Google launches VR portable scene-based immersive games, which are closer to us

Whether it is a sci-fi movie with lifelike shots or a 3A-level game with extremely realistic pictures, people have been constantly using various advanced technologies to project realistic scenes onto platforms built with scientific and technological means.

With Facebook spending $2 billion to acquire Oculus, technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality have gradually attracted the attention of industry giants.

According to the American technology news website Recode, Google recently joined hands with Andreessen Horowitz, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, to invest $500 million in an American technology company called "Magic Leap". What is more noteworthy is that in the view of this company, traditional virtual reality technology no longer has forward-looking value.

What does Magic Leap want to do?

Unlike Oculus, which mainly provides realistic virtual reality experiences for professional gamers, Magic Leap is very low-key in the industry. Before it was spotted by Google, people rarely heard of it and had no idea what Magic Leap was going to do.

But looking at Magic Leap's rather concise official website, it depicts a lifelike baby elephant jumping in the few inches of the palm of your hand. This is obviously very different from other virtual reality technologies, which require space at a minimum of a room or at a maximum of several warehouses.

Lenovo Magic Leap itself once claimed that it would bring users "Cinematic Reality" or "movie-level reality" experience. We have reason to believe that Magic Leap's ultimate goal is to further improve the quality of virtual reality technology while making it portable and mobile. The participation of Google is undoubtedly to make this technology, like Android, go to the world in your hands and mine.

Scenario-based immersive games encounter strong rivals

We often say that Google always has a visionary perspective that is one step ahead of others in new technology fields, and this statement has been verified once again in the field of virtual reality.

Just as Microsoft recently put the IllumiRoom immersive gaming project presented at last year's CES on its development blueprint and renamed it RoomAlive, Magic Leap, which has joined forces with Google, has proved to the world that it can do better on mobile platforms.

RoomAlive is mainly used in the living room at home, and requires the assistance of devices such as Xbox Kinect and projectors to create what we commonly call scene-based immersive games. Magic Leap focuses on portability to achieve virtual reality anytime and anywhere. From this point of view, the latter seems to be able to go further.

First of all, mobile devices are easier for people to accept and make them dependent. This point of view is self-evident with the decline of PCs and the "head-down tribe" that can be seen everywhere in society today.

In addition to Android smartphones, Google Glass and various smart watches based on the Android Wear platform are expected to become powerful carriers of mobile virtual reality. Compared with bulky game consoles, these lightweight mobile devices are like mini remote-controlled cars developed using mobile phone vibration motors. Any place is a good place to race around.

In addition, in terms of operating experience and content, the portable virtual reality promoted by Magic Leap also has greater potential.

After all, not every user is a fanatical enthusiast who will buy an expensive game console. The increasingly mature somatosensory technology of mobile devices has enabled the device itself to serve as both a display and a controller. Even on Amazon's Fire Phone, there are hardware configurations with multiple cameras. What is lacking now is mobile virtual reality technology to unleash the full capabilities of the device.

On the other hand, the game graphics of mobile platforms have almost reached the PC level. Unlike the fixed monitors of PCs, mobile devices can be controlled freely. Future game applications should not be limited to two-dimensional space. Extending upward is the inevitable trend. The final result once again points to virtual reality.

Although to be precise, Magic Leap and RoomAlive are based on different devices, and the immersive gaming experiences brought by scene-based and portable virtual reality technologies are also different, but in just a few years, smartphones have "beaten" traditional computers. We have become accustomed to using the gravity sensor on our mobile phones to enjoy "Need for Speed", and our definition of gaming entertainment is no longer the same as before.

Although traditional devices have once again taken the lead in immersive gaming thanks to living room game consoles such as Kinect, in the future era of virtual reality, with Google and Magic Leap, it is hard to say that the situation of "latecomers taking the lead" will not happen again.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.