It seems like everyone is jumping on the VR bandwagon these days. FOVE(which stands for Fovea of the eye, the part of the eye with the highest visual acuity, and Field of View), however, maybe the most interesting entry into the VR arms race since Oculus Rift.
You see, one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to virtual reality is how you control it. Some VR developers are going in the direction of special gloves and treadmills, expensive stuff that takes up a lot of space.
FOVE has taken the view that if you need to use a part of your body to control the action, it might as well be one already inside the visor.
FOVE is certainly promising a lot. Eye tracking control doesn’t just promise faster, more precise control in games. Because you won’t be physically moving about very much, players will apparently not suffer much VR nausea. This is problem with current gen VR. Because the player’s body movements aren’t in sync with what they are seeing, many testers report nausea. FOVE claims that this is less of an issue with their gear. Other boasts they’re making include characters that react to your expressions and VR simulations of things you’re trying to learn. They also claim that their SDK can convert content made with Unity, Unreal Engine and Cryengine. They promise that devloping games for it will be very simple.
Of course, given some of the testimonies supporting FOVE, you might worry less about them living up to their boasts. Also, it’s not like the company is staffed with game industry newcomers.The CEO and co-founder is Yuka Kojima; former Sony game producer. She’s worked on games for the PS3, the PSP, the VITA and PlayStation Move.
With such exciting developments on the VR front, we definitely live in interesting times. Will FOVE live up to the hype? Only time will tell.