Oculus Rift Add-On Allows You To Experience Smells
The Oculus Rift, as we all know, is a virtual reality device. This nifty little headset is designed to thrust us straight into the game world. Now; from what I have seen, the Oculus Rift performs incredibly well. It is not a complete virtual reality system right now though…or at least not yet. You see; it only plays on the visual representation of the world, and the sound of course. For true immersion you really need to play with your other senses, right? Well; that is exactly what the latest add-on for the Oculus Rift does.
The latest add-on allows you to ‘smell’ the world, as well as experience heat, cold, and a whole lot more. At the moment there are seven unique smells for the device:
- Ocean
- Jungle
- Fire Grass
- Powder
- Flowers
- Metal
I am not going to lie to you; I have not actually tried out this add-on yet. Only those that attended the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco were able to do so. By all accounts the device is still clearly in the earliest possible stages though.
The scents are limited for a start, and the majority of developers will not include this type of technology in their game because it is unlikely that many people will own this device.
That being said; I do think that this idea will have merit into the future. The mask includes a mister, so I can only imagine a day where you are able to slide it on, smell the ocean, and get a small spray in your face. It would really help pull me into the game. I think this is the way in which virtual reality is going to go into the future. Developers are going to come up with even more exciting ways in which you can just be pulled into the game and get a truly authentic experience. I think we are a long way off actually being able to use devices like this ‘properly’ because virtual reality, despite its relative popularity at the moment, is still fairly niche. In fact; until the major console manufacturers out there start to add virtual reality into their games I doubt that the idea will really start to gain traction. We are at least a whole console generation away from this happening. You can bet your bottom dollar that Nintendo are likely to be one of the first companies to even attempt something like this though!
If you are interested in the world of virtual reality then I do suggest you take a look at news related to GDC. There were a number of big announcements made there. One of which was made by none other than Gabe Newell of Valve who claimed that the company had completely eliminated the motion sickness problem of virtual reality. This is something which will hopefully lead to virtual reality taking off quite rapidly. A lot of developers had praise for the Valve system too.
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