Project Holodeck is exactly what it sounds like: the University of Southern California’s schools of engineering and cinematic arts have joined forces to develop a virtual reality gaming platform, built almost entirely from widely available technology. 
Players’ body - and head-movements are tracked respectively by a Razer Hydra and Playstation Move. Variable fans (the prototype’s are Arduino-controlled) simulate wind for touch feedback. The team is building its software from the Unity3D engine.
Project Holodeck’s main development snag for the moment is its head-mounted display. The Oculus RIFT, designed by Project Holodeck’s Lead Hardware Engineer Palmer Luckey, will have a definition of 640x800 per eye, with a field of vision sufficient for simulated peripheral vision. “This isn’t like watching a floating television,” the project’s hardware page explains. But pending a Kickstarter campaign, which will price the HMD at $500, the RIFT only exists in prototype.
The $500 price-point will certainly make the RIFT a competitor to Sony’s HMZ-T1, but it’s hard to imagine something with such a limited range of use appealing to anyone except serious gaming hobbyists. “We want to make the dream of a VR play space a reality, and at a affordable cost,” the team has stated. But even if you already owned all the required components (at least one version of the platform featured four networked Kinects), setting up a living room VR system looks like it would be prohibitively expensive for average consumers.
The USC team is reportedly developing its own game to showcase the platform. Wild Skies has yet to post game footage or even a screenshot, so it’s likely the game doesn’t yet exist in any playable form, though a recent Project Holodeck video, which combines gameplay clips from “Skies of Arcadia” with (we’re assuming) staged footage of player actions, makes the concept of a sense-immersive flight-sim/adventure game look surprisingly feasible.
Project Holodeck’s hints at a partnership with Disney Imagineering make full commercial availability of the system seem even less likely - at least for the next few years. But maybe that’s a good thing. VR gaming is hardly a sure thing for developers. (Remember Nintendo’s Virtual Boy? Most people don't.) But current technology would certainly make developing VR games easier and more affordable than it’s been in the past.
If there was a consumer VR platform would you buy it? More importantly, how little would it have to cost? Let us know in the comments.
Source : ign[dot]com
