Topic: How close are we to full immersion/deep dive VR?

Will it happen within our lifetime ( in 30-70 years)?

By using Elon Musk's Neuralink (Neural Lace 2039???) ,NerveGear, exo-skeletons, OpenWorld VR maybe?

And if we were to achieve this would anyone still want to live in the real world apart from people who are maintaining the system and certain religious groups?(or at least take breaks from full dive VR)

And is VR a replacement for reality? As in will it stop people from physically travelling and going outside?

honestly no where near, no matter how good a VR headset gets it's still artificial and everything still looks artificial and until some ones can create something like a Holodeck from Star trek we will never have a truly immersive and real VR

@shiba2666 potentially.

Right now VR is too cumbersome, It has too many issues and the control mechanisms are not suitable for full immersion. Also the majority of games have not made the most out of the tech, as flat panel experiences are shoe horned into a VR experience.

However if tech companies can get some kind of glove controller or something that recognises your hands. A way to mimic your facial movements (as in smiling / grimacing etc). A smaller form VR headset which offsets the likes of steaming, micro dirt and blurring. 120hz refresh with a wider field of view and we will be in business tech wise. Anyone who has used a mid to range VR set up with positional monitoring knows its too good at convincing you that you are there, just imagine in ten years time.

Erm, wasn't there already a thread for this that was started just a few months ago? @Tasuki should I try to find the old thread and direct people there or should we continue this conversation here?

On-Topic: I highly doubt we'll be playing a real-life SAO anytime soon. But fully immersive games like "The World" from the .hack and .hack G.U. games would be likely in the next decade or so. Recreating smells, taste, and touch with remotely feasible technology that could be mass-produced is several decades away at least.

@TowaHerschel7 I read a report on haptic feedback. So touch is very much on the agenda right now using sound vibrations.

As for taste and smells I can't envisage how that will ever work without some kind of neural implant. The tech you need like burners, scratchers, refillable liquids etc just couldn't work as a longterm tech project imo. Touch though is very plausible.

Or using an external neural headset ala Nervegear, however there are extreme potential dangers with using something like that. Yes something like Sword Art Online could happen with players being trapped and brains being fried if using an external neural headset so it might be best to avoid that kind of technology altogether...

You're all watching too much anime.

@Octane, there is no such thing. I spent 9.5 hours watching anime yesterday, #noshame

@shiba2666 I think it is possible within the 30-70 years you suggest, assuming we don't face any Earth shattering catastrophes. They are definitely researching a line of tech that would imply a goal like that.

Right now, VR is much improved over previous generations. PS5 VR should be amazing. It will never replace reality, just add a little fun to your interactive entertainment.

This is a philosophical question that goes far beyond the framework of games. If we talk about games and the VR experience, that already exist today, they are already very “deceiving” the brain, forcing you to believe in a full presence. If you have tried this experience, then you know that the brain believes very strongly in what is happening, even when you continue to feel the chair you are sitting under. But still this is not a full dive VR , now research is already being done about this and there are all the prerequisites to argue that in 10-20 years it will be quite relevant.
Read more - https://invisible.toys/full-dive-virtual-reality/

I don't think this question is too far fetched. I sometimes wonder to myself about this possibility of citizens being glued to screens and virtual reality being our accessibility to all kinds of knowledge systems. Especially in 2019, it is completely possible. With the surveillance and digital interferences even in political systems, what is the line between the real world and the virtual world?