Yesterday, I had a “Woah, I’m living in the future” moment.
Earlier this week, I saw a virtual reality unit finally came down in price enough that it was within my budget. I’ve been eyeing VR for years, so this sale came with a great deal of giddy excitement. The unit arrived yesterday, and I jumped to try it out.
I have a habit of doing more frequent RC’s whenever I am doing something new or exciting. I have always figured that something new and different is more likely to pop up in my dreams and be noticeable than boring daily routines. So, accordingly, I did several RC’s while setting up the VR and then while it was on.
Well, technically, once I put the visor on, looked at my hands, and the RC ‘failed’. My nose, too, wasn’t there.
I suppose technically, I shouldn’t call this a failed RC, because it did exactly what it was supposed to: show me that what I was witnessing was not true reality. It is called VIRTUAL reality, after all. And this was my “Woah, I’m living in the future”; I need to adjust my RC’s to be usable in more than just two (waking vs dreaming) realities.
So, does anyone have suggestions of RC’s that could be used in VR?
As a VR user myself, you could try sticking your hands through objects or walls as an RC although that’s naturally going to require the use of Motion Controllers along with games that have viewable arms/hands.
With games the make heavy use of physics object manipulation, you could try pushing objects through each other or try and glitch/break the physics engine in multiple ways as another RC.
I sometimes use a mental RC, such as “If this is a dream, the next car will be flying/the next door will glow/there will be a lion around the corner”. That could work in some alternate realities, if those elements aren’t a part of the VR world.
I’ll pull this out later and make a Lounge thread later, but…
I got the Lenovo Explorer (because it went on sale in the US for about 50% off), which uses Windows Mixed Reality. So far I haven’t actually bought any games, but I will be getting entirely SteamVR games.
Back on topic…
The nose pinch is actually my normal go to and kind of still works in VR, but it’s a little tricky because of the way the unit partially covers my nose. Not to mention, I’m generally holding a motion controller in each hand.
I like the idea of expectation RC’s, though I feel like they’d be more prone to false negatives in dreams. One that has worked with some success for me before was attempting to recall ‘How did I get here?’, or ‘What did I do earlier today?’, although I haven’t tried that in a long time. I think all in all, I’ll have to start using more ‘mental’ RC’s, and rely a little less on purely physical ones.
I should put up a sign on the wall in my starting VR area (desktop? lobby? whatever it’s called). A classic old, “ARE YOU DREAMING?”
A few days back at work I was treated on a ride in VR. I forgot the device, but it was one with two controllers, headset, earphones, the works. And ofcourse I had to think about this topic and try out some RC’s.
And now I get why the nose RC totally isn’t doable
I like the idea of the Are You Dreaming Sign, perhaps you should add: How did you get here? as a reminder as well to think about that. I think those are probably the best. Even the look at your hands is not doable haha. Two floating controllers in the sky. hmmm looks legit
I am so exited in how the VR tech has gotten so far they are able to create almost life like worlds. The one I did at work was one where you had to step into an elevator (that got all my LD vibes going as stepping into an elevator and pushing a button is one of the ways I use in a LD to get around…). Then the elevator opened and I found myself at the top of a building with a small plank extended that you had to step onto.
The thing that made it very convincing was that they had quickly put in a plank in the ‘real reality’ exactly at the spot of the VR plank so that gave the experience immediately a touch of reallness. the plank being wobbly added to it So that put me off my guard. And I looked around and thought, hmm if this was a lucid dream, I would just fly away but I knew enough to not do that. Instead I stepped of the plank to see what happened. No flying but a falling experience which ended into a white nothingness. Which I found a nice touch that they had done it that way.
The coworker who was facilitating the VR said he was surprised I was so calm and didn’t panick with the falling. Seems a lot of people don’t even dare to step out of the elevator. Also they told me a story of a guy who actually wanted to fly and he jumped out from the plank - result a broken leg .
so what I wanted to say, how did I get here? the way to RC in VR
Whenever I’m playing a video game in my dreams, it becomes the central focus of the dream and I actually become a part of the game world. It makes sense since when I play games in real life I don’t pay attention to anything outside of the TV screen or monitor.
So, I think a good RC for VR games would just be to check if you can still feel the VR headset on your head, since if this was a dream the sensations of the headset and the “real” world around you would all vanish and the VR world would take over the dream. Of course, you should do it like one should do all other LCs, going in expecting it to fail and your VR headset not to be there.
I don’t have a VR headset myself though, so I’d have no idea whether this is actually effective or not.
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