VR.5: VR Articles
To: "Vr.5 Listserv" <vr5@planetx.com>
Here's a bunch of articles about VR (most of them are transcribed by me
so there may some errors)
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Here's that article I talked about from Boot Magazine -
FROM THE BOOTWIRE
by Bryan Del Rizzo bdelrizzo@bootnet.com
Virtual Reality files for Chapter 11
Head-mounted displays dead on arrival
Interested in virtual reality hardware? Better act fast. Most, if not
all, of the companies producing consumer-grade VR have either declared
bankruptcy or--even--worse no longer exist. The most recent casualties,
fierce competitors Virtual i-O and Forte Technologies, even filed for
Chapter 11 protection on the same day in late February, leaving many
doubting whether VR will ever become a reality for the masses
"The missing link is software," says linda Jacobsonn, Silicon Graphics'
virtual reality evangelist. "The hardware isn't entirely mature, and
without the proper software, the hardware doesn't stand a chance of
surviving."
Survival has proved to be beyond most companies that invested heavily in
VR development. Sega spent millions developing and testing a
head-mounted display (HMD) for platform gaming, but killed the project
after testers experienced intense nausea and other ailments. Nintendo
didn't learn any lessons from their rival's disaster and proceeded to
release the doomed VirtualBoy--an HMD that didn't HM, instead requiring
a table top tripod.
Hasbro spent almost four years and 60 million attempting to develop an
HMD-based game system but bailed in 1995 when the hardware cost could
not be reduced to consumer levels. Victormaxx technologies got out of
the game when gamers rejected its StuntMaster and CyberMaxx headsets.
Even Virtuality--king of location based VR--has filed fro protection
from creditors. The one standout is Mattel's PowerGlove, introduced in
1989, while, it too, failed to catch on with gamers, it's still credited
as one of the first consumer VR products to even be a moderate success,
and is still a favorite among garage-VR enthusiasts.
At the summer CES in 1994, Virtual i-O introduced the PC version of
there i-glasses, a lightweight HMD with motion tracking capability.
While promoted as having an interactive 80" screen, the product actually
delivers a twin LCD display with a 30-degree field of view and screen
resolution of only 263x230 Despite winning a slew of industrial design
awards, the product was never a hit with consumers, nationwide retailers
(including CompUSA and Computer City) dropped the product when shoppers
balked at the nearly $800 price tag, and those brave souls who shelled
out the money returned the devices at a rate approaching 100%. After an
expensive ad campaign failed to muster sails, Virtual i-O repackaged the
unit with a new name -VPC- and tried selling it at $599
Today the company awaits majority owner TCI's verdict on what exactly to
do with the $20 million failed investment (half of which was a loan).
Chances are that Virtual i-O will either be sold or closed down on the
off chance they're keeped alive, the company will "most likely move away
from the consumer market and into more vertical ones," according to Bob
Snider, vice pres. of sales.
Virtual i-o's other financial partners, including intel, Planar Systems,
and Thomson-CSF, will end up writing off their investments. European
distributor Escom AG also invested about 4 mill, but they are no longer
in business. "We counted on a big financial windfall," says Pierluigi
Zappacosta, vice chairman of Logitech, "and we always want to write of
these kind of investments over time."
Forte Technologies has fared just as badly, but with far less money.
Their major investor --Kopin Corporation-- had no experience with the
computer industry or consumer-level products. As a result, Forte's VFX1
HMD (Priced at $999) failed even to dent the U.S. retail market,
although the product was a minor success in Europe.
According to Ingram Micro, the world's largest distributor of computer
software and hardware, the official figures for the VFX1 and i-glasses
are dismal at best--only 420 VFX1s were sold in 1996. And i-glasses
actually posted negative sales numbers (-5) during the same period.
As bad as all this sounds, VR isn't dead. Although consumer VR can be
laid to rest, the death of such rudimentary hardware doesn't necessarily
mean the demise of the VR community. Companies such as SGi are
developing VR products, most which are designed for vertical markets
including training, medical, and education. SGI further showed their
commitment to VR when they built the Visionarium, which has seating for
40 and 160 degree wraparound screen to show of sophisticated
multi-piplined 3D graphics. Other companies, including SteroGraphics,
SENSE8, Superscape, and Fakespace are also continuing VR development,
and with VRML supposedly ready to take off, VR may someday become a
reality. But unless prices drop and the technology dramatically
improves, don't expect home-based VR until the next millennium at the
soonest.
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Here's an article from bootnet
Virtual i-O Shuts Down Permanently
This just in a late-breaking update to the "Virtual Reality Files for
Chapter 11" bootWire news story from the June issue of boot.
Seattle-based Virtual i-O, has closed its doors for good, apparently
unable to rescue itself from the throes of bankruptcy proceedings.
Technical support, sales, and customer service ceased operations
effective April 28th, leaving any current owners of the i-glasses
product in dry dock. When boot attempted to contact the company
directly, a recorded voice message informed us that no one was left at
the company to deal with customer issues, and that any interested
parties wishing to make a claim on the bankruptcy proceedings, could
leave a message.
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Here's a little snippet from a Boot Magazine Article about Direct X
Executed APIs
The DirectX components you'll never see
DirectVR: A couple of years ago there were half a dozen little
companies struggling to introduce VR goggles and flicker glasses. We
figured if we could write a standard VR driver model that game
developers could support these devices would have a better chance of
survival. We were all very excited about the prospect of widespread
adoption of VR technology, but the resources weren't there. DirectVR
was never finished, and most of the original VR companies are gone now
Like so many forgotten multimedia hardware revolutions, VR devices could
never gather enough market momentum to become viable. When the venture
capital was flowing, they all had there own SDks and VR libraries, and
they could all afford to do deals with publishers to support their
particular hardware, but in the end, without some level of
standardization that games could constantly support, the technologies
couldn't take off.
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Well my hands have fallen off from all this typing but I hope this is
helpfull.
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