Virtual Reality in 2020: Gaming, Travel & More

Since Palmer Luckey and Oculus brought the science-fiction dream of a VR-driven future back within reach, eventually being bought by Facebook in 2014 for a handsome $2 billion, VR has been a developing technology, increasingly growing out of the gaming niche and into other industries and usages that you might not have even considered.

Interested to find out more about virtual reality technology, and the state of the VR landscape in 2020? Split into three sections, here’s a quick summary on VR’s uses in gaming, travel, and more.

Gaming
Virtual reality is, of course, a piece of kit used for gaming purposes, and the most immersive experiences you’re going to get will come from gaming-based devices that are hooked up with controllers, headset units and peripherals designed to take your escapism to the next level. Perhaps the best example of high-end VR and the ‘killer app’ for virtual reality at the moment is Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx, released earlier this year to universal acclaim.

One of the more accessible VR options, and perhaps the one that will be the most mainstream in years to come, is the lines of headsets that go completely wire-free, rather than having to be hooked up to a powerful (and often costly) gaming PC. The most recent and impressive model is the Oculus Quest 2, a revised iteration of the Quest model that runs PC quality games without the need for anything other than the hardware itself and the two accompanying controllers.

Travel
The current pandemic provides somewhat of a predicament for those wanting to go away on holiday, and while strapping on a virtual reality version of the Bahamas won’t be as authentic as flying there and dipping your toes in the water, it can provide you with a bit of piecemeal escapism that some view as the next best thing. Through Google Maps you can plan your next holiday by dropping yourself in at any location, and scouting ahead in a first-person view.

Looking forward to the future (which is all many of us can do at this moment in time), some travel agents are even beginning to use virtual reality headsets in order to show customers what their holidays will look like, in an attempt to persuade them to go ahead and splash out. Let’s hope they don’t make simulations that are too realistic, or they might end up losing out on commission if people decide that the virtual, cheaper option is better.

More
The concept of VR is much more than just a gimmick, or an extension of 3D glasses, and the usages are in fact quite plentiful. Here are a few examples of how virtual reality technology is being usage in 2020 that you might not have thought of:

Employee Training – VR headsets, often proprietary and designed with software for specific usages, are becoming a popular solution for employers that want to train up new recruits on skills and tools and with experience that they perhaps aren’t able to garner first-hand. Good examples of this are things like surgery and dentistry.

Investment - Particularly now during lockdown, where investors and entrepreneurs are unable to leave their homes due to pandemic restrictions, some investment companies are innovating and providing new ways for those interesting in certain markets to get involved sooner rather than later. RWinvest, a property investment company based in Liverpool, previously used VR imagery and CGIs to send to international investors, but it has now become a popular remote solution, too.

Cinema-going – Unfortunately, cinemas have been hit massively during the pandemic, with many closing and film companies having to postpone big blockbuster releases for fear of them bombing due to low turnouts. One solution that VR has been providing for years through app integration with things like Netflix is a pseudo-cinema experience, that allows you to watch a film or television show or vr porn movies through your headset and feel as though you’re sat in a huge auditorium or theatre.

In an interview with Marques Brownlee, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said that in the far flung future, display manufacturers such as Samsung may have to rethink their strategies as the need for televisions and high-definition screens fades away in favour of VR units and AR glasses that simply overlay an HD screen onto any flat surface.