The W33KLY L33T: Virtual vs. Augmented

Story by Cory Jaynes

Gaming has always been an escape from the real world into the world of noble knights of magical lands, the brave heroes of the frontier of space, and Italian plumbers from a peaceful kingdom. Game developers have always wanted to bring gamers deeper into the worlds that they’ve created and have sought new ways to do so bringing upon new steps in the evolution of gaming. The last big step was the innovation and application of motion control technology. The next step, or steps, are virtual reality and augmented reality. Virtual reality uses head-mounted displays to bring the gamer into the world of the game. Augmented reality uses cameras and optical head-mounted displays to bring elements of the game world into the real one.

Virtual reality is far from the technology seen in movies such as “Tron” and anime such as “Sword Art Online.” Virtual reality headsets such as the Occulus Rift, HTC Vive, and Playstation VR (formerly Project Morpheus), immerse the user into the virtual world basing the point of view off of their head movements and position. Virtual reality can be interacted with using standard controllers and motion controls with the majority being a peripheral for computers and video game consoles.

Augmented reality, while different from holograms seen in “Star Wars” and countless other science fiction worlds, are easily compared to them, no thanks to Microsoft’s HoloLens. Augmented reality uses smartphones, handheld game consoles, and smartglasses, to display virtual images into the real world, usually using a marker to determine where the image is displayed. Augmented reality are interacted with usually using a touchscreen, motion controls, and voice controls. Augmented reality tend to work as apps on established devices or as the display for smartglasses.

With the growth and development of technology what may be the overall factor in determining which of these two platforms become the future of gaming may be how they become ingrained in coming technology. While virtual reality has many uses in the realm of entertainment augmented reality platforms especially smartglasses are being created as replacements for computers and smartphones. Despite virtual reality’s focus on gaming in the end it may be augmented reality that wins in gaming as it aims to evolve technology as a whole.