Hi all,
Dr Richard Marks is one of my favourite people working at Sony, I've been following his work for a long time and am really impressed with his work with eyetoy, PlayStation Move and now the work he's been doing with Morpheus. I'm creating this thread to raise awareness of VR and the creative minds behind Project Morpheus as well as so we can see what work has been done so far. I've been interested in the future of VR and love watching videos like the ones below so thought I would share.
In the two videos below we have him talking about VR in general, Project Morpheus and the future of gaming. The first video is an interview with Richard Marks and other game creators who talk about their experience with Morpheus and what we can expect. The second video is Richard Marks talking about his role and what he's done over the years, the previous PlayStation interactive technologies such as Eyetoy & Move + the future of VR and how it can be used. There are some really cool tech demos on display here and this is one to watch.
I fully recommend watching both the videos to get a better understanding but as the total run time of the videos is over 2 hours I have made some notes below you can read. Please notes that the videos are more about concepts for VR and not necessarily new information on Morpheus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0dLnqKbOvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_X9yLkK5gA
Also this video from GDC 2015 is very cool- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2cj4MsbLgo along with this video which talks about Richard Marks role with Morpheus- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOhTqGnPosU
- Morpheus is a new way to play games and is one of the futures of gaming. A lot of tech like the tracking tech is stuff they've worked on before (such as in Move/eyetoy) and they are bringing all this tech together to create an ultimate VR headset. Devs are still experimenting and bringing new things to the platform each day.
- Marks said that any world can be bought into VR but it's about tailoring the inputs the player makes to bring that world alive.
- Marks talked about how in VR, just being in the world space can be an experience in itself and there doesn't need to be too many complicated inputs to get the full experience. Therefore anyone can play the game and the controls that are there come naturally to the player.
- Your brain plays tricks on you when in a VR world which can help improve the experience. For example, when a monster in a game gets close to your face you can start to sweat and feel the heat even though it's not real.
- Inputs can come from Morpheus itself by tilting your head, Dualshock4 through motion and traditional input, and through PS Move. Custom interfaces can be created for games in the same way that we saw custom controller products for Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
- Social experiences can be created in Morpheus. One example is "Monster Escape" for PS4 where one player has the Morpheus headset and is a monster running around a city. This person see's first person view of the city. 4 other players use DS4 on the tv screen and can see the whole area and are trying to run away.
- Marks said that as Sony is a consumer electronics company they wanted the best hardware specs but also the best design and ergonomics. That's why the Morpheus is beautiful design, robust and lightweight. The headset feels just right on the face.
- Morpheus is good for developers and consumers. For consumers it works with PS4 so it's a plug and play device. For developers there are tools out for PS4 development and they can optimise for the device and platform.
- More than 17 games were demoed at E3 and there are plenty more in development which will be unveiled in the future.
- Games is the focus for VR first but Sony are already working with other industries to make Morpheus work for non gaming related applications. For example a live concert could be attended using the Morpheus headset.
- Sony is working closely with developers and tech companies to figure out how to create new experiences for VR that can be bought to PlayStation.
- "Presence" is the buzz word being used for immersion that VR can bring. Developers have found that a game does not need to have photo-realistic graphics to bring immersion, it can be a cartoon style world for example.
- Video games incorporate many technology areas such as Graphics, Processing, Display, Input and Network. Morpheus works with all these technology areas to offer unique experiences whilst pushing technology.
- Marks wants Morpheus to have inputs where there is a direct cause and effect, an action leads to a reaction. Rather than have a static experience where you press a button to move the story/experience on.
- The PlayStation Camera for PS4 is excellent at tracking coloured LED's like the ones found on PS Move, Dualshock 4 and Morpheus headset. This was something the specifically designed the camera to do.
- The PlayStation camera knows where you are looking and this is great for developers who want to create certain inputs based around where you are looking. It also gives the player a magical feeling of power and control and it is intuitive to understand.
- An example given is that when you look at a certain part of the screen it can trigger a response.e.g walking into a shop and looking at something can trigger the shopkeeper to ask if you want to buy it.
- What is key to gaming with morpheus is the feeling of presence through hand and body awareness and environmental response when playing the games. As is head tracking and surroundings.
- There are many inputs to VR such as abstract controllers such as gamepad or mouse and keyboard, spatial controls like PS Move, and literal controls like head tracking/movement.
- PS Move and dualshock 4 allows direct physical interaction with the virtual world. Visuals in the world can replicate the PS Move design so it feels like you are holding the item in game e.g flashlight/weapon.
- PS Move/dualshock4 can be used for moving around the world as a way to stop motion sickness and to make it feel like you are moving yourself increasing immersion in the game. e.g pinch to zoom or teleport by pointing at a spot.
- World in miniature concept is good way to play with Morpheus. You can see the whole map by looking down into it. E.g the Minecraft demo Microsoft showed with hololens.
- Hand tracking can be done in many different ways, either through current controllers like Move and DS4 but there are other options like depth camera for gesture actions or even gloves.
- Controller inputs are more robust and precise and provide good feedback. traditional button inputs are easier and can feel more natural.
- Controller-less inputs like hand tracking feels more natural and gives the player a visual representation of their actual movements which increases immersion.
- Body tracking, voice input and haptics can be used in VR to increase immersion and presence. e.g kicking/crouching, voice recognition/commands, controller vibration as a cue.
- 3D audio is a great tool within VR to control the experience in a way to guide the user. By hearing a sound from behind them it will cause a player to turn around and interact with the place the sound came from.
- Improved interaction is key to VR market growth to provide a stronger sense of presence and grounding so that deeper and more compelling experiences can be created for players and to encourage shared experiences through personalised cues.
- There is no mass market VR product so Richard is hopeful to see where VR goes in the future. Richard noted that because VR is new he see's people experimenting more and spending more times in games exploring and viewing the area rather than running through the game like a gamer would on a normal console game.
- Unity and Unreal are fully committed to Morpheus with full plugin support. It's easy to create a basic VR game fairly quickly. The difficulty comes down to immersion and presence.
- The audience for Morpheus should be everybody. (Also the PlayRoom will launch with Morpheus)
