The University of Michigan has used this 10-by-10 foot room to test out virtual reality for a couple of decades now, and they recently started using the Unreal Engine to render environments. The video above shows how the room looks while in use; the users in the center of the room also benefit from wearing a pair of stereoscopic 3D glasses, while holding a controller to shift the environments. If they added in an omnidirectional treadmill, it would feel even more like navigating a physical space.
Comparisons to the Star Trek holodeck abound in any conversation about virtual reality, but Abed’s holodeck-inspired Dreamatorium on Community would be just as fitting a comparison …
Of course, Troy and Abed had to scrimp and save (and lie to their roommate Annie) in order to accommodate turning one of their apartment’s bedrooms into the Dreamatorium, but … that’s what any early adopter should do, right?
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