The Virtual Reality Cave - Computerphile 

"We needed a system to make sure that people find their way out." -- I've got one for you. "Computer. Arch!"

We have one of those in our local university and I could also try it once. If you put on the tracking glasses the projection relative to you and the 3D effect are very good. However, even though the resolution was much, much higher than the oculus rift it was not as immersive. I was in a completely enclosed cube but you could clearly see the edges and the IR tracking cameras in the corners. My brain didn't accept the VR as a reality like in the rift. This was a few years before the rift so I wasn't biased. Also a cave is insanely expensive and needs special software that does not look as good as you might expect from current game engines. Don't forget, this system only works for one person like rift! If you stand right next to the person with the tracking glasses you get a bit of the correct projection too but to be honest I don't see much future in that VR system.

from thumbnail I've thought video was about Serj Tankian

This would be a wonderful tool for architects and other 3D-cad professionals. But instead of creating a project first and then viewing it in a 3D-lab like you did here, the architect could literally shape his creation with his bare hands inside the lab. :)

The multi-user variant - with each person seeing their own perspective - is coming. CastAR shows some of these possibilities, by using micro projectors per user and retroreflective screens; what it can't do yet is match the field of view of a CAVE or Rift, simply because the current optics aren't that wide angle. Nice to see a current CAVE system; the one I visited has been dismantled. It did use the three story construction with twelve projectors.

I work with the aixCave of the RWTH Aachen University which is considerably bigger than the cave you showed. Caves are a very powerfull and impressive tool for vr. We have a warning when you come too close to a wall, so that you not crash into it. The things you can do with such technology are just ... wow... but programming for them really challenging at times.

Hey, Matthias! This guy is actually a friend of mine, I almost couldn't believe my eyes seeing him on youtube. :)

Caves are awesome. We had a programming course last semester at the cave in Garching, Munich were we build some applications for a 5 sided cave. The experience is totally amazing.

The acronym really stands for "cave automatic virtual environments". Back in the '90s, it was a big deal to have the name be part of the acronym for new products. I used to sell these at a company called Pyramid Systems (not the computer company) based in Detroit (thankfully they merged with Fakespace which was a much better name). They were on SGI computers (remember them :-). Fun times

I think the ProjectAR system is like a smaller, more portable logical extension of the CAVE concept, except picoprojectors are collocated on the observer. You obviously save on power consumption, bit you also gain a unique feature, multiple simultaneous participants if you time the strobe updates just right to synchronize with each participant.

Your videos are getting more and more interesting !! Love them. A message from a future computer enginieer.

Looks like a fantastic experience and I bet it's amazingly cool to work with it. I hope we get an update on this in the future, I'd love to see it running a Unity3D program!

They have a VR CAVE at the University here in Madison. I got to tour it last year, and IIRC, it worked slightly differently... you could have multiple people in the room at one time, and it was the glasses that were hi-tech and tailored the flickering to your eyes depending on where you were.

We've built Holo-Decks. Good job guys.

I could safe these guys a ton of money: Get a Oculus Rift, stick a Gopro to the front, paint the room green - Bam! AR done!

Just so you're aware, the CAVE isn't a new idea, they've been made using SGI RealityMonster (yes, it's really called that) Onyx2:s way before this (the video below says 1990's). The RM is a 5 rack system, but ISTR that they were also made using what SGI called "deskside" Onyx2:s, which essentially is one Onyx/Origin rack shrunk down to a desk-high cube. Naturally someone made it run Quake II CAVE QUAKE II by Paul Rajlich (2) :-)

Look at the CAVE when in the CAVE..CAVECEPTION

The ones with the treadmills are probably the coolest.

This and the under development omni-directional treadmill would be a killer combo!

They have a VR Cave at hull university in the Com Sci Dept. Fantastic to try out, They let me try a piece of VR software that Projects an oil rig construction site for a group exercise.

Communitech out of Kitchener has one called the Hive. It was Collaborated on with Christie Digital (who are working on some really interesting VR systems. Coolest thing I've seen in a long time! (By the way, you can rent time with it)

I remember playing around with a Quake 3 engine-based interactive system like this over at Cornell a few years ago. It's a shame that they lost funding for the project: These systems are fascinating to me.

It's similar to the projection systems that big aircraft sims use. Though of making a small DCS A-10 pit that did that, but wasn't sure about the projectors.

This is awesome!! People, we are getting scarily close to Star Trek holodecks

These are pretty neat. We have a CAVE at my work and I've had the opportunity to also do some development with it.

There are versions of the 'caves' or 'domes' that have been running unity apps for years. Tons of good stereo3d plugins exist too. I wonder what's unique about it in this case. I like the setup though. Very sexy little office. I'd love to have something like that one day.

If you have virtual reality with screens right before your eyes, I think there should be an avatar for you in the system, so you could feel like you're in another body.

Even if the use of it is just fun, the engineering behind it is awesome, in computing, optical engineering, that's really challenging in interesting.

Used a CAVE system before, so much better in person - this video does a great job but there is nothing like actually using the system with VR. I reckon, the potential for systems like this could be potentially bigger than 3-D printing.

A step closer to the holodeck

The way out is supposed to be highlighted if you say "Computer, arch." Everyone knows that.

In a previous video someone said that NAND is a gift from god: you can build an entire computer with it. Could you make a video on how that would be done? I mean, how would one go about creating an adder, memory and the ALU's logic functions? I also would love to know why CPU cache is so much faster than RAM (apart from the obvious data transmission distance differences).

Virtuix Omni would be a nice addition to this system.

This is incredible.

add more 3d tracking and avatars so you can conference in friends into your environment and you would have a contestant for the eminent future in commercial virtual reality.

I got to this late. I worked on a project similar to this with a 50 Mp visualization wall. It was 24 FULL HD LCD screens in a 6x4 matrix. I did a similar architecture program though had it all running in Unity at our university in Oregon. It would be great to collaborate.

I suppose this system is extremely useful for prototyping, architecture, etc. But I don't see it being usable for more than one person at a time... Even though, this is SO COOL!

Those look like active shutter glasses, not the same as the passive polarizer versions in theaters.

These guys basically made the Looking Glass from Prey lol.

would make more sense to me if the room was a circle, with a walking pad which follows where you are walking.

Oculus in architecture projects is an actually good idea, i must find a way to get one, and make it work with acad...

It looks like a very cool system. I love to see the advances in the VR technology. But if you turned off the 3D, it would have made a better looking video.

Really mindboggling!!

I'd really like to know more about the inner workings of this. The gooey technical center, so to speak.

Wow, I can just imagine having two of my apartments walls hooked up like that. Anyone feel inclined to persuade my neighbors to keep the projectors in theirs? And anyone who´d like to sponsor said projectors?

more tom scott! :D

I am sure the flickering it just the refresh rate of the projectors and not actually there, similar to a CRT, yes?

Is this what Plato was talking about?

We could turn the cave into the allegory of the cave in VR!

These guys have actually made the holodecks form TNG!

My college has one too, it has 3 walls and a floor. Compared to this it's more like a DIY project, it uses way older technology for pretty much everything. xD But then again, students are free to use and develop for it if they want to.

Now this is cool. All we need now is something to snap our synapses and put us into coma state for time being and start having fun in matrix!

I don't like the idea of Cave... with the "fix in place" devices (something that allows you to walk without leaving the spot, not threadmills, you need to be able to move in all directions... possibly jump) for a wider exploration (and, especially, games) the idea of being fixed but as so having freedom to walk further (not point and fly as superman) would be better IMO... but the tracking part is a must indeed

This is an amazing system. Didnt know that someone has build that already. The idea is quite similar to what thos giy with the reverse wii remote was doing. He actualy used the wii remote as tracker and put the infrared leds on his glasses. This way he was able to create a perfekt vr on hos tv screen without danger for illness. I would like to know why you still need stereoscopic 3d stuff to create the 3d effect. Since it tracks you in real time. So the deepth should come from the system tracking your position and not from fake stereosopic view. Also I would like to know about the limits of the system. All that computation, tracking and stuff must produce a lot of delay making fast movements less accurate. In the video he moves verry slowly. Thos shows me he trys to present the system without bugging out from fast movement or hidden tracking points on his glasses.

The real question is how we unobtrusively allow actors to move in a virtual reality system within a confined space. We have some tech that approaches this, but it's very much obtrusive.

Its funny, I know this building, its only 20min. away from where I live :D

This is really cool! But how can I physically move around there without walking out of the area and not bumping against the walls? How can I literally walk around 200 square meters class when I am in the 5 square meters area, you know? Use the "fly mode" or joystick? But what's the point?

Getting an Oculus Rift. I will use an R9 295x2 machine. I will be able to generate crazy stuff and walk around in my game. I will get that hand and arm tracking thing as well. I will make it possible to play the game like that.

Hah.. I've actually been in that room for some seminars before. And I always hoped to meet Brady when he comes to Germany and then I see this and I'm not in Stuttgart at the time..

This reminds me of what playstation set up like 6 years ago but this is not implemented well at all. Sorry but head mount displays are a clear winner. Tripping over stuff isn't really an issue anymore and AR is going to solve everything. I couldn't even imagine how expensive this would be to do 3 1080p projectors let alone the screens, controllers, pc hardware...

This is awesome.

Why make the walls displays? Why not use the same technology they are using for positioning, and use something like the Oculus Rift for a display? Like, strap the display itself to the user's eyes? The elaborate projector room seems unnecessary in this context.

that looks so awesome

A new way to do power point presentations

omg, this guy looks like Serj Tankian!:)

Can it run Half Life: Alyx tho?

VR & OCULUS are just stepping stones like google; great explanation. Cave is not the end story unless u are in star trek; bit like all on the shoulder on giants! Cool exp and well done explanation.

I do wish you wouldn't put a teaser at the front - it means watching the same thing twice in a space of five minutes. Otherwise congratulations on filming under tricky circumstances.

the flickering makes me feel sick great video though

Hmmm..... So it works just like the Amazon phone? On another note, It reminds me of Bradbury's "The Veldt".

we also have such a vr cave at the university of bielefeld in germany =D

would have been awesome if u recorded this with a 3D camera hooked up to the system, youtube does support 3D

It is really cool. but headmounted displays are a much easier way to do these things no?

very nice.. goodluck with the project. .

Dat rolling shutter tho.

So they plan on having that room with unity 3D support? Good luck finding a game for that, considering they are the only ones with that set-up! Haha

I wanna see you do this with a console :D. Would've been funny if he said 'yeah we have this whole system running on 11 PS3s downstairs'.

that's a holodeck 1.0! all it needs is some simulation involving klingons.

Read about the ‘Making of’ of this video, from the point of view of the protagonist, in the Fraunhofer IAO scientists’ blog: blog.iao.fraunhofer.de/home/archives/2679.html

This is so sick!!!

Neat! I always thought of a VR cave as being a hypotheical psychological issue. This is cerainly beter than that would be.

The one at monash university is amazing.

is it possible that you make a video about the software being used to run this project?

If you have problems with people scratching your screen, why don't you just use projectors instead of expensive displays?

2:17 Ubuntu Unity Desktop?

It has been more than a year since this video. How is the Unity integration going on, can you give any link of reference, please? Thanks in advance :)

CAVEs are cool, but will quickly be displaced by vastly cheaper HMDs in the near future. HMDs require orders of magnitude less power, and only one powerful computer to drive them. Display is basically a solved problem as far as viable 1st generation consumer VR is concerned, the remaining hard problems are tracking and input.

Sounds like they need a couple of borderless OLED to cut down on the power bill.

I get that this is a very advanced system, but do you really need that many computers? My PC could run a game at 4k, and it's not even _that_ powerful, I can't imagine what makes this setup so complicated to render.

Nice video. I have small question: do you know what graphics cards they are using there?

Maybe one day we will be able to buy screens that are installed like wallpaper.

Nobody thought to set the shutter to a multiple of 60?

So if we try to classify things, would it be like Non - immersed (Google Street View - Wii - Kinect - Myo - etc) Semi - immersed (Cave - Big Screens with LCS - etc) Fully immersed (HMDs - Oculus - Vice etc) ?

very nice but has any one seen Jeri EllsworthTechnical Illusions castar?.

One day we'll have that holo-deck. Here's hoping.

Project Morpheus for my ps4 will have to do, until i have 1.2 million Euros ;P or this comes down in the 200-350 Euro price range.

Segway Simulator 2016 confirmed.

This oddly reminds me of Plato's allegory of the cave

amazing!

Wouldn't have be better if you guys used a hemispherical dome and some spherical mirrors? There are some cool setups that requite only one projector to cover almost half a circle: www.blender3darchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/blender3d-dome-projection-architecture-visualization.jpg