3D in Video Games

Johnny Lee is great. He's showing people what's possible. Informing the consumer so they demand video games have cool new features.

What he's showing in this video has been around a long time. I implemented it on a SGI Indy with a web cam in 1996. At that time I had access to amazing virtual reality setups. I was working for the Army Research Institute putting together virtual reality training systems. I wanted to share the experiences that full body tracking with head mounted displays allowed ( I still do ), but it had to be cheaper. So I found this paper called Fish Tank VR. And it worked, just like Johnny's head tracking video.

But who was there to tell? No you tubes back then. So I thought, "I'll join the game industry, spread the word from inside the machine." Thing is, when you're inside a machine you have to act like a fully operational cog of said machine. Finding ways to transform the output of the machine are difficult.

There is hope. The games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are changing the video game developer's opinions on games that require peripherals. They are seeing that people want, understand and will pay for new methods of interaction. Add that to the pressures of people like Johnny Lee and we might see some VR yet.