The advent of science and technology continues to revolutionize and evolve the way one envisions the gaming world today. It has ushered in a growing reliance and a continuous shift to make games much more realistic and immersive than earlier. While there are various ways the future of gaming is shaping itself, the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality amounts to some of the most poignant changes.
From escape room games to your usual video games, one cannot fail to notice how games are growing to become more immersive and engaging for players. In this article, let us look at how Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are refining and shaping the way one looks at the gaming world today.
What is Augmented Reality (AR)?
By talking of AR, one refers to an immersive and highly engaging form of technology that allows users to experience a personal interaction with the digital world of games. The technology functions by commingling game visuals with audio content in real time and space to create an immersive artificial environment. Players playing AR-based games on their tablets, smartphones, or gaming systems can enjoy a hyper-realistic gaming experience!
What is Virtual Reality (VR)?
VR refers to a form of technology that facilitates players to create a simulated environment. It allows players to experience an unimaginable artificial world before them through the game. They can interact and become one with the 3D world of the game, as it simulates all their sense organs including touch, vision, smell, and hearing.
How do AR and VR help evolve the gaming world?
Creators of video games perpetually work towards creating highly interactive and engaging forms of games to bring players into the gaming world! Over time, they have ushered in new changes and innovations in the world of games. They have added 360-degree views of the realistic surroundings of the games to make them even more realistic for players.
How AR functions:
The incorporation of highly innovative and imaginative VR and AR technologies aims to take this a step further, to make players thrilled to be a part of the gaming world. Take the AR-based game Pokémon Go for instance. The game allows players to interact with their immediate surroundings and experience the gaming world in an unprecedented realistic way. Players can use their smartphones in the real world and using the advanced AR technology, can move forward in the game! They can explore different corners of their city or visit new locations they have never visited before as they search for and collect new Pokémons!
How VR functions:
VR technologies require players to put on a designated VR headgear that almost immediately transports players to the world of the game! From VR-enabled escape rooms to games like the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, these games function by allowing players to interact and complete challenges in real-time. Contrary to AR-based games, VR games transport players to a different alternate reality and require them to interact therein to advance in the game.
What are the challenges for VR and AR gaming?
Since VR and AR gaming technologies are still under development, there are still some limitations in their functionalities. Video game creators are still on their way to curating a flawless virtual world of games that seamlessly orients direction and adjusts in perfect real-time with the movement of players. Creators are still on their way to overcoming VR sickness caused due to the differences in the real world experienced by the body as opposed to the virtual world.
Furthermore, VR headgears are generally bulky, which often leads to headaches and fatigue in players. One can hope that soon VR headgear can become lighter than how it is at present.
Safety issues are yet another factor that pulls down the efficiency of VR technologies. Players interacting with the virtual world while being physically present in the real world can face chances of falling and causing harm to themselves or people nearby. Thus, VR technology makes it necessary for players to have access to a large space as they interact with and enjoy the VR-enabled game.
The future of gaming holds a lot of promise in making the gaming world far more immersive and realistic than at present like in escape rooms. There are still challenges and obstacles for gaming technologies to overcome. But still, one can nevertheless hope to experience an unimaginably realistic gaming environment in the days to come!
