5

 

 

  

12:01 AM, Wednesday, September 28th, 2016:   I often have "catch-up" days with The Journey. I'm always writing entries, always shooting video... but the act of piecing it all together for the site, numbering, etc. It just can't always be done THAT day. So I have a "catch-up" day where I package a few entries and finally set it all in stone. It's not perfect, but considering this is Year 17 of the project - I do quite well at never getting too far behind. No one really reads this in real-time anymore so in retrospect it all looks "together".   That was before the Vive disrupted my brain to such an extent I can barely concentrate on anything but trying to fully process this technology. It's so inspiring to me I can't stop obsessing about it. It's such a new way for your brain to think, for your artistic mind to create and for the honest-to-goodness human evolution of the planet that nothing else seems to stack up. Like, you know, editing that GolfKon video. LOL. That fucker will not be done until Thanksgiving. And yeah, I'm still writing these entries and have the videos to match, but I'll be damned if I'm not a month behind because I was pushing it BEFORE this thing arrived. I really didn't think it would effect me this much, but as time moves on it gets deeper. Let me try and explain this. First, from a gaming level:   I was done gaming. In 2006 when all the CBS stuff started, I finally had a direction I could throw myself into that was getting rewarded. And even when my cotnract was up at CBS I spent all THAT time trying to get back on TV. The only "game" that sparked my interest was Rockband. Not really a "game" I just like playing music. Fun bonding with my dad when he was in town for sure. I liked the Wii for about 2 weeks, but without people to play with it grew tired and I found little interest in the games that simply looked better, but were the same types I played my whole life. All of that has changed with the Vive. Suddenly, and this is the only way I can explain this to people my age, it's like walking into an arcade in the early to mid 1980s. Remember that wonder? That's back.   I was 7 in 1982. When you walked into an arcade, every box held a new gaming experience that shifted how you thought of problem solving. It was a massive shift. The difference between pac-man, donkey kong, pole position and joust weren't immediately recognizable until you played them for a bit and realized that they were actually wildly different game types. The graphics were so simple, many didn't really get it (certainly many adults), but if you played them? You got it. Because when you left the arcade, you were still thinking about the strategies, etc. The people developing these games had a canvass that no one had ever had before. A team of a few people could program an entirely new game type... something that simply can't be done anymore. Games are so HIGH production value and require so many people and are just so expensive to produce, you have to stick with what works... and there does become a wall for new "types". 2D hit a wall, and eventually 3D hit a wall. There is a rut. Enter virtual reality:   We've sat with our controllers with our player holding a shield and sword and fighting some skeleton in a dungeon for 30 years now in several different versions of this gametype. What we've never experienced is standing with the two controllers in your hand that have the shield and the sword attached nd looking UP at a skeleton towering OVER you and trying to figure out how to dodge his attack and get your sword around HIS shield in an actual physical space. It's nothing like the leap from 2D to 3D... it's an actual evolution in how our brain is wired. And why is this different from all the other failed VR attempts in the past? The resolution in your headset is high enough and the framerate fast enough that turning your head feels identical to turning your head in real life. That's it. That's the reason this works in 2016 and didn't work beforehand: it took a looooooooooong time for technology to run this properly. Now that it can? Every game is a new arcade box from 1982.   The other piece to this is that creating a rudimentary 3D game is about as easy now as it was to create a rudimentary 2D game in 1982. Fighting that skeleton was in a game called Vanishing Realms made be an unknown small development team (probably 4 guys in a room) and sold for $14.99. It's the early days of an entirely new medium and you're supporting people trying to figure it out. In a couple years we'll look back on the "dated" games of this time period... but we'll also have a very fond place in our hearts for just how incredible these experiences made us feel. In that sense it's very much like those early 1980s arcades. And I've just touched the surface...   You're an air-traffic controller, except you're hovering over an airport like a GOD using your fingers to draw the flight patterns of each plane to make a safe landing. It's a completely 3D space requiring a 3D line, but also one wide enough for an airplane to have room to get on the runway without crashing. Chaos ensues as more and more planes come in (some on fire) and you have to teleport to the ground and put out the fire with a plane that is now massive and towering over you... then WHOOSH back up to the sky to bring them all in again. The scale is unprecedented and the strategy is something you've never, ever attempted. Your brain is now thinking wayyyyyy outside the box.   You're fighting zombies from all sides with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other... why is it different in VR? Other than being pants-shittingly frightening... you find yourself shooting in one direction while looking in the other. Hard to describe that until you've done it, but again - you've never had to do this before. Shit was always in front of you and if it wasn't, you spun your CHARACTER around and dealt with it... again, in front of you. You couldn't do both at the same time. Then again, if you're like Talya, you can't do anything because you're jumping and screaming in a circle. Insert video, here:     Fucking awsome. Back to more gametypes:   You're a spaceship shooting random bad things in a 3D space. We've all done this. Twist? You're holding the ship in a small room trying to dodge lasers coming at you but also get power ups floating in space. Suddenly you're crouching, lifting UP, movind to the side. You have to think along the Z axis, not just x and y, and you have to physically do it. Because of the ability for the Vive to do room scale (the other sets are for sitting or standing still) you walk around this tiny room, crouch down, move your ship up above you or underneath you... it's like a virtual twister to avoid all of the crap swirling around you. You instinctively know what to do because it's basic survival, but as you start to get a strategy you realize, again, you've never had to think in this dimension.   You're about to watch a new 3D animated short... except now? It's a fully-formed hologram in front of you that you can basically hold with your hands. You watch a little girl on a ledge hundreds of feet in the air drop an over-sized match from her bag and you reach your hand out to save it for her before it rolls off. Even though you're watching a passive movie? You're there. It's that real. You're standing over a museum-miniature that has come to life and watching the story unfold around you. When a FLYING boat comes by to pick her up? You can poke your head INTO it to see what's going on inside... the action moves a few feet lower? You kneel down and watch it there. This made me tear up. Not because of the story (which is indeed lovely), but beacuse I was experiencing an entirely new way to tell a story. I feel lucky to be alive to watch this happen. It's very easy to see how this will improve in the next decade. Better resolution, lighter headsets, easier set up, lower cost of entry... but those that have the means now are watching history unfold and it's the most inspiring thing I've felt in a very long time.   Porn.   Yes, porn. We're adults here, let's talk about this because it's other-worldly unsettling and made me grab Talya and have her watch so I didn't feel like I was cheating on her. Yes, it's that real. Why? Because it's not just the head tracking so you feel like you're there... it's 3D, it's ultra-high resolution and the actress (or actor) is talking directly to you. This isn't some CGI model, it's actual people. And with headphones, they're talking directly in your ear while, uhm...someone else might be doing something else? Yeah, it's embarassing to talk about, but rest assured? This changes everything in terms of how humans will interact with their technology. I know people fear the dangers, etc... but the truth is? For so many people the real world isn't happy. It just isn't. And it isn't going to get better. I know the "rosy" people want to act like all you do is change your attitude! And it all works! No, it doesn't. Some people are gonna spend the rest of their lives, never finding anyone. They're gonna hate their job, they're going to barely scrape by. There will be a class of people that connect to VR and that's their only life. I don't see that as sad, I see that as reality. And as someone who does INDEED love his real life and his home life and his sex life and his creative life, etc... I'm happy to tell you: this VR porn is fucking pretty goddamned close to what it feels like. LOL. In fact, this will RUIN some marriages, no doubt. I'm thankful as hell that Talya and I share the same sex lives/sex drive so we both enjoy the same things... because if she didn't? Whew. Man, I don't know. The forbideness of that would probably cause me to lie. A lot. And I don't lie about ANYTHING. Mostly because I never have to. But if she said "I never want you to do that..." after I already saw it? Something in my brain would probably tell my mouth to say "OK dear. I never will." while frantically finding a way to to hide it from her. Thank the fuck CHRIST we can do it together. Because mother-balls fuck that pandora's box is oooooooooooooopened.   To the future marriages out there that have to deal with this? Best of luck to you, I'd advise you all to communicate with your significant others and get past your shit if you have any, because this, is, coming. And if you guys aren't secure, this, will, break you. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrreak you. This is not just porn. This is a step in human development that will eventually become an entire class of people. We thought people staring at their smartphones was bad? WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEW. This will be the new drug addiction of the next generation. There will be people completely incapable of balancing this. Moreover? Really glad this wasn't around when I was a teenager. Everything I created would NOT EXIST. Maybe the generation my kid's age will be desensitized to it so it won't effect them as deeply? Like, my dad could have said the same thing about Nintendo from his persepctive growing up in the 1950s... but I don't think it's exactly the same considering how far VR is going to advance by the time Vienna & Cam are teens. This is an escape that studies will show is more addictive than heroin. I can see the headlines now. Something to consider.   Well, shit, now I'm all worried about the future. LMAO. I just think it's gonna be a split in personality types. Some people will literally plug in, live shorter lives (but to their brains? far more incredible) and will find a way to make enough money in the virtual world to pay for the meager room to house this. At some point you'll be able to twich your muscles to move in the virtual world... and this will be Avatar. It's just gonna happen and nothing will stop it. I do however think people that live like that will be a minority and, well, they most likely won't be heavy in the "reproduction" realm and basically, people with that addictive gene will have an outlet that won't destroy OTHER lives. Man I'm rambling. So much to cover.   Of course, as I stated in the last enty that is somehow NINE DAYS AGO, this is for the Time Machine flight simulator. I'll be working on that more next month and I'm pretty pumped to see the results. Been doing a ton of research and I'm so excited to be on the cutting edge of this technology. I know very little about how to do this, but welcome to the story of my life: I'll make this happen. I think it will help keep the Delorean business rolling through the next couple of years...   THE FUTURE!   Adam