Gauge Newsletter January 2020 | Page 46

Is it closer ? Virtual Reality What If I say, even now we are experiencing that Utopian life in certain ways? You would not agree considering all the hassles we go through in our daily lives. But, considering the great medical achievements where human simulation software are used to create an interactive environment for patients and doctors, virtual classrooms which help the growth of education systems, virtual constructions and scientific visualizations, we cannot deny the fact that the life we are living today is far more comfortable and luxurious than the traditional life we knew. One may even argue that we have already reached a mini-state of Utopia. However, with the rising popularity of virtual reality, people recently have started wondering “Can’t we have our own perfect worlds in the virtual space?” A major reason why these digital worlds have not taken over our regular lives is, so far, games and other digital sensations have been fairly distinct from real world experiences. Mostly, the experience is provided through a PC. All the inputs are fed through a mouse and a keyboard or with a console. But, with the introduction of systems with virtual reality headsets, motion tracking control systems, rotating chairs, responsive harnesses, wind and water systems to provide a deeply immersive experience with real physical sensations, experiencing digital reality has now become a lot closer to the real world experience. “Can’t we have our own perfect worlds in the virtual space?” Games Think about your favorite video game. It may be a PC, mobile or a console game. It may be an adventure, open world, racing or any other type. But whatever it is, isn’t it very entertaining and very addictive? Most modern games present the player with loads of superhuman abilities, strength and advance future technologies that a player can never experience in the real world. Playing modern games evokes very addictive emotions such as sense of authority, control and joy of achievement in ways people can only imagine in the ordinary world. They let people do things they can only dream of doing. Speaking of such, who does not want to win a war all by himself? Who does not want to build a world scale empire? Who does not want to go on an amazing journey full of crazy adventures? Who does not want to experience all of those without even leaving your house? No one, right? That is why modern games Page 44 University of Peradeniya GAUGE Magazine