A VR enthusiast's review of the development of VR over the past five years

The author of this article, Daniel Kihlgren Kallander, is a game developer working on SVRVIVE Studios. This company is based in Stockholm. Last November (2016), they released SVRVIVE: The Deus Helix and are now actively developing new products. Since 2013, Daniel has been actively involved in discussions about VR and has spoken on various occasions about VR development. He is also one of the founders of the Stockholm VR Meetup.

I remember that as early as 2012, VR was also considered a fantasy, or at least a failed experiment in the 1990s - it was only five years ago.

Yes, 5 years. Knocking this number makes me feel old. At that time, we called this group of people "VR enthusiasts." We just happily knocked out our dreams in major forums (like the MTBS3D VR) and dreamed that one day we owned Holodeck, Matrix or other us. Think of it as a "high standard" real virtual reality device. We should have a VR device that is plug and play and brings a near-real-life experience.

Then? Although we never thought that we could achieve today's achievement five years ago, it is clear that we have not yet reached that ideal stage.

You can buy VR Headsets anywhere

Regardless of who you think is what you did first, there are countless families in the world today that have VR headsets. By the way, I'm very fortunate that we call it head-mounted displays (HMD) instead of "VR helmets," "VR glasses," or whatever.

Haven’t you? Just go to the nearby e-Mall and spend 5 dollars, you can have a VR headset. Although it is not a high-level product, it is considered to be a certain amount. It's that simple. Even the grocery store near my home has VR head-to-head sales! They have even become our Swedish “Christmas gift of the year” in 2016, although most of them are simply too impassable to look at it.

I remember that in 2012, I was a freshman at Stockholm University. I studied game development. Then I discovered that if we just apply, the college can buy cool stuff for us. Of course, you have to have a good reason to apply, they are not open bank. However, when I discovered that the professor of our game course bought a 50,000-knife game simulation seat almost without hesitation, I thought I could try to apply.

After almost five years, the hottest thing I could think of was the early Emotiv EEG headset that controlled the virtual world. Use your mind to control your computer! Which normal software developer doesn't want such a thing to play with?!

. . . However, this thing did not go too far

Then came the Kickstarter crowdfunding at Oculus. Even our professor is very interested. DK1 started to order online (because the school's money cannot be used to support Kickstarter's crowdfunding products). All I have to do is apply. They finally booked more than one set, but four sets, "Because we have to test multiplayer games," the professor seemed to say so. . .

This is the VR once.

Big companies spend big money

Oculus is unique for quite some time. They were the only VR company for a long time. Their development was also smooth, at least compared to the dead and dead sights of the previous year or two. But in 2014, someone got involved: Valve. The game giant saw VR itself and its potential in the game and decided to stir the water. But you also know that it was just an interesting little project for them. They did not plan to release their own products, and then they cried. . .

Then Facebook somehow decided to spoil the game, with 2.4 billion US dollars to buy Oculus.

This is the spring of 2014. It has been less than two years since the crowdfunding took VR into everyone’s sight. Two of the world’s largest companies have taken note of this technology, leaving behind the money and time to lead its development.

For me, this is the first year of VR outbreak. I have long been a “VR expert” among my friends, but I’ve always been the only person who advocated this technology before, at least among the people around me. In the summer, I decided to end this situation. I helped launch the Stockholm VR workshop. The purpose was simply to gather people who liked the technology. I never expected that we would have more than 1,300 members later, and there were a large number of developers and companies that wanted to show their products. This can be written another article.

With more and more companies and funds, some VR developers have gradually increased their meetings. I even discovered that during the first Oculus Connect meeting, I met some developers who were only talking about Twitter and the forum. This is also the first time I have seen with my own eyes the excitement spread by this technology. I had to meet some lonely enthusiasts like me, and the CEOs of large multinational companies. The reason they came here was because the technology was simply too cool. We all dreamed of the day when VR could become a reality. We are fortunate to witness the arrival of this day.

We have just come on the road

Remember "I don't know what we can do after five years." Well, although we haven't been able to go as far as some people expected, we have done a lot. Technology is already here and people are using it. But being grateful and enjoying this technology at the moment is only one aspect. Fortunately, there are so many people in this industry that are not trying to make some quick money, but creating something that has vitality and can change us, change the world, communication, education, society, and so on.

Whether it is the application of numerous phobia treatments, the huge global funds that support diversification, the hardware gifts for educational institutions, or the tremendous efforts to build a safe social environment from scratch, we can already have a glimpse of what VR can do. . Support for VR communities and developers will never stop.

What will happen in the future? There are already tens of thousands of VR headsets on the market, and more consumers are enjoying VR-related content every day. Although the starting point is to bring people into a more compelling gaming world, we see the application and potential of VR growing every day. Google, Valve, Facebook, Sony, Samsung, and countless other companies are constantly advancing this technology. The enthusiasm for this revolution is also in every one of us.

For software developers like me, we can finally focus our attention on the use of existing hardware for development, without worrying whether VR will actually achieve such a problem. In the past five years, we may have gone as far as we can imagine. It seems that we have to persist for some time. But now, I look forward to the next exciting five years more than before.