When watching sports in virtual reality, it’s best to remind yourself that TV wasn’t born in a day. Early television was mostly radio with pictures. It took years - even decades - for producers to figure out the right camera angles, graphics and instant replays to deliver.
Sports is going through a similar transformation. VR holds the promise of putting fans right in the middle of the sporting action - on the 50-yard line, say, or in a ringside seat, or standing behind the catcher as the umpire calls strikes.
But today’s VR sports have an empty and distant feel to them. Watching through a headset sometimes feels like being there in the stadium ... by yourself, absent cheering fans, hot dogs and beer. And it doesn’t get you close enough to the action to compensate.
For now, the zoom lenses of television cameras do a much better job of showing a pitcher’s intensity or a free-throw shooter’s concentration.
Yet Intel, Next VR and other companies are working to bring a variety of sports - boxing, golf, soccer, you name it - to VR. Major League Baseball has delivered a free game in VR every Tuesday (subject to blackouts of hometown teams); next week, it’s the Colorado Rockies playing the Giants in San Francisco.
To enjoy it, it’s best to think about what VR could be, rather than what it is now.
THE TROUBLE WITH VR
Start with some of the weird artifacts of VR. Many sporting productions don’t actually give you a full 360-degree view, one of the main attractions of the medium. Instead, they often black out what’s behind you. The reasoning is obvious - you’re focused on the game and not other fans - but even television has cameras pointed at the stands.
This story is from the September 23,2017 edition of Techlife News.
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This story is from the September 23,2017 edition of Techlife News.
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