The silicone valley is renamed the molecular (because nanotechnology!), the power of the processors doubles once every 18 months and by 2060 reaches tens of thousands of Gigaigers, virtual three -dimensional objects are moved by the power of thought … This is most likely not the future that awaits us and our descendants. But this is a future that is so easy and pleasant to imagine ..
Graphics
The picture of the future is either the extrapolation of modern technologies (as a rule, inept-remember at least the processors of the Fifth Pentium in the works of domestic science fiction writers), or the ultimate simplification of modern trends (the emergence of a society that is somewhat similar to the worlds of the “lawn mower” and “artificial intelligence "). Between these extremes there is a place and technology of three -dimensional display of Holodeck information (“Holographic compartment”) from the series “ Star path ", And all kinds of awkward" virttrah "and visors in the style of the infamous game console Virtual Boy.
It is enough to drive the words “Future of Gaming” into Google to make sure that all these futuristic achievements diverge from reality. Virtual retinal monitors (VRM) will come to the place of awkward “virtual reality helmets” – devices that form the image directly on the retina of the eye. As a result, a person sees a picture, as if “hanging” in front of him in the air and superimposed on objects of the real world, is almost x -ray vision, so beloved by the developers of the shooters. A bulky helmet is no longer needed – VRMs are installed in ordinary glasses and can project the image on one (for cards, information panels and the like), and two eyes (for games in a calm environment).
But three -dimensionality is not necessarily the simulation of the three dimensions inside the flat screen. Using a system of technology mirrors Volumetric Imaging , developed by Ethereal Technologies for corporate presentations, you can grow virtual cities right in the middle of the room. And with the help of the system Real-D Cinema , which Sony has been actively engaged for six years, you can build a picture protruding from the TV or screen of the cinema without any stereo and double projectors.
Another question is whether someone needs such a convincing simulation of reality. Already in films and series, virtual people and cities are no different from the real. Remember how many fraud and tricks were invented in the history of three -dimensional computer graphics (see. The article “Brief History of 3D” in “Gambling” No. 4/2009), and what? When technologies finally came to photorealism, Wii with low resolution and frankly cartoon characters appeared!
Control
Initially, WII with its primitive graphics and an unusual controller was considered as a niche product for children. But it turned out that gyroscopes in the Wii-Pulti attracted an audience that is usually not interested in games. It became clear that now (not to mention the future) it is important not only to see, but also to think outside the screen – to feel the game, to move with the character. From rudders and gamepads with reverse return, dance rugs and controllers in the form of plastic guitars, we move to new forms of interaction.
The crown of creation will be the absence of controllers as such – it will be possible to manage the game through brain impulses. On GDC 2008, the Australian company Emotiv showed the system EPOC – a device fixed on the head with sensors that measure the electrical activity of the brain. So far, the unit is able to decipher about 30 simple teams, but in the future its capabilities will grow. Is it possible that the game can be controlled not only on a conscious, but also on a subconscious level? Is it possible to read thoughts at a distance? What about recording brain impulses to your poor gyrus? It is believed that after seventy years of device for remote scan, interpretation and transfer of human thoughts will be widely used. Having got out to the network, it will be possible to pick up the virus and undergo forced brain flushing.
By the way, they are going to put up to the EPOC market in July 2009 (you can pretend to be a device for $ 299 on the official website http: // emotiv.COM/Corporate/2_0/2_4.HTM ). But it’s too early to worry about the fate of mankind – although the developers assure that the device worked properly on each of the thousands of experimental and recognized common mental patterns, the results are not yet too impressive. The controller is very unrealistic, it is possible to transfer the team to the game from only a few attempts. If we take into account that problems with accuracy are observed even in simple WII controllers (what is there-in ordinary gamepads!), eliminate EPOC roughness will be at least three decades.
By the way, since we are talking about brain impulses … Sony holds a patent on an ultrasound emitter that stimulates the cells of the brain that are responsible for taste and olfactory irritants. You can imagine what kind of taste and olfactory stimuli will prevail in games, say, late ID Software!
More traditional futuristic interfaces are completely sensory. A characteristic example – Fentix Cube , which in 2007 showed the British pioneer Andrew Fentem ( Andrewfentem.Com ). This is an electronic version of the chubby cube, in which instead of mobile parts, LED screenings and sensors are used that respond to rotation of the device. Now the cube not only looks very cool in the dark, you can still play a modified PAC-Man on it! The miracle cube and other sensory inventions are shown on the Fentem YouTube channel: YouTube.COM/User/Andrewfentem?GL = GB & HL = EN-GB.
As the iPhone and Nintendo DS prove, touch screen can replace the mouse and keyboard, but not always. The main advantage of the keyboard is that it has a tactile return, and the mouse cursor does not block the screen (unlike the human finger). “Smart” recognition of teams, support of several touch at the same time-this is all good, it is not for nothing that nevertheless the leaders of corporations and the captains of the spacecraft in a beautiful movie theater use full-sized sensory keyboards.
Fortune -telling on video cards
If the technologies will develop at about the same speed as now (although they, of course, will not, and sooner or later the same “quantum leap” will happen), then in ten years the most ordinary RS will give the head start to almost all modern supercomputers , taken together.
These are the characteristics of it:
- CPU: 64 nuclei, 16 billion transistors; Multiprocessor systems
- RAM: 100 GB, throughput – 36 GB/s
- hard drive volume: 100 TB
- Optical media volume (Blu-ray): 2 tb
- volume of flash carriers: 4 TB, throughput-2 GB/s
- Video cards: video memory: 16 GB, video memory capacity – 48 GB/s; Multiprocessor video cards
- The speed of the wired network: up to 450 MB/s
- wireless speed: up to 1.1 GB/s
Sound and smell
According to the unwritten canon, games in the future should affect all five feelings and eager for the flat screen and a pair of columns. But for this to happen, a technological revolution must occur, a “quantum leap” – and as a result, a device will be born, which will once and for all replace the monitor with the TV. It will be developed, standardized, put into mass production … And then it will be possible to seriously take up hearing organs, touch and smell!
To “play” the sound, there will be some kind of abominable technology that transfers sound waves through the skin-according to the principle of a neuron for deaf. So it will be possible to simulate blows and seismic effects. As for the sense of smell – back in 2001, the company Digiscents made the prototype of the ISMell device connected to the USB port and emitting “natural smells into the personal space of the user” every time he checks the mail or goes to a new website. In 2006, the device was included in the list of twenty -five worst inventions of all time compiled by PC World Magazine. We will probably not be better about stimulating taste analyzers. Although-wide possibilities for production playing!
Utopia and anti -utopia
The authors of numerous "game" predictions add a few more words about the multiplayer aspect: “Professional leagues in which millions of players will participate!"
Yes, of course, games in the future will be social. But the leagues and championships have nothing to do with it – the integration of games with existing social networks and public structures will actually happen (and is already happening). It is very likely that mmorpg will merge with Facebook And Myspace , Personal and business relations in the real world will be built on the basis of game, guilds will begin to use political influence.
About the fact that it will be possible to play in the future on anything (on a netbook, on any TV), we already wrote in the last issue in the article about Onlive. When the games will finally separate from the “iron”, instead of console wars, the console world will come, all compatibility problems will disappear, the sale of games on physical media will disappear, and with it there are trifles such as piracy and amateur modifications. The success of the Nintendo educational games with their physically visible management will lead to the integration of the education system with a single gaming platform of the future, a law on compulsory game education will be adopted. This seems to be already soft social anti -utopia ..
But anti -utopia is stringent: superrealism, sex and violence lead to anarchy and destruction of society. Social destructiveness of games, blood and nudity begin to worry not only censors, but also ordinary users. The marketing of the “holographic compartment” will have to not be easy: who wants the child to participate in gladiatorial battles with indistinguishable people from living people? This question is widely covered in fiction of the seventies (for example, in the film Westworld Michael Kruton). When dueling with hanfiters and fights on swords become indistinguishable from real ones, it always ends very badly.
Computer Odyssey 2043
There are not so many serious theories about the future of the video game. It is clear that the game industry is located in counterclaims with the film industry. It is clear that the evolution of games can be compared with the evolution of television. It is easy, for example, to draw parallels between mmorpg and reality. It is Lucky Barry sister sites even easier to imagine the merger of industries and the emergence of virtual reality shows with millions of users. The integration of Rock Band with karaoke-symptures will facilitate the search for young talents.
But these are all our fantasies, but what are the professionals about the game future. Speaking in 2008 at a conference of developers in Austin, the American science fiction writer Bruce Sterling introduced himself as an alien from the future (student of 89-year-old Bruce Sterling) and described in detail the computer technology of 2043. As a portable computer, he showed an ordinary towel – and complained that there was no connection with "cloud technologies". About the games said that “we no longer pretend that a glass screen is a window in a virtual world. Light passes through a towel and creates a three -dimensional image ". More? “We have no virtual games – only home, national, global and space!"
The future of computer communications – for nanotechnology. The student of Sterling presented “computing crystals” (salt in the salt shaker), each of which “occupies more than one dimension in space”. In each crystal – the computing power of the 2008 server farm server farm. Having scattered salt, the guest from the future stated that he had created an autonomous “cloud” the size of the entire Internet model 2004. And he did not listen to the public questions – as an alien from the future, he knew in advance what they would be.
Who in 35 years will play games the most? “Bankers! I read the manual for the game Avatar Checkout – the boring business text … the banking sector and investment – a dull thing!"But in 2043, gaming banks are the only banks in the world. Real concrete buildings with safes have long disappeared, and the lobby with marble columns moved to video games. “The best way to create the future is to invent it,” said Sterling in conclusion. – But the best way to understand the future is to study the past. ".
Cleaned
In truth, the future of games is no different from the future of any other sphere of the entertainment industry. Corporations are trying to guess the needs of the players and reach the mass audience. Rare masterpieces come out, they are pressed by a huge gray mass of mediocrity. Marketers hunt for a male audience of 18-34 years. The debate about the legitimacy of video games as forms of art or even just as a narrative environment continues. And in twenty and thirty years the phrase will be repeated: “Well, after all, computer games are still a very young industry”.
In addition to a purely artistic load, educational – interactive learning for children, adolescents and adults will appear. Different philosophical teachings, views on the world and the systems of values are taught within the framework of one single MMORPG; Information is delivered to the player unnoticed-he does not even know that he assimilates something new and useful.
The gap between the vacation, education and personal development will disappear, a new environment of “educational educational entertainment” will appear, which will entail significant consequences for society, civilization, for humanity as a biological species … or will not entail.
P.S. Photos used with the courtesy resolution Jason “Surrealize” Hoover (Surrealize @ Flickr)
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