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Virtual Reality for Everyone
The ARS ELECTRONICA FUTURELAB recently came up with a PC-based Virtual Reality environment (CAVE). Now, further research has made it possible to use game engines to create virtual worlds on an extremely high level of technical sophistication. This constitutes a decisive step in the direction of making this Virtual Reality technology, which has been terribly expensive and very complicated ever since its introduction, accessible to a much broader population of users.
Linz (September 26, 2003) Conventional Virtual Reality systems are characterized by two essential characteristics: they are extremely costly, and the task of producing applications with them calls for relevant programming skills or at least collaboration with specialists. In the past, these factors have prevented many potential users from taking advantage of this technology that offers such exciting application possibilities—to a company’s sales force in conjunction with trade show presentations, for instance, or to artists in their work.
The ARS ELECTRONICA FUTURELAB’s development of a PC-based CAVE—the ARSBOX—has dramatically reduced the costs of this Virtual Reality technology while simultaneously upgrading its technical features, and thus represents a milestone in making this technology accessible to many more users.
An additional step in this direction was taken with the utilization of the “Unreal Tournament 2003” game engine in the development of 3-D worlds for the ARSBOX. This software is very widespread and relatively user-friendly, and now opens up a wide range of potential applications at significantly reduced costs.
In the future, this will make possible more efficient and more cost-effective architectural visualizations that enable clients to take a virtual tour of a proposed structure during the planning phase. And artists—many of whom have shown tremendous interest in working with Virtual Reality technologies—will increasingly by able to bring their concepts to fruition.
These R&D results once again confirm the lab’s leading position in the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Ever since it was founded, the ARS ELECTRONICA Futurelab has placed particular emphasis on developing hardware and software to facilitate access on the part of artists to extremely flexible, high-performance Virtual Reality systems.
With inquiries, contact:
Wolfgang A. Bednarzek
Pressesprecher / Press Officer
AEC Ars Electronica Center Linz
Hauptstraße 2, 4040 Linz, Austria
tel ++43.732.7272-38
fax ++43.732.7272-638
wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at
Press Lounge@Ars Electronica:
http://www.aec.at/press
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