AR & VR: The Future of Gaming

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

Consumption of video games is no longer restricted to teenage boys & girls who are looking for some entertaining pastime when taking a break from playing on the playground. Thanks to groundbreaking innovations in the domain, smartphones that almost every adult carries, and superfast internet, people of different age groups with different interests have some or the other video game that they are hooked to. 

If you are into game development and want to pursue a career in it, getting acquainted with AR and VR technologies is essential. There are several game development courses to make you a future-ready Game Developer. But before that, let’s get to know this marvellous field a little better. 

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality is an interactive experience of a modified real-life environment by enhancement and addition of sound, visual elements and other sensory stimuli. AR adds colours, virtual objects and characters to the real world by projecting visual images through a phone’s camera or video viewer.

The most common genres of AR Games are:

1.    Geo-Location Games: These include treasure hunts and quests in which players move around the real world to discover objects via their smartphones.

2.    Sports Games: Games like basketball, football and cricket are the most popular.

3.    FPS Games: AR enhances the experience of First-Person Shooting Games by adding virtual obstacles and enemies over physical environments.

A few of the most popular AR Games include: 
•    Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
•    Pokemon GO
•    Jurassic World Alive
•    The Walking Dead: Our World
•    Zombies, Run!

Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual Reality is a simulated experience of a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real, perceived through a device known as a Virtual Reality headset. VR only gives a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. It is an immersive simulation that involves the use of special equipment such as computers, sensors, headsets and gloves. With VR, the experience of gamers has become closer to reality. You can walk through a virtual landscape, feel the wind in your hair and smell the flowers.

VR games are developed for different kinds of device categories such as:

1.    Light Mobile VR (Google Cardboard) 
2.    Premium Mobile VR (Gear VR, Daydream etc.)
3.    PC- VR headsets (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality etc.)
4.    Standalone solutions (Oculus Go, Oculus Quest etc.)
5.    Console VR (Sony PlayStation VR)

A few of the most popular VR Games include: 
•    Beat Saber
•    Tetris Effect
•    Superhot VR
•    Astro Bot Rescue Mission
•    Star Trek: Bridge Crew

Both AR and VR are revolutionizing the global gaming industry. In such a scenario, learning both the technologies and their applications in video game development by taking the right AR & VR Gaming Course is going to be crucial. 

As these technologies progress further, maybe someday players won’t be able to tell apart a virtual environment from reality, much like the audience couldn’t tell if it was a dream or reality at the end of Inception. And that is indeed, the ultimate future of gaming.