Session Name: | Together Apart: Self-Expression and Communication in Social VR |
Speaker(s): | Elli Shapiro |
Company Name(s): | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
Track / Format: | Game VR/AR |
Overview: | The tools to build the metaverse are in developers' hands. High fidelity virtual reality, tracked controllers, spatialized 3D audio and high bandwidth networking enable powerful social experiences. Shared presence from remote locations is becoming a reality. With full body capture, eye tracking, physical feedback, real time recording and rendering of the human face, the real and the virtual become indistinguishable. However, not all of this technology is available in the current generation of consumer VR. This talk will consider the PlayStation Social VR demo, showcased at GDC 2016, and the ways in which it takes advantage of the power of VR and turns its limitations into its key strengths. This session will examine broadly three types of social interaction: real (e.g. voice chat), fake (e.g. algorithmic eye look) and abstract (e.g. intent driven facial expressions) as well as considering the social signals of locomotion and the power of griefing in VR. |