The Holy Grail of immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences for almost all technology geeks is, of course, the Holodeck from Star Trek. Ever since commercial VR become a reality, that has been the ideal for many. Though the realisation of that goal may still be some distance away, Nvidia are taking the first steps in that direction with Project Holodeck.
During the keynote presentation by Jensen Huang, a demonstration was shown featuring what has been accomplished so far with Nvidia’s Holodeck. The demonstration featured Swedish supercar maker Christian Koenigsegg and some of his staff, who appeared against a green line grid as futuristic robot-like figures before the scene transformed into a white space, and the latest Koenigsegg hypercar appeared.
The car was rendered in real time, with no post-processing as realistic 3D VR. One member of staff climbs into the car, her avatar able to reach out and grab the steering wheel as though it were a real object. The car itself is a hybrid that has no gears and uses a direct drive system instead of traditional gearing to reach an impressive top speed of 250 mph.
Huang asks if he can see all the different parts of the car, pointing out that the car is not just a shell; it uses the full set of blueprints to render even the smallest nut and bolt in full detail. To demonstrate this fact, the car promptly disassembled itself into many thousands of individual car parts, all neatly laid out against the white background. Just as quickly, it reassembled itself back into the $1.9 million (USD) hybrid hypercar, rendered in almost flawless detail.
The Holodeck application is designed to be used to enable collaboration between parties who may be in disparate parts of the world who can, in real time, interact with realistic, physics-based models. Early access for the product is expected in September of 2017.
VRFocus will bring you further news on Project Holodeck and other Nvidia VR projects when it becomes available.
