What does VR mean?

Virtual reality technology is a computer simulation system that can create and experience virtual worlds. It uses computer to generate a simulation environment, which is a multi-source information fusion, interactive three-dimensional dynamic scene and entity behavior system simulation, so that users are immersed in this environment. The following is my VR introduction, welcome to read.

What does VR mean?

VR(Virtual Reality), namely virtual reality (or spiritual technology), is a computer system that can create and experience virtual worlds.

In fact, the connotation of virtual reality is a technology that comprehensively uses computer graphics system and various interface devices such as reality and control to provide immersive feeling in a computer-generated interactive three-dimensional environment. Similar to 3D technology, friends who have seen 3D movies should have more feelings.

20 16 is called the first year of VR equipment, and many manufacturers began to lay out and develop VR equipment, which will make human communication adopt new ways and enter new fields.

What is the use of VR?

At present, many manufacturers have begun to launch VR devices, such as HTC Vive, AMD Sulon Q, Sony PS VR, and the head thief of VR. At present, these devices are mainly VR glasses or VR head thief devices, which can experience some VR videos and games. , bringing 3D scene experience, giving people an immersive feeling and bringing a more extreme user experience.

Of course, VR devices not only have an experience in entertainment, but also bring new application scenarios in future movies, paintings, virtual reality games, learning, medical care and so on. Because more real and immersive experience will inevitably become the mainstream in the future.

Here is a brief introduction to the meaning of VR and its related functions. I believe that with the gradual popularization of VR devices, everyone will gradually have a clear understanding of such devices. At present, VR equipment is still in its infancy, and it may take 3-5 years to really mature. We might as well wait and see.

The Principle and Development History of Virtual Reality Technology

I. Technical principle

VR = Virtual Reality, virtual reality, or spiritual technology, is actually a computer system that can create and experience virtual worlds.

Second, the history of VR development

Virtual Reality (VR) was put forward by jaron lanier, the founder of American VPL company, in the early 1980s. Its specific connotation is: the technology of providing immersion in computer-generated interactive three-dimensional environment by comprehensively utilizing computer graphics system and various interface devices such as reality and control. Among them, the interactive three-dimensional environment generated by computer becomes virtual environment (ve for short).

20 14 On March 26th, the American social networking platform Facebook announced that it would spend $2 billion to acquire the immersive virtual reality technology company Oculus VR.

Mark zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, firmly believes that virtual reality will become another major event of computing platform after mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. And plans to expand the application of Oculus to businesses other than games. Prior to this, Oculus was mainly used to create an immersive feeling during the game. Facebook's acquisition of Oculus has made virtual reality, a niche term in the technology industry, familiar to more outsiders. According to industry insiders, virtual reality has ushered in spring after more than seven years.

On March 20 15, HTC Vive, a VR virtual reality helmet product jointly developed by HTC and Valve, appeared at MWC20 15. This product has made original games such as portal and half-life. The positioning system Lighthouse of HTC Vive controller adopts Valve's patent. It doesn't need a camera, but relies on lasers and photosensitive sensors to determine the position of moving objects, which means that HTC Vive allows users to walk around in a certain range. This is the biggest difference between it and the other two head-mounted Oculus Rift and PS VR.

At the conference of mwc20 16 in 2016, HTC Vive was officially released, and now it has been listed. In addition, AMD, Sony and other brands have also appeared in their own VR devices this year. In addition, Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi and Hammer Technology are also developing VR equipment, so 20 16 is called the first year of VR equipment.

Application field and development prospect of virtual reality

VR (Virtual Reality) technology can be widely used in urban planning, interior design, industrial simulation, historic site restoration, bridge and road design, real estate sales, tourism teaching, water conservancy and electric power, geological disasters, education and training and many other fields, providing practical solutions.

In the field of advanced manufacturing, standing in front of the 3D image of a large aircraft engine, the strength of this virtual reality "can be disassembled at will" is vividly displayed. The operator can remove many parts of the virtual engine one by one and then enter the engine. "Virtual Reality" realizes the functions of cross-platform interactive design, virtual display, virtual assembly and CAE data visualization, which greatly improves the design efficiency of the design team, enables R&D personnel to find and correct design defects and potential process problems in time, and improves the manufacturing success rate of product development.

Virtual reality technology is also very useful in education and training. Create conditions for the teaching function that the real experiment does not have or is difficult to complete. Virtual reality technology can provide reliable, safe and economical experimental projects in situations involving high risk or extreme environment, inaccessible or irreversible operation, high cost, high consumption, large-scale or comprehensive training, etc. G-Magic Virtual Reality Laboratory of East China University of Science and Technology is an example of virtual reality teaching in colleges and universities. The laboratory has a cave-like virtual reality system, which can project the works designed by college students onto walls, ceilings and floors. For example, a student has designed a shower room, and he can use this system to show it in the laboratory, which is the same size as a real shower room. After creating this kind of teaching environment, teachers can communicate the advantages and disadvantages of each link with students more conveniently and modify them at any time.

Some training programs of enterprises are also inseparable from virtual reality. Taking the petrochemical industry as an example, as we all know, a large number of dangerous chemicals are concentrated in large-scale oil irrigation areas, which may lead to secondary disasters such as fire and explosion accidents and environmental pollution once improperly operated. Therefore, the government and enterprises put forward high requirements for the safety of large-scale oil irrigation areas and the professionalism of operators. Virtual reality technology can build an emergency rescue and safety training system for storage tank area. It can not only present various scenes of the operation process to employees, guide employees to learn and master the skills of safe operation, but also simulate the scenes of accidents and burning flames, so that employees can carry out rescue operations in immersive virtual images.

film and television

As early as 2065438+2005 Sundance Film Festival in the United States, a VR short film "Lost" made entirely by CG attracted heated discussion. In July of the same year, the production company LOST also brought their second VR short film "Henry". Different from the previous Lost, this time they designed an "interactive" scene in the film, which changed the audience's completely passive experience. Even Lin Yibin, the director of The Fast and the Furious series, filmed a VR short film "Help" this year. It can be seen that the spring breeze of VR has indeed begun to blow to the film industry.

draw

Google created Tilt Brush on the basis of HTC Vive, a VR[8] device jointly developed by HTC and Valve. In fact, Tilt Brush is a VR version of Photoshop, and painting creation is realized by using the left and right controllers of HTC Vive. The left controller maps a cube in the virtual space, displays the menu of the control panel, and can rotate the cube for selection; The controller on the right is equivalent to a mouse. When the cursor moves to the corresponding menu, there will be an English prompt. Its drawing board is the whole three-dimensional space, you can set the wallpaper background for it, and the lines can also set the color freely.

Virtual reality game

At present, you can experience virtual reality games through HTC Vive on the SteamVR platform. Steam official website shows that there are currently 204 games supporting virtual reality. There are many masterpieces such as Half-Life, and the recommended games all support the base station motion capture system.

The Development and Related Definitions of Virtual Reality in China

2015,65438 "Beautiful China Experience Day", a large-scale overseas promotion activity sponsored by the State Council Information Office, China National Tourism Administration and China Consulate General in new york, was successfully held in the United States at the first stop. It was the first time that virtual reality technology was used to display China's tourism resources and promote China's culture. Participants in the "Beautiful China" Experience Day expressed their incredible experience of this virtual trip after wearing three glasses helmets.

3Glasses is one of the earliest companies in China to explore the VR field. Asia's first VR helmet, 3Glasses D 1, and the world's first mass-produced 2k-screen VR helmet, 3Glasses D2, were released, and settled in Shenzhen Industrial Exhibition Hall to provide free experience for social groups and ordinary citizens.

China, represented by 3Glasses, is building the original VR power and leading China's virtual reality to the world.

Correlation definition

VR (Virtual Reality) is virtual reality technology, and VRP (Virtual Reality Platform) is virtual reality simulation platform.

The sub-software products of VRP specifically include:

VRP- Builder Virtual Reality Editor

Software uses: tools for model import, post-editing, interactive production, special effects production, interface design and 3D scene packaging and publishing.

Customer base: mainly for 3D content production companies.

VRPIE-3D internet platform

Software use: Publish the editing results of VRP-BUILDER to the Internet, and allow customers to browse and interact with 3D scenes through the Internet.

Customer base: directly facing all Internet users.

VRP physics system

Software use: It can realistically simulate various physical movements and realize natural phenomena such as collision, gravity, friction, damping, gyro and particles. And strictly abide by Newton's law, conservation of momentum, conservation of kinetic energy and other physical principles in the algorithm process.

Customer base: mainly for universities and research institutes.

VRP-DIGICITY digital city platform

Software uses: it has the functions of database query, real-time measurement, intervisibility analysis, height adjustment, hierarchical display, dynamic navigation, sunshine analysis and other architectural design and urban planning specialties. Customer groups: it mainly faces the research and management departments related to architectural design and urban planning.

VRP industrial simulation platform

Software use: modeling, role-based and event-based virtual simulation make the exercise closer to the real situation, reduce the cost of exercise and training, and reduce the risk of exercise.

Customer base: mainly for petroleum, electric power, machinery, heavy industry, shipbuilding, steel, mining, emergency and other industries.

VRP tourism virtual tourism platform

Software uses: Stimulate students' interest in learning, cultivate professional awareness of tour guides, cultivate students' innovative thinking, accumulate professional knowledge of interpretation, build a bridge between students and society, improve students' interpretation ability in all directions, and turn simple examinations into interactive teaching and assessment modes.

Customer base: mainly for tour guides and tourism planning.

VRP- Museum Network 3D Virtual Exhibition Hall

Software use: It is a three-dimensional interactive experience solution for all kinds of science and technology museums, experience centers, large-scale exhibitions and other industries to transplant their pavilions, exhibits and temporary exhibits to the Internet for display, publicity and education. It combines the traditional exhibition halls with the Internet and 3D virtual technology, breaks the time and space constraints, maximizes the publicity effect and social value of real exhibition halls and exhibits, and enables the public to truly feel the exhibition halls and exhibits through the Internet and participate in various interactive experiences online. The network three-dimensional virtual exhibition hall will become the most valuable display means in the future.

Customer groups: Bok Museum, Art Gallery, Revolution Exhibition Hall, Industrial Exhibition Hall, Library, Tourist Attractions, Enterprise Experience Center and various parks.

VRP-SDK three-dimensional simulation system development package

Software usage: Provide a C++ source code level development function library, on which users can develop their own efficient simulation software.

Customer base: mainly for industrial simulation research and design units such as water conservancy and electric power, energy and transportation.

VRP- Story Editor

Flexible operation, friendly interface, simple and easy to use, just like playing computer games, easy to learn, without programming or artistic design ability, you can make 3D.

Low cost and high speed, which can help users to make desired 3D works with high efficiency and low cost.

It supports seamless interface with all software modules of VRP platform, and can be combined with all previous software modules to realize more dazzling and richer interactive functions.