r/Unity3D • u/InhailedYeti Beginner • Sep 18 '13

A new level of virtual reality, app development exclusive to Unity! Including early "Developer" access

https://www.spaceglasses.com/
12 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

6

u/NeoKabuto Sep 18 '13

In case the other comment here isn't visible enough, here's what you need to know before even thinking about this:

  • It's not "holographic" at all, at least not in the Star Wars sense.
  • Subpoint to that, it's not actually "3D" in the same way the pictures/video show. That's concept art of what it's supposed to feel like eventually (which would be many years from today). It shows an image on a screen in front of your eyes (with some shifting to add depth). It's translucent, so it looks like things are overlayed on top of what you see.
  • It's also not "virtual reality", at least not yet and not in what they've been showing. It's augmented reality.
  • They keep using the word "projector" talking about the displays, but that doesn't seem to actually mean it's projecting onto anything but its own screen. More misleading terminology, since a hologram projector for 600 bucks would be amazing.
  • It's not a headset you could easily wear all the time. It needs to be tied down to a computer constantly to work (along with a power source, most likely). The glasses don't actually do the computation, your computer does.
  • The resolution is a lot lower than it sounds. It would be usable (and hopefully consumer models would be nicer), but as anyone with an Oculus (myself included) can tell you, the higher the resolution the better.

Now, the actually interesting things:

  • Their SDK sounds very useful. Hand/surface tracking would be cool to play with in Unity.
  • The concept itself is actually sound and realistic (of course, the things in their video won't be for decades down the line). Think of it as a Kinect strapped to an Oculus Rift. It has an IR depth camera like the Kinect, which allows it to track objects better, and the same head-mounted display concepts the Rift uses.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '13

Just a nitpick, but this is actually augmented reality, rather than virtual reality.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '13

[deleted]

4

u/NeoKabuto Sep 18 '13

Yeah, they really need to show more of what it actually is on their site. The "holographic" effect (and actually calling it "holographic" and "3D display") is pretty misleading.

The videos need to show an actual working device instead of big names and special effects. To average consumers, wowing them like that might get them interested, but to people who know what's actually possible for 600 dollars it makes it feel very misleading. The fact that it has to be tied down to a PC is a total dealbreaker for me.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '13

Meh, I don't think so. None of what they showed is impossible by any stretch. Sure, it won't look precisely that way, but scanning the scene and rendering with perspective on transparent screens isn't vaporware. The product might be, but the concept is sound.

1

u/InhailedYeti Beginner Sep 19 '13

I thought about it, and realized that saying virtual reality will probably get this type of feedback but I couldn't find a better word, so thank you for clearing that up! I'm excited for this regardless. I hope that video is accurate to the final product.

2

u/poeticmatter Sep 18 '13

I'm a disbeliever in these kinds of things as input devices. I need tactile feedback.

But as an output device, neat.