WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.240 Virtual reality enjoyed hype levels over 9,000! 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. 00:00:10.680 --> 00:00:15.160 And justifiably so, a lot of people had understandable misgivings 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:19.680 about things like comfort, cables, and the cost of entry. 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:24.240 If only there was a technology that would make it possible to create a cheap, 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:30.440 easy, and wireless platform that provides all the benefits of enthusiast-grade VR 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:33.680 without the drawbacks. Well, that is exactly what 00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:37.640 Markerless Inside Out Tracking promises to provide. 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:41.760 Now, although it's true that devices like the Windows Mixed Reality headsets 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:47.440 and Lenovo's Mirage Solo have used Markerless Inside Out Tracking for a while, 00:00:47.440 --> 00:00:50.960 they've never achieved the status of the more premium offerings 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:54.760 from companies like HTC, Oculus, or Sony. 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:58.840 Fortunately, for VR lovers, things are changing as late-model headsets 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:03.160 with this technology, like the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, 00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:09.280 have almost completely closed the gap, and HTC revealed at CES this year 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:15.360 that the Vive Cosmos will be taking advantage of Markerless Inside Out Tracking as well. 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:19.080 So it's safe to say then that the heavyweights have entered the ring. 00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:24.360 But what exactly is Inside Out Tracking, and specifically Markerless Inside Out Tracking, 00:01:24.440 --> 00:01:28.800 and why is everybody jumping on the bandwagon? Well, put simply, Inside Out Tracking 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. 00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:38.600 Up until recently, the biggest six degrees of freedom VR platforms, 00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:44.240 the Rift and the PSVR, have been using either Inside Out Tracking with Markers 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:47.720 or even the opposite approach outside in tracking, 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:53.160 which uses external sensors or cameras to determine where the headset is located. 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:56.560 And while these methods are very accurate 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.680 and some with very minimal latency, they're not without problems. 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, 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, 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 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. 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:25.840 You gotta push away your furniture, mount your sensors, define your play space, 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.200 and finally step into the virtual world. 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:32.340 But even if you have plenty of space and you don't mind the setup time, 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:39.320 you will still need external sensors and either a PlayStation 4 or a VR-capable PC, 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 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:46.840 has all of the required sensors embedded 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:52.120 within the headset itself, allowing the HMD to track its own position, 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.200 resulting in a simpler, quicker, and generally cheaper way to get immersed in VR. 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:02.140 So it sounds great, right? But how does all this Inside Out trickery work? 00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:05.940 The answer, of course, is SLAM tech. 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, 00:03:13.320 --> 00:03:17.560 which describes the problem that the head-mounted display has to solve. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.560 That is, creating and constantly updating 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:25.600 a map of the environment that it's in while simultaneously tracking its own location 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:30.400 within that map. It does this by using a combination of physical sensors, 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:34.200 like cameras, accelerometers, and gyroscopes 00:03:34.200 --> 00:03:37.940 to continuously detect information about itself 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:42.440 and the world around it. This data is then passed over to the software 00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:47.960 that's responsible for processing it and generating a 3D mapping of the environment. 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:52.120 Now, while solutions to SLAM were originally developed for other applications, 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:57.680 like robotics and self-driving cars, it's now being used for hardcore VR gaming. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:01.000 Like, who cares about the advancements of collective human knowledge when you could be playing? 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.960 Super hot, super hot. 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:09.080 But it's no guarantee that super hot or any VR experience for that matter 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:12.880 will be better with Inside Out tracking. Like I said before, 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 00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:22.040 that has all or almost all of the benefits 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:27.160 of an enthusiast-grade experience. The issue here is that in order to make it wireless, 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 00:04:33.320 --> 00:04:37.640 or even an ordinary PS4 gamer, VR games running on mobile hardware 00:04:37.640 --> 00:04:40.680 is gonna be a step down for both of you 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:46.480 in terms of both fidelity and immersion. Plus, both the Mirage Solo and Oculus Quest 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:49.760 feature piddly refresh rates in the mid-70 Hertz 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:52.800 with the Rift S at 80 Hertz, the original Vive at 90, 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.160 and the Valve Index at a whopping 120 Hertz 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:01.080 or even 144 in its experimental mode. So if you suffer from simulation sickness 00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:04.520 at reduced refresh rates, you might not wanna buy into the marker list 00:05:04.520 --> 00:05:09.880 inside out hype just yet. Making matters worse, occlusion is still a problem 00:05:09.880 --> 00:05:13.920 when it comes to Inside Out tracking. The difference here is that instead of stuff 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.560 getting between the sensors and the headset, 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:21.680 Inside Out occlusion happens when the sensors on the HMD get blocked. 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 00:05:25.640 --> 00:05:30.200 right up against your headset. Or if you simply look away from the controllers 00:05:30.200 --> 00:05:33.760 or put them behind you to grab an arrow out of your quiver, 00:05:33.760 --> 00:05:37.200 the controller will try to continue tracking 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:41.760 based on their last known position, but it might be with lower resolution data. 00:05:41.760 --> 00:05:46.040 So the longer the disruption, the more out of sync with reality things can become. 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:52.080 Plus, the image processing that's done on captured footage while impressive isn't perfect. 00:05:52.080 --> 00:05:55.160 And Inside Out tracking doesn't really work outdoors 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.800 because sunlight can interfere with the sensors. These issues though, 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.840 do not amount to a death sentence for Inside Out tracking. 00:06:01.840 --> 00:06:06.280 As processing power, sensor performance, and slam tech 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. 00:06:11.320 --> 00:06:16.160 And there's also room for software to make more efficient use of the processing power 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:20.360 that we have using still in development techniques like foveated rendering 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.540 to get heavier games running on lighter hardware. 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:27.320 So with all that in mind, there is still absolutely hope for VR 00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:31.440 to go truly mainstream once they make headsets 00:06:31.440 --> 00:06:36.020 that don't make you look like an idiot. So thanks for watching guys. Like, dislike, check out our other videos 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:37.520 and don't forget to subscribe.