I was thinking about uses for the Oculus Rift the other day, and Sword Art Online is obviously one of the first things that popped into my head. And then it got me thinking: just how far away is technology from being able to produce something like SAO? Graphics are pretty much solved already. Powerful enough gaming PCs can pump out 4k 60fps graphics now, so basically anything should be possible graphics wise when we've got that much power already. The closest that I know of that is possible to build now would be the Omni treadmill and an Oculus rift with a Kinect and/or maybe an eMotive headset type of thing. I also saw that the University of Washington did an experiment where one person was actually able to move another's arm to play a game halfway across the campus. What do you guys think? Any technological advancements recently that you think could eventually lead to a holodeck at some point if they were integrated correctly?

I was thinking about uses for the Oculus Rift the other day, and Sword Art Online is obviously one of the first things that popped into my head. And then it got me thinking: just how far away is technology from being able to produce something like SAO? Graphics are pretty much solved already. Powerful enough gaming PCs can pump out 4k 60fps graphics now, so basically anything should be possible graphics wise when we've got that much power already. The closest that I know of that is possible to build now would be the Omni treadmill and an Oculus rift with a Kinect and/or maybe an eMotive headset type of thing. I also saw that the University of Washington did an experiment where one person was actually able to move another's arm to play a game halfway across the campus. What do you guys think? Any technological advancements recently that you think could eventually lead to a holodeck at some point if they were integrated correctly?

The technology for creating virtual realities has been around in one form or another for a while. However, I think the critical missing piece is integrating haptic feedback. You can have all of those devices creating visually amazing environments but when it comes to something like fencing or similar you are still going to have people flailing around rapidly it the same way they do with wii. For me, the oculus rift is cool but not enough to create a compelling virtual reality. If you can combine that with physical feedback that makes me feel like I am swinging a sword you have the next paradigm shifting change in game development.

-Josh

Yeah, that's the thing I always felt like was missing when playing Skyward Sword: weight. It feels NOTHING like a real weapon to play with a Wii Remote. And even if you were to make it heavier, the balance would still be wrong for a sword. And you would need different weights for battle axes, spears, and daggers too. A shooter would probably be easier because you could mod an airsoft gun into a controller and add some sort of simulated kickback.

The VR part can be done no prob, it's the full body feedback which will be a problem and even that is not impossible. Just how much money do you want to throw at the problem? A full body suit with actuator feedback to simulate impact and resistance from a virtual foe can be done, I'm certain of it, but will cost millions to build such a suit.I suspect DARPA or some of the larger universities are already working on such tech.

The VR part can be done no prob, it's the full body feedback which will be a problem and even that is not impossible. Just how much money do you want to throw at the problem? A full body suit with actuator feedback to simulate impact and resistance from a virtual foe can be done, I'm certain of it, but will cost millions to build such a suit.I suspect DARPA or some of the larger universities are already working on such tech.

why bother with building a full suit, if you can toss millions at the problem, seems like it'd be overall simplier/more immensive to create a device which is placed at the base of the neck/spine, and can simulate those effects directly.

Because i doubt there would be a market for people electing to have major brain surgery just so they can play an online sword game, however having a suit u can take off and put on is more useful / convenient for most people, but if u go far enough in the future sure cybernetic technology would allow u direct brain interfaces but thats not a realistic possibility in the near future.

I think a direct brain interface is really the only way to produce a simulation of holodeck quality. Although I would be curious to see what sort of side effects a device like that would have. It would be intercepting and filtering signals from the spinal cord, so it would probably be quite dangerous at first.