineup. Compatible with PS4 and PS5 consoles, PS VR offers gamers exclusive access to VR versions of popular franchises, such as Resident Evil and Gran Turismo. While the platform does require a PlayStation console to run, PS VR’s integration with these iconic games makes it a favorite among console gamers.

Valve Index: Developed by the company behind the Steam gaming platform, Valve Index is one of the most advanced VR systems, known for its impressive field of view and finger-tracking controllers. Although it is more expensive and requires a high-performance PC, Valve Index delivers unmatched quality, particularly in popular titles like Half-Life: Alyx. The platform’s integration with Steam provides users access to one of the largest VR libraries available.

Future Prospects for VR Gaming Platforms

The future of VR gaming is bright, with technology advancing rapidly and interest in VR gaming at an all-time high. Emerging technologies like haptic feedback suits, omnidirectional treadmills, and eye-tracking will further enhance the VR experience, making it feel even more immersive. Furthermore, cloud gaming and 5G connectivity are expected to address current limitations, such as the need for powerful hardware, by enabling VR gaming on mobile devices or through streaming services.

With the global VR gaming market projected to grow substantially over the next decade, major gaming companies are expected to invest even more in developing VR-compatible games and refining the technology. This expansion is likely to make VR gaming accessible to a broader audience, eventually establishing VR as a mainstream gaming format.

 

Metaverse Platform for Virtual Events have fundamentally changed how we interact with games, offering experiences that were once the stuff of science fiction. As companies continue to push the boundaries of what VR can do, it’s an exciting time for gamers eager to explore new dimensions of interactive entertainment. The evolution of VR gaming is not only a testament to technological innovation but also a glimpse into the limitless possibilities of the gaming industry’s future.

[gender-euphowrya]

i love videos that are like "5 easy ways to exercise daily :)" and it's like Ok so first pull out your omnidirectional treadmill which is a thing everyone, especially people who don't exercise, obviously has just lying around

[techrobot1235]

Exploring the Future of VR Input Devices, Adoption Rates, Profitability, and Scalability

Virtuix has started sending Omni One beta devices to early adopters. The company is launching the Omni One device for $2,595 or a $65 monthly payment plan.

The business plans to deliver over eight thousand units to investors by the first quarter of 2024. The Omni One will be available for preorder in late 2023, with shipments beginning in Q2 2024.

Virtuix’s Omni One distribution strategy follows a $4.5 million crowdfunding campaign.

In an exclusive interview with XR Today, Virtuix’s Founder and CEO highlighted the international distribution and scalability of its Omni One product. Unlike typical controller-based techniques, Virtuix provides an omnidirectional treadmill enabling users to completely lose themselves in VR apps that demand movement. The firm specializes in allowing users to roam around in VR, resulting in a more immersive experience.

The Future of VR Input and the Factors Influencing Adoption Rates

The CEO of Virtuix thinks VR is a widely applied medium in society, emphasising its omnidirectional benefits. However, despite 55% of their customer base having and using VR headsets, a large chunk of Virtuix’s client base lacks them. Innovative input devices, together with accompanying headsets, have the potential to boost adoption rates and convert new audiences to VR.

Launch of ‘Stage One Product Distribution

This year, Virtuix plans to deliver its product to early-stage investors, who will be the first to order an Omni One system. The beta program aims to produce thousands of units with general release orders fulfilled in Q1 of the following year.

Profitability Growth and International Distribution

JC Team Capital has teamed up with a key investor to help Virtiux establish profitability with the Omni One device. Furthermore, JC Team Capital CEO will join Virtuix’s board of directors to help with distribution targets until 2024. “JCT Teams Capital is a current investor in Virtuix, investing with Virtuix since 2020,” the CEO of Virtuix stated.

The CEO of Virtiux further stated: In this round, JC Team Capital stepped forward to become a key investor in our Series B funding. They’ve invested $3,000,000 in this round and have been an excellent partner. They’re simply wonderful to deal with. They have tremendous ambitions for Omni One and truly believe in our product and company.

The immersive hardware company Virtiux intends to create a joint venture with JC Team Capital to introduce Omni One to India next year. The collaboration will serve to drive financial stability and boost manufacturing, with the United States serving as the initial market. To guarantee seamless operations, the corporation intends to begin with the United States.

Using a Comprehensive, Open Product Framework

Their philosophy is that they will not offer a closed system. They are attempting to keep it open, but we offer it as a full system because it provides a far better user experience, particularly for people without a VR headset. Selling an entire system. They aim to provide a fantastic, smooth, and high-end user experience.

Virtiux, though, is determined to keep its environment open, ready for an expanding and ever-changing XR hardware industry.

Customers can link the device to a PC and employ it with a PC-based VR headset, says the CEO. We can make it work with different headsets. For example, they would be delighted to do so.

Despite the aims of XR device compatibility, Virtiux – and other OEMs – may encounter challenges depending on the hardware vendor.

CEO stated that closed techniques from companies present a barrier to expanding XR technology across headsets, adding that they “don’t play well with other vendors or devices.

Read More at - https://www.thetechrobot.com/

[canmom]

observations of virtual reality: movement and touch and cameras

So. Since I’ve got this job the last few weeks I’ve been getting a very rapid introduction to VR games. I’m coming in after a good few years and several generations of VR games, so by this point, tracking is very good, and new tech like AR passthrough and hand tracking is starting to become more commmon.

Predictably, it’s been absolute fascinating! On the surface VR games should be able to do everything that “flat screen” games can do and more, with the added bonus of head tracking and binocular vision. You are adding, not removing. And in some ways this is true. Moving through a VR space is incredibly intuitive, it’s very much like moving in a real physical space. If you want to get a close look at something, you stick your face up close to it. Compared to controlling an orbiting camera with an analogue stick it’s night and day. You never have to ‘fight’ the camera.

But... there’s many exceptions to that ‘same but more’. The weight of the headset is one. Especially with standalone headsets, where you’re essentially strapping a smartphone to your face. VR games often ask for a lot of physical movement and this is sweaty; the foam pad around the headset always gets very damp when you’re done.

But most of all, when you’re designing these things, you’re fighting the devil called ‘motion sickness’. This imposes a hard limit on performance: you cannot afford to drop frames, 72fps is a hard minimum. It also has big implications for game design.

(below: a little tour of design considerations in VR games: movement, interaction and camera mechanics)

One of the most fundamental verbs of videogames is movement. Nearly every genre of 3D game has you moving a character, or at least a camera, through its space. And while motion sickness certainly does affect players, it’s relatively rare, at least among my generation who grew up playing these games. We have, it seems, been able to train ourselves to feel comfortable behind a first or third-person character controller - at least when we’re the ones holding the mouse so the brain can calibrate expectations. (It’s different when watching a stream for many people.) Perhaps, even when you’re not paying attention to it, the presence of a stationary world outside the screen helps anchor the brain’s perception so it doesn’t find a clash between eyes saying ‘movement’ and inner ear saying ‘not movement’.

In VR, though, it’s a puzzle. The most natural way to move through a virtual space would be to physically walk around it, but most players don’t have a play area the size of a typical game level. And very very few people in the world could afford to own an omnidirectional treadmill!

So you have to in some way apply movement that is ‘unphysical’, moving the character without moving the player’s physical body (or equivalently, moving the world around the character). The obvious way to do this would be to use the same analogue sticks as in typical character controller, but in practice this is disfavoured because it’s very, very likely to cause motion sickness.

Instead, game designers have to adapt their own games. The usual solution is to give players a means to teleport. For some reason the brain is a lot more comfortable with instant teleportation. In Superhot for example, the game teleports you through a series of preset positions; Half Life: Alyx has a variety of movement options but the default is a targeted teleport. A whole lot of other games have you standing in one place while objects come towards you; more recently there are AR games which superimpose vritual objects into your space.

What’s strange is there are some odd exceptions to that motion sickness rule. While moving along the ground seems prone to motion sickness, flying often seems to be a lot more comfortable, at least if the flight is relatively smooth and slow. There’s a whole category of flying games available on the store. Perhaps this is because in these circumstances you wouldn’t expect a very strong acceleration signal from the inner ear, so it’s easier to get over the lack of signal.

There’s one game I tried a bit of, called Echo Arena, which is a multiplayer zero-g football-like game where you have to get a disc to a goal. The game includes a variety of movement mechanics: you can thrust in the direction you’re looking, you can use your hands to apply smaller thrusts, and you can push off solid surfaces. Despite the fact that I was standing on a solid floor (my legs got a bit tired!), the zero-g effect was quite compelling; it was easier to suspend disbelief than I thought it might be.

I imagine you could do some incredibly cool movement tech once you got used to it. Compared to other zero-g games I’ve played like Shattered Horizon, it felt a lot more intuitive to actually be immersed in the 3D space. However, it also had some limitations: making small turns was easy, but to make larger turns you either had to physically turn around on the floor (which feels unintuitive when you’re floating around in a zero-g world!) or use the analogue stick to turn in abrupt 12.5-degree increments. This is a lot fiddlier than mouse-look.

I have a pretty robust stomach against motion sickness, so I don’t know if the average player of Echo Arena would find it too much. But I found it surprising how something I thought would be a route to motion sickness - floating around at fairly high speeds - actually didn’t prove problematic at all. I think it’s perhaps that the majority of the time, movement in Echo Arena is purely inertial with no acceleration. You accelerate in brief boosts. By contrast, if you could constantly move with the analogue sticks, your acceleration would be a lot more variable.

I do wonder how it compares to really floating around in a spacesuit in zero-g. There’s probably a single digit number of people who would be able to make the comparison!

Another surprising exception is the game Holoception, made by my new employer a few years before I joined the company. This game’s really cute, it’s like the ultimate form of Newgrounds stick figure fighting games. You control a third-person character, viewing the level from above. Your hands control the character’s hands, so you can swing weapons physically, and you can make them walk around with the analogue stick. As strange as it sounds on the surface (a blend of traditional control schemes and VR), it works startlingly well. I found I got used to controlling the little puppet very quickly; the only problems I had were more to do with occasional physics jank. And, oddly, moving with the analogue stick works just fine and does not cause motion sickness when you’re a floating eye in the sky.

The brain is a weird thing.

Anyway, a disproportionate number of VR players seem to be kids, at least going off the voices of people who talk aloud in VC. I don’t know if that’s just because kids find it easier to acclimate to a new way of relating to 3D space, or if it’s just the demographics of videogame players at large, or just the time of day I was playing when most adults would be at work, or maybe it’s just that kids find it easier to stand up for long periods to play games lmao. [Accessibility for people who can’t stand for long periods is a big problem for the current generation of VR games.] In any case, I wonder if it might be the case that if VR ends up getting popular enough, the next generation might find VR movement as intuitive as I find movement in an FPS. (My dad, by contrast, finds it extremely hard to get used to movement in 3D games. He tried Portal once and found it completely overwhelming.)

For any cyberpunk worldbuilders out there, perhaps one day we’ll get inner ear implants that override the sense of acceleration when in VR. Then maybe we get some Ghost in the Shell type scenario where you can hack someone’s cochlear implant and give them severe motion sickness. Or, perhaps we’ll get as comfortable disregarding our inner ear in VR as we do when playing an FPS...

The other interesting challenge of VR is touching solid surfaces. The amount of haptic feedback on most platforms is: you can make the controller vibrate. That’s it. For a game like Beat Saber, that’s enough: the controller gives a little jolt every time you hit a block, which is enough confirmation.

My employer has a line of games based around hand tracking, in the form of Hand Physics Lab and Surgineer. HPL is a collection of small puzzles designed around hand tracking, and the way it works is quite interesting. Essentially you have a virtual hand that is attached to your real hand by springs. The virtual hand will try to follow the position of your real hand as closely as possible, but it is a physics-simulated object and it will collide with the environment. So, for example, you can grasp an object by closing your hand around it. The springs will pull your virtual fingers onto the object. (There is also a grab assist which will glue an object to your hand when it detects a grab motion).

Your fingers will feel the pressure of closing against your hand, and even though you don’t feel the weight and texture of the virtual object, it works well enough to sell the suspension of disbelief.

It is, inevitably with this hardware, a bit jank and fiddly. The hand tracking has its limits, and sometimes your virtual hand will get caught on something or bent in a funny way. Amusingly, a lot of the minigames are toys we give to babies: it is like we are relearning how to move, just as we did when we were fresh new brains awash with sense-data. But despite that, it works way better than you’d expect it to. You build an intuitive sense of how your ‘ghost hand’ relates to your real hand, and how to get it to do certain things. It doesn’t feel like really interacting with solid objects, but you can interact with objects with a great deal more dexterity than you can in a regular 3D physics-manipulation game (Garry’s Mod or something).

The VR controller is a small and fairly light piece of plastic. The hand tracking is literally an empty hand. In games, it can become all sorts of things. Most often it’s a hand, or else a weapon like a sword or a gun. The player can swing their hand or controller around freely, so how do you communicate a sense of weight? Well, proprioception - your body’s sense of where your limbs are - isn’t actually that precise. If you push against a heavy object, even if your real hands go straight through it, if your virtual hands strain to get it moving then your brain will override the proprioception with what it’s seeing, and it will still feel like you’re pushing something heavy.

Surgineer builds on HPL’s hand tracking concept to have you play the role of a surgeon, picking up tools to cut a patient’s skin and bones. It’s deliberately quite silly - the surgeries you’re performing quickly escalate to things like brain transplants, and you have some pretty magical tools - but it is a game of fairly fine manipulation. I found this one tended to work a lot better with controllers (the controller buttons are used to determine the positions of your fingers, with the trigger and grip button causing your virtual hand to close), and I was able to complete most of the game, if not with very high scores. It’s a funny game, though quite difficult! I think it would be great for streams.

Now, the final level has you manipulating a robot arm with a joystick. This is where it kind of fell apart for me - a real joystick has resistance against being pushed, which the controller, held freely in your hand, doesn’t, so it’s difficult to rotate the virtual joystick without pulling your hand out of position. There were just too many layers of slippage in between me and the robot arm - real hand position to virtual hand position to virtual joystick position to robot arm position - and it was too hard to predict how the robot would move.

But that’s interesting in itself, for showing the limits of these methods. If you attached the controller to a pivot on your desk, it would probably feel a lot easier to manipulate the virtual joystick, since the physics of the real and virtual object would be similar.

Current VR systems track your hands and head, and that’s it. So if the player is playing as a human, the question is what you do with the rest of the body. If the player is visible to others, or you want them to look down and see their own body, you have to simulate it somehow - a combination of an animation system with IK to match the head and hand positions.

And that adds its own design considerations. If it’s a combat game, is their body a target? Most games seem to elect to make the head the only point of vulnerability. For example in Beat Saber, it doesn’t matter if you’re standing in an obstacle as long as your head is clear. I’m not entirely sure if your body can get hit in Superhot. In Echo Arena, you have to hit other players on the head.

I’m not sure if anyone’s made a VR fencing game that’s any good. It seems like a very natural fit - a fencing piste is a limited area, and controllers map to swords very nicely. But also it would have a bunch of problems: if your sword gets parried, it will detach from your hand position, which will get very confusing very quickly. If you’re hit, you won’t feel it. I’ll have to look into that, it must have been done...

Another thing you lose out in VR is the matter of framing. VR films do exist, I watched a few, but they have a big problem: the camera frame is so vitally important to how regular film communicates a story. Think of Sergei Eisenstein and montage theory; the language of film is the cut, the shot length, the angle.

Videogames already have the problem that you can’t rely on the player looking in a particular direction. They solve this with clever level design (e.g. you walk out of a tunnel into a wide open vista) or by seizing control of the camera in a cutscene. But mostly, they define the ways the camera can move. Indeed, many of the genres of game are defined in large part by their camera mechanics - a side-scrolling shmup versus a 2D platformer versus a third person shooter.

So if you think about games that make heavy use of the camera, such as NieR - how would this translate to VR? All the narrative VR games that I’ve played tend to be fully ‘immersive’ in the manner of Half-Life - you never leave the POV of your character. Perhaps a cutscene is possible, but you still have to accept that the player can move their POV around. A VR cutscene is more akin to a moving diorama than a film.

Before I started playing around in VR, I imagined that we’d have to find ways to realistically simulate the sensations of touch, and VR would never really feel ‘real’ without an incredibly fancy haptic feedback suit, omnidirectional treadmill, etc. The reality is in a way more interesting: videogames have always been about approximations and abstractions, and the same is just as true with VR. We are trying to find suitable representations to communicate what is intuitive in 3D space, give the brain enough hooks that it can adapt itself to a new form of interaction with the world. And brains are plastic! Look how well we’ve all adapted to becoming computer touchers.

Roger (my new boss ^^) compared current VR to the first generation of 3D games, when they were still figuring out what mechanics and control schemes would make sense. (Nowadays nearly every 3D game controls the same; it’s essentially a solved problem.) That’s where VR is, there’s a lot of experiments and some standard patterns but a lot of room for experimentation still. So, even if mostly my role is in visuals at the moment, it’s exciting to be part of a new medium being born.

VR definitely isn’t going to replace flatscreen games. There are many genres of game that simply do not have any reason to be in VR at all outside of a gimmick. While VR motion tracking is now very good, and you can use the controllers as laser pointers (which is how most menus in VR work), they do not have the precision of a mouse. Serving information to the player is another tricky problem; text in VR games tends to be big and has a specific 3D location, it’s hard to match the density of information you can get on a screen, and I’m told that information hovering around your peripheral vision does not feel good in VR.

That means, for example, complicated strategy games are not a good fit. On the other hand, first-person shooting is very good in VR, you’re physically aiming your gun. It’s less accurate than mouse-driven first-person shooting where you’re always perfectly aligned with your sights, but the manipulation of the gun feels more satisfying, it’s good at selling the fantasy. (Though you do lose out on the whole medium of first person gun-interaction animations!)

It’s funny - something like Superhot is in many ways an evolution of the light gun games from the PS2 era. They’re having a moment once again.

So we’re working out a new set of genres for a new medium. In some years, probably design patterns will settle down, we’ll work out what feels good, and games will start to mature as they did on PC and consoles. A lot of VR games now are built around one specific high concept or mechanic, in contrast to games on other consoles where the mechanics are for the most part well-established and it’s more about fleshing them out with a cohesive package of stories and visuals. In a way, the majority of VR games feel a lot more like indie games than AAA games.

Will there be a THRUST//DOLL VR version one day? No promises, and the game will always be flatscreen first, but it’s going to be fun to see if it would work at all.

[stormkobra-5]

A few random things about me you should know for the day:

1) I’m writing I swear to god I’m writing but very slowly

2) Ya’ll have no idea how badly I want full-blown VR with one of those impact registering sets and an omnidirectional treadmill to be my first Battlefront 2 experience ya’ll have no idea how badly I just want to play that game

3) I’m very patiently waiting for the day when someone tells me it’s weird that I like Star Wars so much as AFAB so I can use the iconic line, “Into the garbage chute, flyboy!”

4) Somebody needs to edit Poe Dameron with Angel with a Shotgun tell me I’m wrong

[ownerzero]

Yet Another Design Approach to Walking in VR: Wheeled Boots

While we’ve successfully solved the problem of how to make VR users look like idiots, one solution we haven’t settled on is how to provide a realistic sensation of walking. Proposed solutions differ widely. The Infinadeck is an omnidirectional treadmill: Cybershoes are a wearable solution, but they require you to sit-stand: A company called Ekto […]

The post Yet Another Design Approach to Walking in VR: Wheeled Boots appeared first on AWorkstation.com.

source https://aworkstation.com/yet-another-design-approach-to-walking-in-vr-wheeled-boots/

[mcmcntomorii-later]

  — Mukuro 100000% has like those intense VR setups where there’s like that omnidirectional treadmill, a body suit, lmao and honestly also get that olorama smell generator. It’ll probably be something she has out during the winter so she can like still go for jogs and not have to be out in the cold lmao ( until she plays like skyrim vr lmao )

[hevsimulation]

If you are walking around is it through a controller or are you actually walking around?

Neither! Black Mesa was kind enough to provide us with ‘omnidirectional treadmills’! Without them one of us would have certainly been kicked in the head by now, which would be very bad!

nah i’m immune to kicks