Students from Trafford College visited leading Virtual Reality (VR) Company, Virtalis, to experience real-time, interactive stereoscopic virtual environments.
The group of 10 tried out Visionary Render and GeoVisionary software on the firm’s ActiveWall and ActiveDesk display systems. They also experienced the ActiveSpace professional-grade head-mounted display (HMD) which they used to collaborate with their colleagues immersed in the tracked 3D imagery generated by the ActiveWall.
Trafford College’s Lecturer in 3D Modelling, Mike McGinley, said: “It was great to meet the Virtalis team and get our hands on all this high-tech kit! Working together in the same virtual model was fascinating. The morning also allowed them to benchmark commercial-grade HMDs, like the NVIS, with the new consumer-grade HMDs, like the Oculus Rift. Virtalis is also coming to us soon to demonstrate its technology to a broader range of our students. Some who experienced VR today might be inspired to apply for apprenticeships and holiday internships with Virtalis.”
Keenan Sice, a Games Development student at Trafford College, said: “With more universities and colleges catering for 3D rendering, placements at companies like Virtalis are going to be highly sought after. I am just beginning C++ coding and, although I want to go into game development, seeing how laser scans of the real world can be augmented by CAD models and how you can then do things virtually that you can’t do in real life was fascinating.”
Daniel Bardsley, a fellow Games Development student in his final year, said: “We all have our end of year showcases coming up and it would be great if Virtalis could help. The 3D virtual Navy ship we explored on the ActiveDesk drew on many gaming techniques I have seen, though it was intended for training and human factors.”
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