While the Omni Rift was an impressive piece of kit (by all accounts, I've not tried one myself) when it was first unveiled, but the obvious limitations with the tech were there. You're still sat down holding a controller. But what if you could wander around and remain in one spot, whilst moving around in-game. What if you do that in your living-room, affordably? That's the plan behind the Omni - an omni-directional treadmill accessory.
We've seen these sort of things before, but they were grand experiments, not really representative of home gaming, but this, this is something we could all imagine slotting in a space somewhere in our lounge. Apparently it'll fold away in a simple fashion too, making storage easy.
In the released videos so far, we see a man combining the Omni with an Occulus Rift headset and running around gunning down enemies in Team Fortress 2. Another is seen strolling through Skyrim.
Certain in-game features would still require a controller, but throw in some Kinect support (which is already there) and we're starting to see some pretty impressive Virtual Reality gaming in the next year or so.
But think beyond gaming. Imagine going for a jog around Far Cry 3's island without the enemies present? Or walking through the beautiful story of Dear Esther with a friend on the other side of the world - or just sit by the sea and have a virtual reality chat?
Office meetings could be conducted this way. Why not?
We're really close to this becoming a reality and I couldn't be more excited. Except maybe about Monster Hunter Online, that looks amazing.
