The world of gaming is never slow to catch onto new trends, particularly if they involve technology. Creating an exciting and novel experience for their customers is at the top of the priorities list for most gaming companies and tech is a great way to help them achieve it. There are some technologies that we take for granted every day in gaming, but there’s a whole lot of science that goes into helping them to work. We’re going to take a look at some of the tech that’s so forward-thinking and futuristic, that it wouldn’t look out of place in a Star Wars film.
Live Streaming
Holograms were a mainstay of Star Wars communication. People would beam up into the room as a hologram and they’d be able to converse with the others as though they were actually there. At the time the films were released, this seemed totally wild, but nowadays it’s almost becoming commonplace. If you want an example of an actual Hologram, then Kanye West created one for Kim Kardashian-West of her father Robert Kardashian to celebrate her 40th birthday. However, if you’d like an example of something perhaps even more impressive than the answer lies in the casino sector. One of the most exciting developments in the world of casino gaming is online live casinos. This guide by Vegas Slots Online explains exactly what they are, as well as where it’s possible to play at one. Basically, they use live streaming technology to show a real-life croupier on the computer screen of anybody playing. Not only this, but players can interact with the croupier using the user interface, making this one step more realistic than the Star Wars holograms.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is something that all kinds of films have been imagining for decades, but it was not until surprisingly recently that this technology became available in real life. Augmented reality differs from virtual reality as it changes your perception of what’s actually there without totally removing the real world. A good example of a game that offers this is Pokémon Go. This game makes augmented reality a simple concept to understand as the way it uses it is brilliantly straightforward. To play the game, you need to download the app to your smartphone and then walk around your neighborhood. The phone will buzz as you approach a Pokémon, prompting you to open your phone and look at the screen. On the screen, you’ll see exactly what you would see if you were using the camera function, the world around you. However, there’s one noticeable difference, in the middle of that camera screen there’s a Pokémon. This method of superimposing a Pokémon onto a phone screen alters reality and makes it appear as though the Pokémon exists behind the camera, as well as on the screen. There are plenty of games that are taking a more in-depth approach to augmented reality, but Pokémon Go deserves commending for its ingeniously simple and brilliantly accessible take on it.
Multi-Sensory Gaming
Following on from augmented reality, there are some game developers that have taken it even further than just altering your sight. There are some gaming experiences that work with your five senses to allow you to have a completely immersive multi-sensory gaming experience. Sounds are a simple gaming tool to implement and games with sound effects have been around for decades, whether sound effects that match your movement or ambient sound to set the scene, your hearing is a sense that can’t be ignored. There’s more than this though, some games also allow you to feel the movement that you create during your gaming experience. This can range from a simple movement registering on your game controller as a vibration, to a super high-tech gaming room with moveable floor pads. As well as this, some of these specialist gaming rooms also release smells as you game, evoking the idea of being by the ocean, or even in a swamp with a selection of pre-selected scents. A totally absorbing experience like this isn’t the kind of gaming room that everybody could afford right now, but it might be as little as a decade before the technology for this becomes more widely available.