Epic’s ‘Bullet Train’ VR Demo Is First Person Virtual Badassery At Its Finest
Though it's still a bit early, virtual reality has the potential to be the biggest thing to happen to gaming since the advent of 3D graphics. We'll have a better grasp of VR's impact once devices like the Oculus Rift ship, but in the meantime, Epic Games put together a new demo that gives us a glimpse of where we're headed.
The demo, called Bullet Train, was unveiled by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney during a keynote by Oculus boss Brendan Iribe at the VR company's Connect 2 conference in Hollywood, California. Epic Games designed the demo to showcase what's possible when storytelling and VR technology collide.
There aren't a lot of details on the hardware used to power the demo, though on the graphics side, it ran multiple NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics cards. NVIDIA says Bullet Train can also run on the just announced GeForce GTX 980 notebooks.
The Bullet Train demo took advantage of the Oculus Rift headset and the next-generation Oculus Touch gesture-based input device, both of which are scheduled to ship next year. Using gestures, players can slow time down, hurl bullets back at opponents, and more.
“We’ve created an entirely new experience that uses the Oculus Touch control of location to deliver a real-world scale VR experience,” Sweeney said.
It's important to note that Bullet Train is a demo designed to showcase VR technology and not an actual game, hence you'll have to excuse the lack of real AI. It's about interacting with the environment through gestures and being immersed, which are shown off quite well.
The Oculus Rift can't get here fast enough.
The demo, called Bullet Train, was unveiled by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney during a keynote by Oculus boss Brendan Iribe at the VR company's Connect 2 conference in Hollywood, California. Epic Games designed the demo to showcase what's possible when storytelling and VR technology collide.
There aren't a lot of details on the hardware used to power the demo, though on the graphics side, it ran multiple NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics cards. NVIDIA says Bullet Train can also run on the just announced GeForce GTX 980 notebooks.
The Bullet Train demo took advantage of the Oculus Rift headset and the next-generation Oculus Touch gesture-based input device, both of which are scheduled to ship next year. Using gestures, players can slow time down, hurl bullets back at opponents, and more.
“We’ve created an entirely new experience that uses the Oculus Touch control of location to deliver a real-world scale VR experience,” Sweeney said.
It's important to note that Bullet Train is a demo designed to showcase VR technology and not an actual game, hence you'll have to excuse the lack of real AI. It's about interacting with the environment through gestures and being immersed, which are shown off quite well.
The Oculus Rift can't get here fast enough.
