Real but unreal may best describe today’s virtual reality (VR), because the technology has developed a lot to give people the experience of being in any place they can imagine.

During the recent Singapore Media Festival (SMF), The Jakarta Post experienced first-hand the latest VR technology.

The Post tested Oculus Rift goggles to embark on a virtual journey to outer space.

Mere seconds after putting on the goggles, the scenes changed to show the Earth with meteors flying around, an experience that can be a little shocking and intimidating, even though it is not real.

After around three minutes, the scenes changed again into a huge mountain and temples filled with monks in Japan.

All of the scenic experiences from outer space and back to Earth took place while the Post reporter was only sitting in a small booth of Discovery Channel VR at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

The scenes are presented as a 360-degree video. Hence, it is quite normal to see VR testers rotate their bodies several times.

During a session at the month-long Future of VR exhibition, the CEO and co-founder of the World VR Forum, Salar Shahna, said the technology was needed to create real experiences for human beings, who are limited by time and space.

VR might not be all that popular yet in Indonesia, but a few months ago, residents of 12 Jakarta subdistricts witnessed the inauguration of new Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and Deputy Sandiaga Uno using VR technology.

Matt Dewees, industry sales manager for media and entertainment in Southeast Asia at software company Autodesk, said countries in the region should look to infrastructure development for inspiration to create VR video.

“In ASEAN countries, there’s a lot of infrastructure development. One way that people can tell stories could be a story on preservation […]. It is about communicating when they start building roads [or other] infrastructure, then what happens to the existing temples, monuments,” Dewees said.

However, enjoying VR videos too long can cause motion sickness like dizziness, especially if the scenes move fast but the person remains seated or standing still.

Therefore, VR videos typically last between 15 and 20 minutes. But Shahna is optimistic that, as the technology evolves, videos will be much longer in the future.

Talking about the popularity of VR in Asia, both Shahna and Dewees felt certain that VR would get more recognition by 2019, with infrastructure, content and marketing tools set to be in place by that time.

One reason for the fast development of VR technology is that the price of VR hardware is likely to drop next year, according to Jay Santos, field engineer with game developer company Unity.

So far, Santos noted, the price of a VR headset was around US$400, and a powerful PC needed to run the VR experience would cost around $1,500, but that should not be a big problem, as there were much cheaper alternatives, such as smartphones combined with cardboard headsets.

“This year, what we saw was a price drop on VR hardware, and next year, I believe, the drop can be even more significant because of the introduction of new hardware on the market,” Santos said.

Tips for using VR

1. The more dynamic the video, the more dizzy you may get.

2. Ask someone to watch over you while you are using VR technology.

3. Take the Oculus Rift off if you feel sick.

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