Ever wondered what all those techie words and acronyms actual mean?... well you're in the right place to find out! We have an extensive list of the most common tech words used in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
Haptic technology creates the sensation of touch as you interact with and control objects in VR, whether by applying force, vibrating, or inducing motion.
Having spatial awareness means that you are aware of your position relative to your surroundings.
Using motion sickness to describe the unfortunately common wooziness that can come with playing VR is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s only caused by the perception of movement. More accurately, VR sickness can occur when the refresh rate on your display is too low, or when the movement you’re seeing through your headset doesn’t correspond to the movement that your inner ear is detecting. To take an extreme example: if you’re riding a roller coaster in VR, but are sitting still in real life, your inner ear will notice the discrepancy and may prompt some motion sickness.
This is a nifty feature introduced by the Oculus Rift S and Quest which lets you see a portion of the real world around you. It’s ideal for particularly hectic sessions; stopping you from blundering into your furniture or unsuspecting housemates. It can be triggered manually, or automatically when you step outside the bounds of your playing zone.
Positional tracking determines an object’s (ex. Your headset, or controllers) position in space. This bridges the divide between the real and the virtual, by allowing you to accurately interact with your digital environment. One example is Valve’s aptly-named Lighthouse, which emits light that is then “read” by one of the headset’s many photosensors. How long this light takes to reach the photosensors, as well as which ones it hits, allows the headset to determine where it is in relation to the Lighthouse.