As VR hardware becomes more affordable, sleeker and less bulky, it’s increasingly being used beyond gaming and entertainment. It’s now common to see businesses leveraging the technology for everything from prototyping and design, to customer service, employee training, and even immersive simulations for risk mitigation.
Increasingly, VR is a multisensory experience with the inclusion of haptic feedback, which allows users to feel touch, pressure and movement in virtual environments. This can be particularly valuable in industries like medical and training, as it can enhance immersion by allowing users to interact with virtual objects and environments in ways that are more realistic.
VR is also increasingly being used as a storytelling tool, with filmmakers and artists using it to create hyper-real experiences that take viewers inside the narrative rather than merely watching from a distance. This allows them to explore characters and settings more fully than traditional film or video games, and create immersive worlds that feel as real as the physical ones we inhabit.
A further trend we’re seeing in 2024 is the emergence of generative AI, which is enabling developers to build VR environments, objects and scenes faster than ever before. This is allowing creators to experiment with dynamic, adaptive virtual worlds that evolve in response to user behavior, and creating avatars and NPCs that are more lifelike, with natural language capabilities that enable them to communicate with users in an empathetic way. This can make virtual experiences more engaging, and enhance the emotional connection that users have with the content.
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