Ashley Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 After a discussion with one of my lecturers earlier I think this is going to be the topic of my presentation in a few weeks. It will be further refined after my initial research (and will focus on video games but that's not important at the moment) but I was hoping you guys might be able to point me in a few directions. Other than my experience with the 3DS last week I've not had much experience with AR/VR but has anyone used any? Got any good examples etc? I know of that creepy-as-fuck PS3 pets game but as I said, it doesn't need to be games at that stage. Fill me with knowledge please. Also Supergrunch, The Barstard and Daft (and others who may know) anything on the theoretical side? Got some Lev Manovich (Lang. of the New Media) and Anne Friedberg (The Virtual Window) out of the library earlier and going to get Catherine Mason's book (Computer in the Art Room) soon. Obviously there's lots of writers around this area and I'm sure I'll find more when researching/actually thinking about it but I thought I'd see if anyone sprang to mind. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serebii Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Bit of a rubbish example but there's an iPhone game which takes your surroundings and turns it into a Millennium Falcon VS Tie Fighter fight; I love Augmented Reality and it is one of the features of the 3DS of which I'm looking forward to most. One step closer to holodecks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayseven Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Filmwise, eXistenZ is a great example of what you're looking at, especially with the gaming in mind. Even Tron and Inception have elements that are worth considering. Bruce Willis did a film a couple of years back -- Surrogate -- that fits, too. Other books would be the Culture series by Iain Banks, where people rarely die, rather they have a 'back-up' someplace that restores them - but I think most of these are VR more than AR. The Game is AR, though not perhaps as reward-driven as you'd expect. A few good Star Trek episodes too, like Ship in a Bottle that explore the holodeck's potential and won't require you to spend too much time not-really-but-kinda researching the topic. Fable 3's app kingmaker is probably the best AR game-related example I can think of and provides a good example of how AR can be feasibly commercial. Halted State by Charles Stross is a good example. Everyone in that world wears glasses which overlay reality with tags -- e.g. in 'copspace' you can see whether people have criminal convictions or warrants as you walk past them in the street; gps is a given and nobody ever gets lost, and in certain gamespaces you really get a mesh -- at a games convention you can tune in to the con's 'space and you see orcs and skeletons walking around. The book explores the idea that life can be a game - imagine a kid is tardy and spends his night playing games, now give him an app that rewards him with spendable points (or a gamerscore) for setting his alarm, waking up on time and going to school! Life becomes a game. The great thing is that the book pretty much works with current and existing tech that could easily be put together if there was a viable market for it. However, the book also warns how something that is initially fun and novel, like the fable 3 thing, can grow into a tech that we all become hugely dependent on. if it's taken away then we're left with a 'reality' that is alien to us (akin to how many see the internet now, or how they saw the telephone when it was introduced, or the steam train...) I'm sure this isn't the sort of thing that is helpful to you. I've never read up on anything to do with the subject, sorry. I suppose there are plenty of theorists and philosophers who would argue that our reality is extremely fabricated in general (in terms of how human life is a construct these days; born in a hospital, raised at a school, driven to do a job and pay taxes and supposed to have a family and stuff, rather than the base survival that 'life' pretty much is for everything else). Interesting topic in general. Oh yeah! And Batman's detective vision in Arkham Asylum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Bit of a rubbish example but there's an iPhone game which takes your surroundings and turns it into a Millennium Falcon VS Tie Fighter fight; I love Augmented Reality and it is one of the features of the 3DS of which I'm looking forward to most. One step closer to holodecks! That game is awesome. Turn on the AR mode and make sure you're sitting on a spinny chair while you play it because the TIE Fighters can literally come at your from anywhere in a 360 degrees radius. I actually was going to post about it before I saw your post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cube Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) Bit of a rubbish example but there's an iPhone game which takes your surroundings and turns it into a Millennium Falcon VS Tie Fighter fight; That looks exactly like a rubbish DSiWare game released about a year ago (but with a Star Wars theme). There's also stuff like Wikitude and Layar which use your phone's camera, compass, GPS and motion sensors in order to display information over what you're pointing your phone at. Edited January 29, 2011 by Cube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platty Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Hold on. That is AWESOME. It will be coming to Android yes???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grazza Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 If you want an early example of Augmented Reality, check out this version of Pac Man developed in Singapore: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4607449.stm That's all I know, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog-amoto Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Why can't I find that Star Wars app on the App Store? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergrunch Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) This stuff is awesome, but sadly I don't know any academic literature related to it... Edit: Unless you include the use of second person in games under this umbrella, which you probably don't, although it may be very tangentially related. This comes up in choose your own adventure and interactive fiction, and the classic work about the latter of these is Nick Montford's Twisty Little Passages (2003, Cambridge MA: MIT Press). But that's from more of a literary perspective. Edited February 2, 2011 by Supergrunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Virtual reality, you say? Theory, you say? Baudrillard (obviously) - Simulation and Simulacra and The Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media Jones, Stephen and Kucker, Stephanie - Computers, the Internet, and virtual cultures Boellstorff, T - Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human Poster, Mark - Critical Theory and TechnoCulture: Habermas and Baudrillard Castells, Manuel - The Culture of the Real Virtuality: the Integration of Electronic Communication, the End of the Mass Audience, and the Rise of Interactive Networks Not really sure what else to recommend without any specifics. These are all pretty contemporary but someone like Walter Benjamin might be equally as useful. Filmwise, eXistenZ is a great example of what you're looking at, especially with the gaming in mind. Even Tron and Inception have elements that are worth considering. Bruce Willis did a film a couple of years back -- Surrogate -- that fits, too. Other books would be the Culture series by Iain Banks, where people rarely die, rather they have a 'back-up' someplace that restores them - but I think most of these are VR more than AR. The Game is AR, though not perhaps as reward-driven as you'd expect.! Tron/Tron Legacy are brilliant films if you want to talk about postmodernity especially, they are about the 'digital frontier' after all - hyper reality, hyper-space etc.. Obviously look at The Matrix, as annoying as it is, The Matrix is perfect. It covers so many topics it's painful. Also, you can parallel it with Dark City quite excellently. In short, until you are more specific I could recommend you a million things and more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintendohnut Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Pew pew! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 In short, until you are more specific I could recommend you a million things and more. Can my specificity be I don't want to watch The Matrix ever again? I plan to come up with a plan tomorrow and we can go from there. I don't have to go into too much detail (its just a 10 minute presentation) and I'll focus on my strengths (i.e. what I know) but just a background knowledge would help. Oh and the books I've been given already cover the areas historically so contemporary stuff would be dandy. Cheers everyone so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 The Matrix is, for the most part, incredibly well considered so I wouldn't knock it. Yeah, the script and the characters are utter dross/shit/moronic but it's got a lot of things going for it - most of which I suspect a lot of people don't understand. I wrote an essay on The Matrix, Dark City and Inception a couple months ago and even in the two Matrix follow ups there are some great design and structural decisions (Probably unintentional). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 I wasn't saying it wasn't without its merits its just I'm not in the mood to see it again. Plus its beyond the scope of this presentation anyway as its about video games primarily. I've read interesting things on The Matrix. In fact reading about The Matrix is probably more interesting than watching it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Yeah, it's not something I want to watch again any time soon. Still, I did gain a new appreciation for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Perhaps I will...one day. Truthfully I don't have time to watch films I want to watch any more, yet alone The Matrix. Care to go into more detail about your essay out of interest/being a nosey bastard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Too lazy right this second. It was about how virtual worlds represent society's dominant fears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 No rush but it would be good at some point. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 No problem, remind me in a week or two. I only handed it in a few weeks ago and still not at the stage I want to look at it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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