I鈥檓 sat in a deckchair relaxing on the beach, watching the sun go down. I would happily have stayed there for a good while, but my time is up and I have to return to the real world. When I remove the Oculus Rift headset and headphones, the noisy conference room comes as a huge shock.
I had been experiencing , a virtual reality (VR) experience created by developer nDreams in Farnborough, UK. The firm was showing off its creation at the SouthWest VR conference in Bristol last week, where game developers, film-makers and visual-effects artists came together to discuss how VR experiences could improve films and games.
The rise of VR headsets in recent years has been led by game developers seeking a way to immerse players even deeper in virtual worlds 鈥� just yesterday top developer Valve . But adding VR to a video game can actually hamper play, because the goggles stop you seeing the controller in your hands.
Advertisement
Yet the ability to put someone in a space and give them limited but meaningful interaction provides a new experience 鈥� one that could shake up the film industry.
鈥淭he thing I find really engaging about VR is the sense of presence,鈥� says Dave Ranyard of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, who is developing software for Sony鈥檚 upcoming VR headset, Morpheus. 鈥淚t feels like a step change in immersion.鈥�
Hollywood hits
One of the big hits at the Sundance film festival in Utah in January was Wild: The Experience, a 3-minute virtual reality version of the film Wild starring Reese Witherspoon, in which viewers can watch from all directions. VR firm Oculus has also set up a VR film division called Story Studio to produce short films for the latest version of its headset.
But VR film-making doesn鈥檛 have to be a blow-out Hollywood extravaganza to work; even simple films, like my deckchair experience, can be surprisingly convincing. 鈥淚n any other medium this would be boring, you wouldn鈥檛 sit there for 10 minutes,鈥� says Nick Pittom of VR firm . But it鈥檚 narrative experiences where VR will really shine, he says 鈥� if a static VR scene can be powerful, a story will be even more so.
As VR film is a new medium there are no set rules. Phil Harper of Alchemy VR, a UK firm working on immersive natural history films with veteran broadcaster David Attenborough, calls his nature documentaries 360掳 video, because they are made by arranging a number of cameras in a sphere and stitching the resulting videos together to create an all-encompassing film. Watching someone speak to you in VR is more intimate than on a TV screen, he says, because they appear to be the same size as a real human. 鈥淭he brain begins to accept this as a social interaction, rather than something that鈥檚 seen on a screen,鈥� Harper says.
Nowhere to hide
But this approach has its challenges. Because audiences can see all around them, it is impossible to hide equipment that would normally sit just out of shot. Even directors have to face their audience, or else hide. 鈥淥ften I鈥檓 just stood in the background,鈥� says Harper. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 hide anything in 360掳 video.鈥�
In some situations that can free viewers of a framing camera鈥檚 deception. 鈥�360掳 video is a truly honest format,鈥� says Harper, who thinks news broadcasts in particular could benefit. Earlier this year Vice News from a protest in New York.
For fictional stories, film-makers might want a different approach. One option used by Belgian VFX firm Nozon is to render high-quality 3D worlds on a computer and then 鈥渇ilm鈥� inside them, without having to worry about having equipment on show. This 360掳 CGI is convincing 鈥� Nozon鈥檚 Matthieu Labeau showed me a short but incredibly in which a robot and a beaver hang out in an ornate ballroom.
Both 360掳 CGI and 360掳 video have the same problem, though: they can鈥檛 react to the audience. Limited interaction, like selecting different scenes based on where you look, is possible, but that鈥檚 about it. Viewers also tend to look straight ahead, so you have to cue them to look elsewhere with particular sounds or pointing characters. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think a movie where things are happening all around you makes sense, because you will feel you missed half the movie,鈥� says Labeau.
That鈥檚 where game engines, the software that powers gaming鈥檚 3D worlds, can help. Visual quality takes a hit because rendering happens in real time, but that also allows for a more interactive experience, heightening immersion. You can place a scene to the left of the viewer and encourage them to turn their head, but if they don鈥檛 take the hint the characters can move directly into view, says Pittom.
Language change
He recently recreated scenes from animated Studio Ghibli films in a game engine to let people explore them in VR, a technique that is also finding its feet in the film industry. (see 鈥淭he director鈥檚 cut鈥�, below left).
But Pittom says the language of film 鈥� close-ups, fast cutting and so on 鈥� doesn鈥檛 translate well to VR. Instead, in some ways the closest existing medium is the interactive theatre pioneered by Punchdrunk, in which there is no stage and the audience directly interacts with actors and chooses which parts of a scene to watch. But VR can create realistic worlds that are impossible in theatre. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the difference between watching a kitchen-sink drama and the film Avatar,鈥� Pittom says.
But are consumers ready for a new kind of film that requires new hardware, having so recently been burned by the 3DTV and film fad? Some VR experiences need very powerful PCs for the full effect, so the outlay could be enormous.
鈥淭he demand already exists but the technology doesn鈥檛,鈥� says Harper. Unlike 3DTVs, which were pushed by television manufacturers, the growth in VR tech is being driven by consumers, particularly through crowdfunding 鈥� though that has led to delays in getting products on shelves. But with the ubiquity and increasing power of smartphones, a that you slot your phone into might be all you need to take your first steps into VR.
Whether as films, games or something in between, there is a lot of confidence that VR experiences are finally here to stay. Ranyard even thinks that VR could be a defining part of the 2010s, as the Walkman was for the 80s. 鈥淚 think people wearing a VR headset and experiencing something is going to be an iconic image.
The Director鈥檚 cut
Hollywood is embracing virtual reality not just for audiences, but for directors who want a new view of the action.
An important step when making a movie is previsualisation, when film-makers create low-cost versions of the film before spending millions of dollars on the real thing. That used to involve scale models and storyboards, but now includes 3D animations of key sequences.
Duncan Burbidge of The Third Floor in London, which helps film-makers with previsualisation, says the film is now experimenting with adding virtual reality to these 3D animations, so directors can explore a location and plan out their shots.
鈥淭hese days sets are becoming increasingly virtual,鈥� says Burbidge, making it harder for directors to let their creative juices flow. Virtual reality changes that, he says. 鈥淭heir eyes light up like a Christmas tree and they鈥檙e suddenly engaging with it in a way that they鈥檙e used to.鈥�
