The unreleased SEGA VR set for Genesis/Megadrive

[Segafreak_NL]

Couldn't find the old thread so here it is.
Some scans of a Sega Visions article, enjoy!

Http://www.segacollection.com/misc/segavr1.jpg
Http://www.segacollection.com/misc/segavr2.jpg

Would've liked to see this one..but it wouldn't have sold anyway.

[Barc0de]

there's been already two topics on this, sorry to be telling you this :D

nice scans though ;)

[Segafreak_NL]

Yeah I thought so. Like said, couldn't find them ;)

Oh well.

[sayin999]

http://www.sega-16.com/Interview-%20Bandit.php interview with one of the people who worked on the vr set, reveals quite a bit.

[Barc0de]

Bandit: Yes! Take the Xbox controller you pitch/roll - that is a form of this technology. IO Glasses are hanging in there - and gamers are one of their customer bases.

The man is losing it? O_o

[joehax]

The resolution on the HMD was pretty crappy. There is no way it was realistic enough to fool folks. QVGA at best - 256x320 or something similar. There is a danger with HMDs: the IPD (inter-pupular distance) must be properly set. IOGlasses gets around this by having a really big aperture (sp). Sega had a thumbwheel to adjust the IPD. Here is the danger: if the IPD for the LCDs are wider than the user IPD, you force the user's eyes to look outward. This is the opposite of cross-eyed. This can really stress the weak muscles around the eyes, and can cause permanent damage in less than 30 minutes.

Hmm, maybe its better this thing didn't get released after all :lol:

[Shadowlayer]

Man at the time most consoles werent even QVGA...

In fact that resolution is higher than the Snes. But the eyes-flying-out-of-sockets part is kinda creepy, SEGA would get their asses sued for life if they released that thing.

[ServiceGames]

Interesting read, but that guy didn't seem to know to much about the Sega end. I also wonder if Sega was not funding multiple companies to do their
R & D.

Also if the IPD is so damned important what about the Virtual Boy?

[Taucias]

The virtual boy has a slider on it to control IPD I believe. The other is for lens focus distance.

[Sienar]

I ran across a good number of patents concerning this project, and I could post them sometime soon

[ServiceGames]

Taucias, I know that's what I was getting at. There's a Virtual Boy sitting right behind me and I've never had any damage done to my eyes because of the IPD. I think that's just a cop out. If the Sega VR people implemented the click wheel thing they were talking about then I don't see how you could hurt your eyes without being borderline retarded.

[Barc0de]

just imagine the publicity.

"The SEGA VR makes you look special...even when not wearing it"

[SuperGrafx]

just imagine the publicity.

"The SEGA VR makes you look special...even when not wearing it"

Lol!

[Shadowlayer]

A VR headset like that one would be impossible to release at the time of the genesis, mainly due to the high price of the LCDs.

Maybe it could be done for the Saturn, it would help boost sales for sure, much more than, for example the netlink....

[Taucias]

Another issue with VR is that you can't see what is going on around you. It only takes someone to fall while wearing one of these and hurting themselves and it would be law suit city, especially in the US. I am guessing that is why Sega shelved it and no one else has bothered since (Atari had the Jaguar one but shelved the technology too).

[Shadowlayer]

I think a HMV unit would be great for intense inmmersion during FPS games, specially with built-in 5.1 headphones.

To avoid those accidents the best solution is to remove any movements sensors and leave a WASD or controller pad array to play the game.

[Taucias]

The would cause the same motion sickness issues. The HMD would have to become something like the Virtual Boy (the lack of motion sensing hardware is the reason they put it on a stand).

[Shadowlayer]

The motion sickness comes from the slow response from the graphics to head mounted sensors data, therefore in a system that nothing but a display mounted in front of your eyes (like those olympus glasses) there would be no motion sickness at all.

I know since I've played a lot with those....

[Taucias]

Are they total immersion? VR headsets, even without motion sensing, confuse the brain if you move without the picture moving in front of your eyes because the screen is the only thing your eyes have to focus on. LCD glasses are different because they present a display in front of you but at the sides (your peripheral vision) your view is still updated and your brain isn't confused.

Some people still suffer with LCD glasses in the same way that some people suffer nausea when reading in the car. It depends on how focused you become on the thing in front of you.

[Shadowlayer]

Nah, some are as you say, just a fisply hanging in front of your eyes, others more advanced one like one from sony have see-through LCDs which would let you walk around without having to put the Headset down...