The Oculus Shift
The scenes are from movies like "Love"(2011), which I found to be incredible, for something that was supposed to be a short film for a music album release. Also featured are scenes from the movie "Gravity", which has been described as a movie "made of the Oculus Rift" with it's incredible depiction of space walking in orbit around our planet Tellus, aka Earth. Another set of scenes are from the cult film "Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element", both science fiction worlds fans will mention as places they would love to see.
I see now that I could have featured scenes from "Avatar" as well, but I'm sure someone is working on something in that direction anyway. Perhaps even James Cameron? At least he knows about the Oculus Rift according to a Reddit Ask Me Anything Session: "I personally would be very interested to find a way to incorporate VR and a narrative-filmmaking experience""I'm interested in it,(Oculus Rift)" Cameron said. "I'm meant to see it some time in the next month or so, but I've been familiar with VR since its inception. In fact, virtual reality is a way of describing the way we work on Avatar, we work in a virtual workspace all day long. We use a 'virtual camera' which is how I create all the shots that are CG in the film, a window into a virtual reality that completely surrounds me."
http://mashable.com/2014/04/12/3d-movie-pioneer-james-cameron-talks-oculus-rift-filmmaking/
So it's not just geeky gamers that has their eyes on the possible virtual revolution. Which is a good thing.
Keeping up with all the fuzz about the virtual revolution has got me thinking lately. I have mentioned that I am currently working on a science fiction graphic novel. But it hit me not long ago that I can incorporate the Oculus Rift to present my first science fiction piece in addition to the graphic novel. The great thing about it is that my graphic novel serves as a story board to a potential Oculus Rift experience.
I still have few ideas on how to make this happen, but I am looking for options and different procedures. What is great is that high quality game engines are being released left and right these days at an affordable price. One in particular has me interested, the Unreal Engine which has built-in Oculus Rift support, and after what I've seen, is not incredibly too advanced to learn for a non-programmer like myself.
My idea is basically, I'm making a graphic novel. Full colors, big fat intriguing story on high quality paper- graphic novel. What's so special about that? A lot of people are doing that. I can't even guarantee that it's a particularly good story. All I know is that I have a story to tell, and it has a universe that is too vast to wait until someone has the same idea or it becomes reality through time.
It is a science fiction story in the "not too distant future"-category. Judging by my own observations, we are living in an incredible time where scientific and technological advances are happening every day. So I need to get my ideas out before they catch up to me. Many science fiction writers didn't even expect virtual reality to become actual reality in their own lifetimes, yet here we are.
The idea to incorporate the Oculus Rift into the same project, came when, believe it or not, a fly landed on my hand whilst sketching a frame for the graphic novel. "A fly?", I thought. I knew it was something about flies and perspective. Yes, a "fly on the wall"-perspective! How you write something as a narrator as if you are as invisible as a fly on the wall. Much like graphic novels, where you see a frame from a character's life or an event. But it would have to be a fly with super powers, like mind reading powers and the power to slow down time in those climactic moments.
Inspired by a fly.
And then it hit me. What if I was the fly on the wall? And saw everything from the perspective of a fly? I could be using the Oculus Rift in a game engine to move around a scene as the story takes place? Like my graphic novel story! The fly's super powers could be gameplay-mechanics, which let's a player take control of the camera and see the action take place from any angle they want.
But this would mean that the main character is the fly, and not the people in the graphic novel, or "virtual novel"? After a google image search I found that most flies up close are pretty discusting. But when I see them in real life, I can totally call them cute. So we have a "cute" main character which is cursed to watch the story of this novel take place. What about gameplay mechanics? Can the fly affect the story in any way? Does the fly have to evade dangers like other insects, spider webs, fly swatters?
But this would mean that the main character is the fly, and not the people in the graphic novel, or "virtual novel"? After a google image search I found that most flies up close are pretty discusting. But when I see them in real life, I can totally call them cute. So we have a "cute" main character which is cursed to watch the story of this novel take place. What about gameplay mechanics? Can the fly affect the story in any way? Does the fly have to evade dangers like other insects, spider webs, fly swatters?
But why does this fly have super powers? For what purpose other than just being able to do it for narrator's sake? What if this fly is actually a human being, sent into the memories of someone in the shape of a fly in order to not cause brain trauma or something similar? It's starting to make sense now.
"The third-person modes are usually categorized along two axes. The first is the subjectivity/objectivity axis, with "subjective" narration describing one or more character's feelings and thoughts, and "objective" narration not describing the feelings or thoughts of any characters. The second axis is the omniscient/limited axis, a distinction that refers to the knowledge available to the narrator. An omniscient narrator has knowledge of all times, people, places, and events, including all characters' thoughts; a limited narrator, in contrast, may know absolutely everything about a single character and every piece of knowledge in that character's mind, but the narrator's knowledge is "limited" to that character—that is, the narrator cannot describe things unknown to the focal character."
In conclusion:
You are a specially trained super soldier, sent into a virtual simulation of someone elses' memories in order to extract intelligence. You can't remember who are, which is explained during a briefing before your first mission, as a side-effect of being reconfigured to fit the physical appearance of a fly inside someone's memory. Because an addition of a real human into memories in previous trials have proved unsuccessful with horrible results. You are told this is a secret mission, and must avoid raising suspicion at all costs. You will have access to the subject's subconscious memory as well, which is great for gathering intelligence, but can also be extremely dangerous.
"The third-person modes are usually categorized along two axes. The first is the subjectivity/objectivity axis, with "subjective" narration describing one or more character's feelings and thoughts, and "objective" narration not describing the feelings or thoughts of any characters. The second axis is the omniscient/limited axis, a distinction that refers to the knowledge available to the narrator. An omniscient narrator has knowledge of all times, people, places, and events, including all characters' thoughts; a limited narrator, in contrast, may know absolutely everything about a single character and every piece of knowledge in that character's mind, but the narrator's knowledge is "limited" to that character—that is, the narrator cannot describe things unknown to the focal character."
In conclusion:
You are a specially trained super soldier, sent into a virtual simulation of someone elses' memories in order to extract intelligence. You can't remember who are, which is explained during a briefing before your first mission, as a side-effect of being reconfigured to fit the physical appearance of a fly inside someone's memory. Because an addition of a real human into memories in previous trials have proved unsuccessful with horrible results. You are told this is a secret mission, and must avoid raising suspicion at all costs. You will have access to the subject's subconscious memory as well, which is great for gathering intelligence, but can also be extremely dangerous.
The fly perspective will be separate from the graphic novel, with extra content and exclusive story-lines. The graphic novel will take liberties to present scenes in angles that fits a comic book's frames. While in the Virtual Novel you will have the power to explore the world.
In the story I will touch upon subjects like transhumanism, digital culture and advances in technology and science, with possible consequences they may bring. The graphic novel time-line starts around the birth of Artificial Intelligence, which is between 30-50 years in the future according to my story. This will be an experience for adults only, no PG-13 bullshit.
Specific details about the project will have to wait, because it would be counter-productive to reveal the entire experience before it's even been made. But I can say without a doubt, I will spent all my available time on this project, as I already am.
In the story I will touch upon subjects like transhumanism, digital culture and advances in technology and science, with possible consequences they may bring. The graphic novel time-line starts around the birth of Artificial Intelligence, which is between 30-50 years in the future according to my story. This will be an experience for adults only, no PG-13 bullshit.
Specific details about the project will have to wait, because it would be counter-productive to reveal the entire experience before it's even been made. But I can say without a doubt, I will spent all my available time on this project, as I already am.
This has the potential to be a really fun project. Now that I've set some specific goals for myself, I can see it becoming a reality. As long as Bianca doesn't have anything to say about it.
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