"Raw Data" Assessment: Addictive Cooperative Shooting Game

In an industrial building or the like, the machines were not far away. I reached out and pulled out the samurai sword. When I reached the side of the handle, the energy beam came out. Sticks stay. Just like a light sword.

One minute ago I was relaxing with hundreds of people in the Los Angeles Convention Center to visit the VRLA Winter Expo. Now I have been transferred to this environment through the HTC Vive Pre and have Raw Data developed by Survios. ” With my weapons, my body has naturally changed its standing position, back straight, arms tight, I have completed the preparations.

Raw Data is nothing but a project that Survios set up just a few months ago. The latter is a Los Angeles startup with more than 30 employees. However, there are actually many years of co-founders behind this project that can be traced back to Oculus. The kind of subconsciousness that I described in the defensive mode is the spontaneous behavior that the co-founders hope to dig through through their technology.

After a demo of "Raw Data Raw Data", I briefly talked with Survios co-founder and chief creative officer James Iliff for a few minutes. His comments describe very well the best part I have experienced in this VR game:

This is very instinctive. Everyone is a person. We are born to be hunting, collecting, guarding, killing, and various crazy things. This is why entertainment industry, art, and so on can exist. A lot of human emotions and instincts drive their existence. And this game will eventually satisfy those instincts. You can really get in there, do whatever you want to do, release the most fundamental impulses of human nature and have a good time in the process. So now you can feel the thrill of battle, the power of explosions, the discovery of surprises, and so on, something rarely found in the 21st century.

Ilmer and Oculus's co-founder, Palmer Luckey, worked in the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Southern California at about the same time, where Survios was founded and launched a full-system platform project to study fully immersive VR. Almost when Oculus was acquired by Facebook, Survios also locked in a $4 million investment. Because the company has experienced a long period of time in the era of grass-roots creation, it is already mature enough to obtain even more investment. However, Iliff is not willing to talk about the current fundraising problem. On the contrary, they have long since presented Raw Data as the company’s first project to meet with the public.

Raw Data represents what Survios calls "active VR" software. They should contain six elements:

1. Surrounding images, sounds, and other sources of stimuli in order to create a credible environment

2. Being able to perceive or feel that it is actually in an environment

3. Have a virtual body or character that can naturally interact with the environment

4. Can play and interact with other people in shared electronic space

5. Can interact with and see other people who enter into VR from the outside world

6, can be completely free from physical limitations

These elements I have basically seen in Raw Data. A sword-like katana with a hand-held gun wields a deep sense of satisfaction. Closed one eye and stared at the barrel of the gun, and then swiped a lighted round against the flying robot. Throw away the gun and reflect the ensuing energy beam with a katana. It feels like a virtual Jedi, defending a node with your human companions back to back.

However, I was overwhelmed by those instructions. In addition to the mentioned guns and samurai swords, there is also a bow and arrow, a shotgun and grenades are available, but I have not had a chance to try. You can see how Will Mason uses bows in this Gif:

I was more stern in the Vive Pre and I'm not sure how far I can go. When my character is too close to a person in a trench, my virtual arm breaks, causing what I see in the VR to be incompatible with what I feel in reality and therefore uncomfortable. When I should protect my partner against the machine, I felt I didn't feel it until I was far away from him.

Iliff said: "We are still at a very experimental stage, so we have to test a lot of things today." Although it is true, it still sounds an understatement. Here are some instructions on a series of posters that people will see before they enter the Vive area:

The system that Surivos is building looks like the basic common language that people interact with in VR. Maybe one day it can be applied to various games and experiences. It is no longer a pistol, you can pick it up from the side A map or a flashlight. When I finished the time in Raw Data, I just wanted to go back to that world and become more familiar with arms and the sense of self-consciousness walking around in the dark. Unfortunately, this booth in VRLA was crowded with people who had waited for more than an hour because of the inability to arrange demonstrations after the event was scheduled.

So to put it this way, I am looking forward to further evolution of "Raw Data" and will pay close attention to the company Survios, especially as its interactive system will be applied to more experiences.

With Gear VR already on sale, and Rift, Vive and PSVR are ready to go, I also asked Iliff about the best entry point for VR in 2016. It would be Rift's sitting experience or Vive's Walking experience? Here is his answer:

"Everything depends on which of your target users are, what kind of experience you want to provide, and what story you want to tell. So obviously there will be a seat for VR that uses gamepads, and it will even be used. Motion controllers sit in the development space of seated VR. For example, cockpit simulators and racing games are suitable for them, but they can stand or sit down, they can go up or they can walk, and they can interact with the environment organically. It's incredibly exciting and heart-warming, as if you were in a lively, breathing environment, and you can complete a mission or play a game with your friends or friends in VR. Socialize or just wander around.”