Virtuality (product)
[4] The image was viewed on a moveable CRT screen using shutter glasses, with head and hand tracking incorporating acoustic sensors to determine the user's position.
[5][6] Waldern subsequently formed W Industries to commercialise 3D visualisation technology together with colleagues Al Humrich, Richard Holmes and Terry Rowley.
[5] The Virtuality 1000SU VR system was launched in 1990 at the Computer Graphics ’90 exhibition held at Alexandra Palace in London.
To capitalise on this interest and determining that the largest market for the devices would be gaming, Virtuality produced an arcade variant of the 1000SU for public use called the 1000CS which was released in 1991.
The CS postfix referred to "cyberspace" branding which was consistent with language being used in popular media to describe VR environments at the time.
Virtuality did attempt to produce home VR systems but efforts were not successful and the company entered bankruptcy in 1997.
[11] The 1000 series headset used a pair of LCD screens supplied by Panasonic with a resolution of 372x250 that were derived from a camcorder accessory.
The screens were too heavy to be positioned directly in front of the user's eyes as the weight would unbalance the headset and drag it forwards.
[12] The 1000CS version featured 6dof AC magnetic tracking delivered by a Polhemus Fastrack unit embedded in the waist height ring that surrounded the player.
The SD version used a considerably lower cost DC magnetic tracking solution from Ascension that had the disadvantage of a shorter range.
A bar (resembling a car roll cage) was mounted over the player's head that contained the tracking unit and maintained close proximity to the headset.
Despite crude graphics, it offered what Computer Gaming World in 1992 described as "all the necessary hallmarks of a fully immersive system at what, to many, is a cheap price.
The graphics processors delivered around 200 MIPS and used a secondary card with a pair of Brooktree RAMDACs for analogue video output to the headset.
[41] The "Total recoil" version shipped with the game package "Quickshot Carnival" which featured clay shooting and other target practice.
This was a first-person shooting title where the player glides through various environments firing a machine gun at mecha style robots and other enemies.
