Although VR and AR technology has been around for a while, its application in the world has been limited. Most people only know AR because of Pokémon Go and VR thanks to Oculus Go and the PS VR games.
This year, game developers are exploring more ways to integrate the inventions into games. Soon, every interested player will be able to experience virtual and augmented reality without making expensive changes to the devices they use. Below are ways VR differs from AR and what each invention will offer gamers.
Virtual Reality
Although VR and AR technology has been around for a while, its application in the world has been limited. Most people only know AR because of Pokémon Go and VR thanks to Oculus Go and the PS VR games.
This year, game developers are exploring more ways to integrate the inventions into games. Soon, every interested player will be able to experience virtual and augmented reality without making expensive changes to the devices they use. Below are ways VR differs from AR and what each invention will offer gamers.
Augmented Reality
VR deceives your vision to introduce you to a different world. AR scans your surroundings and creates a playing environment around them. Pokémon Go offers the best use case for the technology. With AR glasses, your surroundings become part of the game. When walking down the street, you chase Pokémon in nearby locations.
At home, you can see Pokémon climb on your sofas and move under the tables. Of course, this happened in a virtual, augmented world. But the goal is to bring game characters into your world. Essentially, AR expands a game’s setting.
VR vs. AR Gaming Applications
AR Intensifies Hyper-Reality
Imagine a world where reality and fiction blend in such a way that your brain can’t distinguish the two. AR will lead gamers in that direction.
Using AR goggles, everything around you is immersed in the video game world such that the game and your surroundings blend. This technology is best applicable to simple games though. While AR could be introduced to action and sports games, it ruins your concentration playing certain games.
On one hand, you are playing NBA playoffs at MSG but on the other AR is trying to integrate your sofas and coffee tables into the action. This will certainly distract you.
VR engulfs you into the Gaming World
Ever seen people screaming and jumping around when watching VR movies? That’s the power of VR. Unlike AR, virtual reality gives you a trip to Vice City when playing Grand Theft Auto. You become a cowboy in Red Dead Redemption and interact with other characters as if you were one of them.
To traditional video gamers, VR and not AR is the real deal. Modern VR devices are more enhanced than ever before. They detect every move you make and use it to better your experience playing games. If playing FIFA 19 makes you feel like a professional footballer, VR takes you to Camp Nou and makes you feel like you are playing next to Lionel Messi.
AR Works best for Mobile Games
Most of the developers introducing AR into the gaming world are paying more focus on mobile games. There is a reason for this. Augmented reality aims to involve your surrounding into game irrespective of where you go.
Involving your surroundings widens a game’s playing field and makes it more entertaining. Remember the success Pokémon Go had? Everyone jumped into the bandwagon, hunting items all-around their cities and places of work.
AR can always be added into PC games but you don’t carry your desktop and laptop everywhere. Picture a situation where you wanted to play a small adventure game in your favorite football stadium. With a laptop, you would have to walk slowly holding it to the dismay of everyone around you. But when using smartphones, playing is more private, the phone is lighter and more convenient.
VR is More Effective on Modern 3D Games
As we’ve already mentioned, VR immerses into a video gaming world. And what better games to experiment with than 3D games? From adventures to racing, action to simulators—VR can intensify your experience playing any of the games like nothing else could.
Unlike augmented reality, your physical location doesn’t enhance your experience using VR. Instead, it’s the game that really determines how good an experience you get from VR goggles. So far, more than a dozen popular developers have rolled out VR games.
Star Trek, Beat Saber and The Climb are some of the popular names supporting VR technology. Each of the games is designed in locations that excite players so much that they are addicted to playing the games for longer.
Both Entertaining in Different Ways
While both AR and VR have their differences in gaming, they go hand in hand. They are both used to entertain gamers and often complement rather than compete against each other. Whether they are integrating everything around you into the game or not, AR and VR are designed to immerse you into the game storylines.
Many AR and VR games are entertaining—and the nascent technologies have something do with it. When you have to run around your home compound finding for characters in a game, you feel more hooked into the storyline. This further improves your user experience on the game, making you addicted by it even more.
To Conclude
The online gaming industry has been exploring ways to use AR and VR into games for a while. Pokémon Go successfully showed the world how mobiles can become when AR is thrown into the mix. Video games followed suit and now we have VR and AR games all around us.
Despite the two words being thrown around together all the time, AR offers something different from VR. Augmented reality tries to blend your surroundings and games into one product. VR immerses you into the gaming world.