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| − | [[wikipedia:Kopin Corporation|Kopin Corporation]], the headset's LCD screen supplier{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}, was also involved in the development of Sega VR. It was chosen by Sega of America for its ability to deliver a low-cost solution for delivering cheap, consumer-grade LCD screens which could keep up with the requirements of virtual reality technology.
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| − | {{quote|Our goal was to create an entire VR system – HMD (head mounted display), software, everything. We made a number of prototypes, tearing video cams apart for the LCDs. I remember one night watching Michael Perry using Forth and a home-grown jig to determine the LCD parameters. It was a great feat of hacking.
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| − | I worked on a video game – basic shooter at tanks, limited field. I had something pretty good after two months, which included learning graphics. We put this in the headmount and used a joystick. Pesce took a forth board and a Radio Shack electronic compass and found the quadrature output. He then created a simple interface to it. This was the start of the Sega tracker. This was roughly Oct 1992. Donahue had set up a meeting with Sega to show the tracker. I built a foamcore box, with power and interface cable out of it, and we stuck the hacked up compass into it. We glued the edges and put Ono-Sendai stickers on them so we could detect intrusion. Pesce made a simple app on his powerbook to take the quad output and spin a ball/disk.|''[[Ono-Sendai]] engineer [[Bandit]]''|ref={{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}}}
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| − | After startup [[Ono-Sendai]] caught wind of [[Sega of America]]'s search for an affordable VR headset provider, they began work on a basic sensor prototype which could be produced at a low enough cost for a consumer system. Around October 1992, Ono-Sendai reached out to Sega of America and demonstrated this first iteration of the hardware.{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}} The response was overwhelmingly positive, and Sega agreed to fund a more developed version of the sensor hardware. Ono-Sendai engineer Bandit recalls that "Sega had been talking to a couple of other groups for this project. It seems we were the only ones who could do what they needed (at the price point?) and even though we left the box with Sega, they could not figure out how we did it."{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}
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| − | The second Sega VR prototype consisted of a simple PCB with driver hardware that attached to a NMI micro board running Forth. A compass coil was placed into a small project box with a ribbon cable running to the PCB/NMI electronics, and a DB9 and power connector was attached to the other end of the board. This second-generation prototype was completed and subsequently left Sega of America as an example of what they could expect in the final product. Ono-Sendai officially signed a contract with Sega, and as a result of the project was awarded $250,000.{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}
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| − | During testing, the headset reportedly "never crashed during any demo. After a while of VR demos, the folks we were courting would deliberately try to crash the demo. They got pissed when they could not crash mine. The Japanese folks may have tried to crash it, but they never said anything about it."{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}} Despite this, the project was not without problems. Ono-Sendai lacked access to any [[Sega VR]] games during the headset's production, and were unable to actually test their headset with the games it was intended for. When the engineers required an NTSC video source to run through the headset for testing, commercial VHS tapes of ''[[wikipedia:Ren and Stimpy|Ren and Stimpy]]'' were used instead. Eventually, the headset's yaw/pitch controls were hacked into an unknown ''Star Wars'' game for further testing of head movement.{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}
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| − | Aside from Ono-Sendai's development team being relatively understaffed (often being worked on by only one or two people), the company also ran into issues with [[Mark Johnson Williams]], the [[Sega of America]] producer assigned to manage the project. Ono-Sendai engineer Bandit states Williams let the project get behind, and Sega failed to allocate enough time and money for a project of this scale.{{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}
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| − | {{quote|The resolution on the HMD was pretty crappy. There is no way it was realistic enough to fool folks. QVGA at best – 256×320 or something similar. There is a danger with HMDs: the IPD (inter-pupular distance) must be properly set. IO Glasses 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. What I heard was the Sega lawyers brought up the liability issue on the eye damage. That is the reason I heard the project was canceled. Take it with whatever block of salt you want.
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| − | One issue was frame rate. From 4-12 HZ you are in the “barfogenic” region[1] (that is a real technical term). They needed to keep the frame rate up to at least 15 HZ, and you can see flicker. It can cause a bad headache. Another issue is lag – between turning your head and the scene shifts with you. If the lag is past a certain point, and it does not take much, you will lose it. The ears and eyes must be in sync, or the body thinks it is poisoned and ejects from the nearest orifices, the same effect as being drunk.|''[[Ono-Sendai]] engineer [[Bandit]]''|ref={{intref|Interview: Bandit (2006-07-25) by Sega-16}}}}
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| | ==Interview== | | ==Interview== |
| | interesting comments from Régis Monterrin (author of [https://www.amazon.co.uk/GENERATION-SEGA-PLUS-ANS-DHISTOIRES/dp/237989082X this] book) here - apparently [[Shinobu Toyoda]] said Sega VR cost SOA $6mil, was cancelled because they didn't think the public were ready, when [[Hayao Nakayama]] realised this he got very angry (as was his wont), etc | | interesting comments from Régis Monterrin (author of [https://www.amazon.co.uk/GENERATION-SEGA-PLUS-ANS-DHISTOIRES/dp/237989082X this] book) here - apparently [[Shinobu Toyoda]] said Sega VR cost SOA $6mil, was cancelled because they didn't think the public were ready, when [[Hayao Nakayama]] realised this he got very angry (as was his wont), etc |
Interview
interesting comments from Régis Monterrin (author of this book) here - apparently Shinobu Toyoda said Sega VR cost SOA $6mil, was cancelled because they didn't think the public were ready, when Hayao Nakayama realised this he got very angry (as was his wont), etc
Ted618 (talk) 12:05, 1 November 2022 (GMT)
Did SoJ/Nakayama issue a VR mandate?
HMM Hm Hm... left field thought but. what if SoJ/Nakayama stood up and clapped “It’s VR time!” and issued a directive to both SoJ & SoA to start looking into VR stuff. SoJ ended up with the MVD, and SoA ended up with the unreleased Sega VR? Would explain why both companies starting doing their own VR development at around the same time. Maybe there were plans to go with whatever system worked the best, but then VR being what it is caused the MVD’s planned implimentation to get significantly scaled back? I don’t know, just thoughts.
CartridgeCulture (talk) 21:03, 27 April 2021 (EDT)
- from what i can tell, the Sega VR project headed by SoA was likely much further into development than whatever SoJ's initial efforts were in 1993, which may have not even existed/were otherwise kept tightly under wraps. SoA's got publicity as early as 93, the MVD first went public in early 94 AFAIK, and nothing is known about what SoJ were doing before Virtuality came along
- have this pointer: while looking through old 1993 issues of Game Machine, i noticed a story ran in one issue about SoJ and Virtuality reaching their first agreement to collaborate, at that time apparently only on the Net Merc thing - it had a notable pic attached of Nakayama w/ one of the Virtuality guys. also mentioned something along the lines about how it was not yet decided whether the game would use Sega's headset or one of Virtuality's, so who knows if they meant SoA's SVR or some early SoJ design that we don't know about yet
- so basically, my current timeline is this
- 1992 - initial Sega VR development w/ IDEO almost certainly started here at SoA, SoJ may have been doing early stuff
- 1993 - SoA goes public with their attempt, SoJ keep quiet about theirs (if it ever existed in the first place) but reach agreements ::with Virtuality to create Net Merc, which soon evolve into the creation of VR-1 and the MVD alongside it
- 1994 - MVD revealed, VR-1 released at Joypolis, Sega VR already dead in the water
- 1995 - Net Merc cancelled, as well as the MVD version of Virtual-On if the rumours are true, all serious VR activity probably over at Sega by end of year
- i suspect/hope there's more on this matter that can be found in Game Machine that i just haven't caught up to yet, there's so many blanks that need to be filled in here lol
- (and it wouldn't surprise me if nakayama was the one who threw down a diktat for VR, but without any quotes implying or confirming so i'm afraid it's pure conjecture)
- Ted618 (talk) 00:14, 30 April 2021 (GMT)
- Thank you for all this, this is super useful and I appreciate you going out of your way to outline it like this. I agree, so many blanks. In regard to Sega VR, in particular I wish we knew more of the project’s staff. CartridgeCulture (talk) 03:24, 2 May 2021 (EDT)
References