| Hey there -- Full disclosure, I'm working with the company right now. I made the Unity Asset Tutorial Video as well as the rhythm game Rhythm Reach (and am currently taking a break from prepping for our launch party). Also, take what I'm going to say w/ a grain of salt as I've been working in Volumetrics on and off for nearly 10 years with my personal project Lumarca: http://www.albert-hwang.com/lumarca/ -- so I've been drinking the Koolaid for a while now... Volumetric Tech is a completely different medium, full of it's pros and cons. Many of the things people are bringing up in this thread are totally true and often infuriating when you start working in this space. You get x-ray vision (for better or for worse). It's impossible to meaningfully document (video always smashes it back into 2d). A focus on voxels make traditionally 2d content a weird problem (like text). And, to be sure, supportive tech for this isn't nearly as advanced as the stuff supporting VR. In terms of engineering, this creates a tough balancing act between price, visual fidelity, and scalability. So -- why do it? I do it because it's the only form of digital 3d media that exhibits passive physical presence. It's viscerally present in a way that no other digital media is. When people see a truly volumetric display for the first time (in person), 90% of the time they're totally floored. This is true even of my other volumetric display that had much much worse visual fidelity. The content is "worldlocked" in a very real way. You also bring up the very real problem of practical applications. We're also exploring these questions (medical visualization w/ DICOM integration, songrams, games?). While this display is far from perfect, we're hoping that the low barrier to entry (a little $ + Unity) + some community presence, we'll make the environment friendlier for finding those solutions. Anyhow, if you (or anybody on this thread) visits the NYC area, please drop us a note to come by to see it for yourself in person! |