Swapp, David; (2021) Design Interfaces with VR. In: Design Computation Input/Output 2021. (pp. pp. 1-2). Design Computation

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Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is maturing as a technology. Now that mainstream head-mounted displays (HMDs) are consumer-affordable, the space of application development has begun in earnest. Some of this development transitions existing applications (e.g. computer games) to work with a 3D tracked interface while others explore completely novel and innovative uses of VR. The idea of using VR in architectural practice has a long history. As a tool with the potential to allow 3D visualisation at 1:1scale, the use-case for architectural visualisation has seemed natural and obvious since the early days of the technology. However, the realisation of this idea was not initially straightforward. In 2000 UCL built a CAVE-like VR projection theatre – this is a 3m x 3m room where three of the four walls and the floor are stereo displays, viewed through tracked stereo glasses allowing perspective-correct stereo views. This was driven by a state-of-the-art SGI computer, many times more powerful than any standard PC (and about 20 times the size). However, despite this vast graphics processing power, most architectural models, could not easily be adapted to this new technology. These models had been designed for accurate renderings of detailed geometry. Twenty minutes of processing with standard computer graphics applications on a desktop PC could produce a beautiful rendering of a view into this model, but VR demands real-time frame rates (ideally at least 60 frames per second) and the models were simply too large and detailed for this. These tensions between designs for single viewpoint renderings and designs for real-time rendering are now better understood, and advances in both graphics hardware and software have improved this situation. However recent trends in consumer VR towards standalone headsets mean that simulations are now driven by the same graphics processors that drive the mobile devices in our pockets. Aside from these technical hurdles, the cost has been the main contributing factor to the relatively slow uptake of VR as a tool for exploring design, but now that we have affordable devices available, what are the factors that still hinder progress?

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