While the last three decades have provided gradual leaps in gaming technology, the next
10 years will bring an explosive shift in the way we play games.
Welcome to the SKILLED channel and today we're talking about the future of gaming technology.
Technology is advancing at a rate faster than it ever has before.
And we are on the cusp of changing the way we play games forever.
Many of the items on this list are things that you wouldn't expect at all, but will
actually have a huge impact on how we play games.
Some may honestly end up being a failure, but others we have very high hopes for and
are essential for the future.
So let's take a look at the top 10 gaming technologies for the future.
8K Full Ultra HD Gaming The world's first 8K television was unveiled
by Sharp at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2012.
8K Full Ultra HD screens may seem some way off, but the truth is this super high viewing
resolution is closer than you may think.
In terms of TV technology, 4K is starting to really take hold and is slowly encroaching
on the market share held by 1080p HDTV�s.
It is slow progress but through 2016 expect 4K TV�s to account for a large chunk of
the market, they had achieved 6% market penetration in 2014, a number that will grow this year
and take off in 2016.
Ok, 4K is not 8K, but that is the next step and TV manufacturers are already starting
to release their first 8K units; Samsung, LG, and Sony are notable examples.
With a resolution of 7680 � 4320, 8K Full Ultra HD is exactly 16 times the resolution
of 1080p, or what we call Full HD, but what does all this mean for gaming?
4K gaming is already widely available and PC gaming tends to follow the TV market, so
expect 4K to become more popular over the next two years and 8K to start spreading its
tentacles in the industry.
NVIDIA and AMD, the two largest CPU makers in gaming are already working on their 8K
ready chips and AMD�s chief scientist Richard Huddy explained just how good 8K gaming can
be: �If we get to a display resolution of about
8k horizontally and about 6k vertically then, for a player with 20/20 vision, they will
have something that is close to perfect for their visual system.�
Fiber Internet With the growing amount of media and the potential
for 4K and 8K resolutions, the bandwidth of your internet connection is becoming a crucial
part of your setup.
We've all heard of Fiber Internet, especially Google Fiber and Verizon FiOS.
It's gigabit download speeds.
That's speed so fast that downloading a file would be the same exact thing as copying a
file from one hard drive locally to another.
In fact, Gigabit internet would exceed the speed of most consumer hard drives.
Online gaming would be have almost no lag, no matter how many players are involved.
You could get your game updates almost instantly.
Cloud gaming would actually be practical and pretty much everything could be streamed wherever
and whenever.
And fiber optics isn't actually new technology, it was invented back in the 70s.
So why don't we have it yet?
In the state of California, with a population of over 6 million, only 15.7% of people have
access to fiber internet.
The entire country and even the entire world needs to be completely rewired for the new
wave of internet.
We're still using cable TV and phone lines from the 90s.
And most mainstream providers still refuse to adopt the fact that consumers want faster
internet and have more demanding needs these days.
This is one instance where the technology is ready, the consumers are ready, but it's
the gatekeepers who are slowing it down.
Self-Driving Cars What does an autonomous vehicle that drives
itself have to do with gaming?
Not a whole lot as a concept, but at the minimum a car that does not need your input gives
the passenger time for other things, such as gaming.
You thought gaming on the train while you commute was cool, how about doing it with
your feet up in your own car?
Not bad, right?
This idea is not actually that far off as self-driving cars are becoming less science
fiction and more reality by the year.
A trope of sci-fi media for decades it seems humans were destined to create autonomous
vehicles one day, and several companies have actually made huge strides to this reality.
Actually, self-driving cars exist and more importantly, they work.
At CES 2015 there were wide ranging predictions that a self-driving car would make it to market
within the next two to five years, which would mean between 2017 and 2020.
However, it is clear what the future holds, and who knows, one day you may be emerged
in a virtual reality world while your car drives you to work.
Virtual Reality Speaking of virtual reality, it is another
technology that has long been viewed as something we were destined to have.
Uses for VR are wide ranging, but gaming is an obvious way in which we can get the most
out of this growing new niche.
The leading name in virtual reality is Oculus Rift, a VR headset created by Oculus VR.
This product has been with us for a few years, but it will actually be available to the consumer
during the first quarter of 2016.
Rift connects to a PC running Microsoft�s Windows Platform and requires a fairly powerful
machine.
The PC in use has to be a true gaming rig and running high end hardware for processor
and GPU, allowing the top shelf specs of the Rift to do their thing.
The headset is equipped with two OLED panels with a resolution of 2160�1200 at 90Hz split
over dual displays . With a 90HZ global refresh rate the Rift does away with the motion blur
we associate with a traditional monitor.
A system dubbed Constellation reads the position of the users head with an infrared camera,
and controls with an Xbox One Wireless Gamepad.
The combination of head tracking, a headset that fills your vision space, and games programmed
specifically for it, creates an immersive experience that you can't get any where else.
Cloud Gaming The cloud has already revolutionized the way
we consume media such as movies and music, and now gaming is the next frontier being
conquered.
There are two common methods for cloud gaming, streaming video or streaming files.
In a way this is gaming on demand similar to how Netflix is video on demand.
Essentially cloud gaming uses a thin client to stream game data to the console, PC, or
handheld you�re using, with the actual content never being stored on the device.
A remote operator or game company stores the content on its own servers and also deals
with the processing load.
The end user does not need to have highly spec�d hardware as it is not their machine
that is running the game, with the content streaming from the remote server.
Still something of a niche, cloud gaming is growing at a rapid pace and it is conceivable
that in a few years it could be the main source of our gaming needs.
Future consoles and even gaming PC�s may not be geared towards offering the best specs,
but instead will be cloud gaming machines with other features.
All the user will need is a solid internet connection to stream the game, a controller,
and a screen.
The Eye Tribe Imagine being able to glance at an area on
the screen and your character looks in that direction, without you have to input via a
controller?
With technology like The Eye Tribe you can do just that.
At the moment the developmental product is being geared towards smartphones and tablets,
offering a hands free experience for mobile gaming and beyond.
The Eye Tribe technology works as an eye tracker, the world�s smallest in fact.
A camera and a high-res infrared LED track a user�s pupils for even the minimum of
movement and through algorithms Eye Tribe can detect where on the screen the user is
looking.
In terms of gaming, most of the demos have showed The Eye Tribe working on Fruit Ninja,
the popular mobile game available on iOS and Android.
Yes, the tech is still in the early stages, but these demos have shown that the system
works and the signs are certainly promising.
The Eye Tribe says that it wants its technology to be adopted in smartphones and tablets and
hopes for its product to be in a lot of devices within two years.
While mobile gaming and general use is the initial target, it is easy to see that this
sort of technology could find its way to more serious gaming hardware in the future.
And just to show how exciting this new tech is we�ll just say that at the moment eye
scanners this good cost over $10,000 and there are less than 100,000 of them in the world.
The Eye Tribe will bring this technology to the masses at a fraction of the price.
Microsoft Illumiroom Microsoft�s Illumiroom has been hinted at
for several years, but in 2015 the company has started revealing more details about the
ambitious project.
The company has been passionate about creating a united living room, and if the Xbox One
shows Microsoft�s ambitions now, Illumiroom could be the end scenario where Microsoft's
goals for this technology reach fruition.
With the Kinect motion sensor and normal off the shelf projectors, Illumiroom lets the
user create an augmented reality render of their living room.
Far from just being an expanded projector screen, this tech lets the living room become
a part of the media you are consuming.
Microsoft has showed off first person shooter games where the bullets drop outside the TV
screen and on to the living room floor, creating a new peripheral.
While thinking of Illumiroom as a glorified 3D set up is a start, the project is actually
much deeper than that and creates a true environment in your living room by adding noises, environment
vibrations, and of course visuals to create an immersive experience.
At the moment Microsoft hasn't officially stated whether Illumiroom will ever become
an actual product, but considering how much Microsoft is focusing on user experience the
augmented living room environment will become something Microsoft focuses on in the coming
years.
Whether it will land with the Illumiroom name or as something else remains to be seen.
Quantum Dot Display Technology The Film industry moves at a very rapid pace,
moving from 720p, 1080p Full HD, 4K, 4K 3D, and 8K in less than ten years.
So, it stands to reason that 2015 has its own next big thing in screen tech, and that
thing is the Quantum Dot Display.
Firstly, Quantum Dot does not describe a new resolution, but rather a way in which the
image is projected onto a screen.
At the moment LED�s use backlighting on most LCD screen TVs, hence why many users
have LED TV�s.
Quantum Dot promises to give a better backlight as they are light-emitting semiconductor nanocrystals
that take in light and convert it to specific wavelengths to create richer color reproduction.
With this technology colors will be even more accurate and more importantly Quantum Dot
Displays will not degenerate as quickly as traditional LED panels.
So if you had your eye on a 4K or even 8K screen for your gaming rig, you can still
go ahead and get one, although Quantum Dot LED will be improving those panels in the
coming years.
Photo Realism Some of the most beautiful modern games offer
a level of detail and accuracy that is truly breath-taking, but while landscapes often
look extremely realistic, there is still something lacking when it comes to computer generated
characters.
It turns out even in 2015 with blazing processors and hot performing graphics cards that nailing
living things is hard to pull off.
Ok, we�re not saying that human and animal characters look bad, for the most part the
best titles do a stellar job in creating personas that are next to the real thing.
But what about being exactly like the real thing?
With the virtual reality era approaching, it would be even more amazing to delve into
these truly immersive worlds where the characters are photo realistic.
When we say photo realistic, we really mean it, a character that looks like a real person
is standing there and interacting with you.
Phil Scott, NVidia�s lead tech mind in Europe spoke about the difficulty of rendering humans
accurately: �Skin will accept light from the environment
and then the light scatters around within the first few millimetres of flesh.
Then it re-emerges, coloured by what it has encountered.
If I was to hold my hand up to the light, you�ll see a red glow around the edges:
in games, we�re really getting into those important subtleties now.�
We�re not there yet, but over the next 5 to 10 years photo-realism is going to make
its presence felt even more than it does today.
Mixed with virtual and augmented reality scenarios, we are about to enter a gaming era where the
worlds we play in are just like the real thing.
Robots vs People in Gaming We have heard plenty about how artificial
intelligence and robots will steal our jobs or rise up like a new race to dethrone their
human masters and take over the world.
But how about using robots for something fun, like gaming?
We all already know plenty about AI in games, from the frustration of watching an enemy
do something completely bonkers in the old days, to new titles that offer extremely realistic
AI movements and behaviour.
The end goal is of course for NPC�s to be truly realistic and behave exactly as a real
person would.
You shoot a bullet at an enemy, he moves, runs, hides, but does not turn around so you
can pepper him with lead.
How real this AI can get will largely depend on how realistic the games of the future are,
and once again virtual reality will play a part in this.
If you are immersed in a VR world that is realistic, it stands to reason that the NPC�s
should be hyper-real too, further enhancing the movement towards games becoming a true
experience that you can feel and live.
Aside from AI in games, there are artificial intelligence machines and robots that can
now play video games with little to no human interference.
A new AI developed by DeepMind can learn how to play games and sometimes get the better
of human opponents or perform with better results.
Could your ultimate multi-player opponent of the future be a robot instead of an annoying
foe shouting obscenities at you and telling you how much you suck?
All the technologies discussed here promise a future of gaming that will be unlike anything
we have ever seen.
While some of these will flounder and others will flourish, it is interesting that all
are linked to each other.
The industry is pointing in the same direction, and that direction seems to be heading towards
deeper immersion, realistic gameplay, and the gaming industry opening up to welcome
everyone.
What are your opinions on the future of gaming technology?
Let us know in the comments.
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