1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,240 Virtual reality enjoyed hype levels over 9,000! 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:10,680 Just a few short years ago only, to have a lot of the fanfare die down shortly thereafter. 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:15,160 And justifiably so, a lot of people had understandable misgivings 4 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:19,680 about things like comfort, cables, and the cost of entry. 5 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,240 If only there was a technology that would make it possible to create a cheap, 6 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:30,440 easy, and wireless platform that provides all the benefits of enthusiast-grade VR 7 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,680 without the drawbacks. Well, that is exactly what 8 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:37,640 Markerless Inside Out Tracking promises to provide. 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,760 Now, although it's true that devices like the Windows Mixed Reality headsets 10 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:47,440 and Lenovo's Mirage Solo have used Markerless Inside Out Tracking for a while, 11 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,960 they've never achieved the status of the more premium offerings 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,760 from companies like HTC, Oculus, or Sony. 13 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,840 Fortunately, for VR lovers, things are changing as late-model headsets 14 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:03,160 with this technology, like the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, 15 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:09,280 have almost completely closed the gap, and HTC revealed at CES this year 16 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:15,360 that the Vive Cosmos will be taking advantage of Markerless Inside Out Tracking as well. 17 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,080 So it's safe to say then that the heavyweights have entered the ring. 18 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:24,360 But what exactly is Inside Out Tracking, and specifically Markerless Inside Out Tracking, 19 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:28,800 and why is everybody jumping on the bandwagon? Well, put simply, Inside Out Tracking 20 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:34,520 is a way to track the position of a head-mounted display or HMD in three-dimensional space. 21 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:38,600 Up until recently, the biggest six degrees of freedom VR platforms, 22 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:44,240 the Rift and the PSVR, have been using either Inside Out Tracking with Markers 23 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,720 or even the opposite approach outside in tracking, 24 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:53,160 which uses external sensors or cameras to determine where the headset is located. 25 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,560 And while these methods are very accurate 26 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,680 and some with very minimal latency, they're not without problems. 27 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:06,720 So the sensor towers require a line of sight with the HMD and controllers at all times, 28 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:11,840 meaning that if you don't have a clear play space or you haven't set up the sensors properly, 29 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:17,800 they could get occluded and lose tracking. And what's more, setup can be a total hassle 30 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:22,200 if you don't have a dedicated VR area where you can just set it and forget it. 31 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,840 You gotta push away your furniture, mount your sensors, define your play space, 32 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:29,200 and finally step into the virtual world. 33 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,340 But even if you have plenty of space and you don't mind the setup time, 34 00:02:32,340 --> 00:02:39,320 you will still need external sensors and either a PlayStation 4 or a VR-capable PC, 35 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:43,680 each of which drive up the cost of entry. Markerless Inside Out Tracking on the other hand 36 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,840 has all of the required sensors embedded 37 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:52,120 within the headset itself, allowing the HMD to track its own position, 38 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:57,200 resulting in a simpler, quicker, and generally cheaper way to get immersed in VR. 39 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:02,140 So it sounds great, right? But how does all this Inside Out trickery work? 40 00:03:02,140 --> 00:03:05,940 The answer, of course, is SLAM tech. 41 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:13,320 I'm serious, actually. It's called SLAM technology. You see, SLAM stands for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, 42 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:17,560 which describes the problem that the head-mounted display has to solve. 43 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,560 That is, creating and constantly updating 44 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,600 a map of the environment that it's in while simultaneously tracking its own location 45 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:30,400 within that map. It does this by using a combination of physical sensors, 46 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,200 like cameras, accelerometers, and gyroscopes 47 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:37,940 to continuously detect information about itself 48 00:03:37,940 --> 00:03:42,440 and the world around it. This data is then passed over to the software 49 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:47,960 that's responsible for processing it and generating a 3D mapping of the environment. 50 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:52,120 Now, while solutions to SLAM were originally developed for other applications, 51 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:57,680 like robotics and self-driving cars, it's now being used for hardcore VR gaming. 52 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,000 Like, who cares about the advancements of collective human knowledge when you could be playing? 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,960 Super hot, super hot. 54 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:09,080 But it's no guarantee that super hot or any VR experience for that matter 55 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,880 will be better with Inside Out tracking. Like I said before, 56 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:18,880 the reason that anyone would care about all of this at all is if they want a cheap, easy, and wireless VR platform 57 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,040 that has all or almost all of the benefits 58 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:27,160 of an enthusiast-grade experience. The issue here is that in order to make it wireless, 59 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:33,320 everything has to run on mobile hardware. So if you're a member of the glorious PC gaming master race 60 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,640 or even an ordinary PS4 gamer, VR games running on mobile hardware 61 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,680 is gonna be a step down for both of you 62 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:46,480 in terms of both fidelity and immersion. Plus, both the Mirage Solo and Oculus Quest 63 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,760 feature piddly refresh rates in the mid-70 Hertz 64 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,800 with the Rift S at 80 Hertz, the original Vive at 90, 65 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,160 and the Valve Index at a whopping 120 Hertz 66 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:01,080 or even 144 in its experimental mode. So if you suffer from simulation sickness 67 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,520 at reduced refresh rates, you might not wanna buy into the marker list 68 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:09,880 inside out hype just yet. Making matters worse, occlusion is still a problem 69 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,920 when it comes to Inside Out tracking. The difference here is that instead of stuff 70 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,560 getting between the sensors and the headset, 71 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:21,680 Inside Out occlusion happens when the sensors on the HMD get blocked. 72 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,640 For example, you might be aiming down the sights of a rifle with one of your hands 73 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:30,200 right up against your headset. Or if you simply look away from the controllers 74 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:33,760 or put them behind you to grab an arrow out of your quiver, 75 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:37,200 the controller will try to continue tracking 76 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,760 based on their last known position, but it might be with lower resolution data. 77 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,040 So the longer the disruption, the more out of sync with reality things can become. 78 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:52,080 Plus, the image processing that's done on captured footage while impressive isn't perfect. 79 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:55,160 And Inside Out tracking doesn't really work outdoors 80 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,800 because sunlight can interfere with the sensors. These issues though, 81 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,840 do not amount to a death sentence for Inside Out tracking. 82 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:06,280 As processing power, sensor performance, and slam tech 83 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:11,320 continue to improve, we'll see a lot of these early problems become less and less pervasive. 84 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:16,160 And there's also room for software to make more efficient use of the processing power 85 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,360 that we have using still in development techniques like foveated rendering 86 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,540 to get heavier games running on lighter hardware. 87 00:06:23,540 --> 00:06:27,320 So with all that in mind, there is still absolutely hope for VR 88 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:31,440 to go truly mainstream once they make headsets 89 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:36,020 that don't make you look like an idiot. So thanks for watching guys. 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