When Facebook purchased Oculus and their Rift VR device, the item went from niche product to worldwide phenom virtually overnight(and all it took was several billion dollars.) It’s not hard to see why. The potential of this gadget is virtually unlimited. It’s a wearable eyewear device that quite literally transports you to virtual realms. Finally you can live the games you play, or just hang out with faraway buddies in real time. Who knows what the future has in store for the Rift, but one thing can be sure, the future certainly has a lot in store. In any event, here are two recent developments regarding the Oculus Rift that should pique your curiosity.
First of all, the Norwegian government has begun outfitting their soldiers with their very own Rifts in order to teach them the ins and outs of tank warfare. After all, who has more cause to need a well trained army of tank riders than the oft-warring Norway? I kid. But, the implementation here is actually pretty cool. They sit in a real tank and thanks to a series of cameras and sensors, the riders are given a full 360 degree panoramic view of the world around them. All they need do is turn their heads and the Rift does the rest. So, in essence, this can be used by tank operators to get an entirely new view of the battlefield, thus improving battle tactics. Of course, it must again be noted, Norway doesn’t exactly find themselves in many gigantic battles.
Next up, Oculus themselves have plans for a massively multiplayer, fully immersive VR game in the nearish future. Just how massively multiplayer are they imagining here? Oh, to the tune of one billion players. This would have been crazy talk before the Facebook purchase, but now it seems actually doable. Keep in mind, more than a billion people already use Facebook so the infrastructure is already there. The only hurdle at this point is raw computing power, and stable Internet connectivity which, as you know, is currently on the governmental chopping block. We’ll let you know about this game when the company releases more information.
