Virtual reality's fragile magic ingredient - CNET

Jason Rubin, head of Oculus Story Studio, points to demos in which people are asked to step into what looks like a yawning abyss. "I could reach out and grab the hand of somebody I know well," Rubin said, "holding their hand in the real world -- and they won't do it. And you know you have them. That's presence."

Another VR expert, Caecilia Charbonnier, who is working on experimental multiuser VR, outlined her "four pillars of presence".

The illusion of being in a stable space
That is, being able to see the world around you. Today's headsets and displays have that cracked.

The illusion of self-embodiment
This involves tracking the movements of your body and playing them back within the virtual world so you can see yourself in the virtual space when you have the helmet on. We're in the early stages of this with, for example, Oculus Touch controllers you hold in your hands.

The illusion of physical interaction
This involves holding physical props in your hands in the real world and seeing them interact with the virtual space. Charbonnier's team has developed a simple stick you hold that looks like something different in the virtual world, such as a torch you can use to light your way.

The illusion of social collaboration
This involves interacting with other headset-wearers in the virtual world. It's real cutting-edge stuff, but Charbonnier's team is using motion tracking to let two people interact in the same space. For example, if one person walks off with the torch, the environment goes dark for the other person. They can even throw physical props to each other.

In the video below, two users interact with each other in a multiuser demo.

A word in your ear

When it comes to presence, less is often more. "If you can whisper in somebody's ear, that's the most powerful form of presence I've ever had in VR," said Oculus' Rubin. A character is "in my personal space and it evokes a very powerful emotion."

Sound is also important to help you locate yourself in the virtual environment. In this video, the creators of "Collisions", the VR experience I watched, discuss using the Dolby Atmos sound-mixing system to help place you in the Australian Outback.

The fragility of presence

Paul Raphaël of Felix and Paul Studios compared presence with mindfulness, the concept of focusing on the present moment. "We're rarely actually present in the real world," he said. "One of the beauties of VR is that it takes someone who's never even thought about meditating and almost by default puts them in a meditating state...That's something people train their whole lives to accomplish."

But as important as presence is in producing a successful VR experience, it's also fragile, Raphaël said. "It's like a small bird you can very easily kill," he said.

Mike Woods, formerly of noted special effects company Framestore and later a co-founder of VR company White Rabbit, laid out some of the many difficulties of evoking presence.

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"Having humans close to you, talking to you, we tried every which way to get that right," Woods said. "There are so many things that we don't realise we're perceiving when we're having a conversation with someone. If I'm talking to you, your face and all the muscles in your face change, which is something we inherently understand. It's really hard to get that right."

Conversely, inducing a sense of presence too successfully can create a new set of problems. "I've done some of those demos with the jump scares or the horror themes that are really terrifying," said YouTube star Matthew Patrick (better known as MatPat), who is now creating VR experiences. "It feels like that murderer is coming at you or that ghost is jumping out right in your face, and if you're someone with a bad heart, that poses a very significant threat."