When I saw the trailer, was it only me that became uneasy? Director Mamoru Oshii. Come back. Wikipedia Cyborg counter-cyberterrorist field commander The Major (Scarlett Johansson), and her task force Section 9 thwart cyber criminals and hackers. Now, they must face a new enemy who will stop at nothing to sabotage Hanka Robotic's artificial intelligencetechnology.[5]
The game's extended launch began on July 6, 2016, with releases in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Due to server strain from high demand upon release, Niantic CEO John Hanke stated that the release in other regions was to be "paused until Niantic was comfortable" fixing the issues.[66][67] European releases started on July 13, and the game became available to most of the continent over the following ten days.[50] The Japanese launch was initially reported to be on July 20;[68] however, the game was delayed after a sponsorship deal with fast food chainMcDonald's was leaked,[69][70] instead releasing two days later.[55] Although the game was proposed to be released in France on July 15, it was postponed until July 24 out of respect and due to safety concerns following a terrorist attack in Nice on July 14.[56][71] Following the shut down of third-party apps and websites in late-July 2016—significantly reducing server strain—Niantic was able to continue pushing release worldwide. Central and South America and most of Southeast Asia subsequently saw releases in early August.[58][60]Indonesia was the first Asian country to have the game playable; despite the game not being officially released in that region until August 6.[72][73]
In South Korea, the game was not officially released as major restrictions on the use of online mapping data exist. However, due to a glitch, a small area around Sokcho in the northeastern part of the country was considered a part of Niantic's North Korea mapping region, making the game fully playable in that area.[74][75] Numerous people took advantage of the gap to play the game. Bus tickets from the capital city of Seoul sold out and people living within Sokcho shared information on free Wi-Fi areas to tourists.[76] Players also discovered a gym in Panmunjom, along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; however, Niantic later removed it from the game.[77]Following the release of Pokémon Go in Japan, parts of Busan also became playable as parts of the city are considered part of Japan's mapping area due to the proximity of Tsushima Island.[78]
In mainland China, Google services are banned by the Great Firewall. Players of Pokémon Go in China bought Australian App Store IDs and used a GPS spoofing app to use Google services. Many Chinese people downloaded a clone app called City Spirit Go, which was released shortly after Pokémon Go's beta test in Japan.[79] During its launch in Southeast Asia in August 2016, the game officially excluded Myanmar (Burma), but gamers around Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi discovered that the game was fully playable after its release in Thailand.[80] The game was released in the Balkans, Macau, and Central Asia in September 2016, and throughout Africa and the Middle East over the next two months.[62][63][65]
It is a terrifying evolution! Wikipedia The Pokémon Go Plus is a Bluetooth low energywearable device, developed by Nintendo's Platform Technology Development division, that allows players to perform certain actions in the game without looking at their smart device.[38] When a player is near a Pokémon or PokéStop, the Plus vibrates.[38] The player can then press the button to capture the Pokémon or receive items from the PokéStop; the player cannot check what they have received until the next time they sign in to the app on their mobile device.[21] The design consists of a Poké Ball and the shape of the Google Maps pin.[38] The decision to create the device rather than create a smart watchapp was to increase uptake among players for whom a smart watch is prohibitively expensive.[39] It was released in the United Kingdom and North America on September 16, 2016.[40][41][42]
The concept for the game was conceived in 2014 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company as an April Fools' Day collaboration with Google, called the Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge.[20] Ishihara was a fan of developer Niantic's previous transreality game, Ingress, and saw the game's concept as a perfect match for the Pokémon series.[21] Niantic used the crowdsourced[22] data from Ingress to populate the locations for PokéStops and gyms within Pokémon Go, and data from Google Maps to spawn specific Pokémon on certain terrain or environment.[23][24] In 2015, Ishihara dedicated his speech at the game's announcement on September 10 to Iwata, who had died two months earlier.[25] The game's soundtrack was written by longtime Pokémon series composer, Junichi Masuda, who also assisted with some of the game's design.[26] Among the game's visual designers was Dennis Hwang, who previously worked at Google and created the logo of Gmail.[27]
On March 4, 2016, Niantic announced a Japan-exclusive beta test would begin later that month, allowing players to assist in refining the game before its full release. The beta test was later expanded to other countries.[28] On April 7, it was announced that the beta would expand to Australia and New Zealand.[29] Then, on May 16, the signups for the field test were opened to the United States.[30][31] The test came to an end on June 30.[32]
At Comic-Con 2016, John Hanke, founder of Niantic, revealed the appearances of the three team leaders: Candela (Team Valor), Blanche (Team Mystic), and Spark (Team Instinct).[33][34] Hanke conveyed that approximately 10% of the ideas for the game were implemented. Future updates, including the much-anticipated addition of trading, more Pokémon,[35] implementation of Pokémon Centers at PokéStops, a patch for the "three step glitch", and easier training, were also confirmed.[36] He also stated that Niantic would be continuing support for the game for "years to come".[35] In an interview with TechCrunch in September 2016, Hanke hinted that player vs. player Pokémon battles would be released in a future update.[37]
After establishing a game account, the player creates and customizes their own avatar.[1][2] Once created, the avatar is displayed on a map using the player's current geographical location. Features on the map include PokéStops and Pokémon gyms. PokéStops provide players with items, such as eggs, Poké Balls, berries, and potions. These PokéStops can be equipped with items called lure modules, which attract additional wild, and sometimes rare, Pokémon.[3][4] Gyms serve as battle locations for team-based king of the hill matches.[5] PokéStops and gyms are typically located at places of interest.[6] These locations are re-purposed portals from Ingress, Niantic's previous augmented realitygame.[7]
As players move within their real world surroundings, their avatar moves within the game's map. Different Pokémon species reside in different areas of the world; for example, water-type Pokémon are generally found near water.[8] When a player encounters a Pokémon, they may view it either in augmented reality (AR) mode or with a live rendered, generic background.[9] AR mode uses the camera and gyroscope on the player's mobile device to display an image of a Pokémon as though it were in the real world.[10] Players can take screenshots of the Pokémon they encounter either with or without the AR mode activated.[11]
Unlike other installments in the Pokémon series, players in Pokémon Go do not battle wild Pokémon to capture them. During an encounter with a wild Pokémon, the player may throw a Poké Ball at it by flicking it from the bottom of the screen up toward the Pokémon. If the Pokémon is successfully caught, it will come under the ownership of the player. Factors in the success rate of capture include the right force, the right time and the type of Poké Ball used. After capturing a wild Pokémon, the player is awarded two types of in-game currencies: candies and stardust. The candies awarded by a successful catch depend on what evolutionary chain a Pokémon belongs to. A player can use stardust and candies to raise a Pokémon's "combat power" (CP). However, only candies are needed to evolve a Pokémon. Each Pokémon evolution tree has its own type of candy, which can only be used to evolve or level up. The player can also transfer the Pokémon back to the Pokémon professor to earn one more candy and create room for more Pokémon.[12] The ultimate goal of the game is to complete the entries in the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing and evolving to obtain the original 151 Pokémon.[note 2][13]
Although the game is free to play, it supports in-app purchases, where players can purchase additional Poké Balls and other in-game items.[14] These items include incense (to attract Pokémon to you as you move), lure modules, to attract Pokémon to a fixed location, and lucky eggs, which double experience points gained for a thirty-minute period from use. All Pokémon are displayed with a combat power. A Pokémon's combat power is a rough measure of how powerful that Pokémon is in battle. Generally, as a player levels up they will catch Pokémon with higher CP.[15]
Players earn experience points for various in-game activities. Players rise in level as they earn experience points. At level five, the player is able to battle at a Pokémon gym and join one of three color-coded teams (red for Team Valor, blue for Team Mystic, or yellow for Team Instinct), which act as factions within the Pokémon Go world. If players enter a Pokémon gym that is controlled by a player that is not part of their team, they can challenge the leader to lower the gym's "prestige". Once the prestige of a gym is lowered to zero, the player will take control of the gym and is able to deposit one Pokémon to defend it. Similarly, a team can upgrade the prestige of a gym under their control by battling the gym leader. Each time a gym's level is raised, another player from the same team can deposit one of their Pokémon.[16]
In September 2016, Niantic announced a "Buddy Pokémon" feature, which allows players to pick a Pokémon to appear alongside them on the profile screen, and receive in-game rewards and bonuses based on the chosen Pokémon.[17] The feature was released later that month.[18] During that same update, Niantic updated Pokémon Go to prevent players with rooted or jailbroken devices from logging into the game in an effort to reduce and prevent cheating.[19]
In 1991, Sega announced the Sega VR headset for arcade games and the Mega Drive console. It used LCD screens in the visor, stereo headphones, and inertial sensors that allowed the system to track and react to the movements of the user's head.[14] In the same year, Virtualitylaunched and went on to become the first mass-produced, networked, multiplayer VR entertainment system. It was released in many countries, including a dedicated VR arcade at Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. Costing up to $73,000 per multi-pod Virtuality system, they featured headsets and exoskeleton gloves that gave one of the first "immersive" VR experiences.[15] Antonio Medina, a MIT graduate and NASA scientist, designed a virtual reality system to "drive" Mars rovers from Earth in apparent real time despite the substantial delay of Mars-Earth-Mars signals. The system, termed "Computer-Simulated Teleoperation" as published by Rand, is an extension of virtual reality.[16]
A year later, the artist Maurice Benayoun created the first VR artwork connecting in real time 2 continents: the "Tunnel under the Atlantic" between the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal. The installation included dynamic real time 3d modeling, video chat, spatialized sound and AI content management. A non-VR system called the Virtual Boy was created by Nintendo and was released in Japan on July 21, 1995 and in North America on August 15, 1995.[21]Also in 1995, a group in Seattle created public demonstrations of a "CAVE-like" 270 degree immersive projection room called the Virtual Environment Theater, produced by entrepreneurs Chet Dagit and Bob Jacobson.[22] Then in 1996 the same system was shown in tradeshow exhibits sponsored by Netscape Communications, and championed by Jim Barksdale, for the first time showing VR connected to the Internet with World Wide Web content feeds embedded in VRML 3D virtual world models. Forte released the VFX1, a PC-powered virtual reality headset in 1995, which was supported by games including Descent, Star Wars: Dark Forces, System Shockand Quake. In 1999, entrepreneur Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab with an initial focus on the development of hardware that would enable computer users to be fully immersed in a 360 degree virtual reality experience. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of "The Rig," which was realized in prototype form as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could wear on their shoulders.[23] That vision soon morphed into the software-based, 3D virtual world Second Life.
In 2013, Nintendo filed a patent for the concept of using VR technology to produce a more realistic 3D effect on a 2D television. A camera on the TV tracks the viewer's location relative to the TV, and if the viewer moves, everything on the screen reorients itself appropriately. "For example, if you were looking at a forest, you could shift your head to the right to discover someone standing behind a tree."[26] In July 2013, Guild Software's Vendetta Online was widely reported as the first MMORPG to support the Oculus Rift,[27][28] making it potentially the first persistent online world with native support for a consumer virtual reality headset. Since 2013, there have been several virtual reality devices that seek to enter the market to complement Oculus Rift to enhance the game experience. One, Virtuix Omni, is based on the ability to move in a three dimensional environment through an omnidirectional treadmill.In 2001, SAS3 or SAS Cube became the first PC based cubic room, developed by Z-A Production (Maurice Benayoun, David Nahon), Barco, Clarté, installed in Laval France in April 2001. The SAS library gave birth to Virtools VRPack. By 2007, Google introduced Street View, a service that shows panoramic views of an increasing number of worldwide positions such as roads, indoor buildings and rural areas. It also features a stereoscopic 3D mode, introduced in 2010.[24] In 2010, Palmer Luckey, who later went on to found Oculus VR, designed the first prototype of the Oculus Rift. This prototype, built on a shell of another virtual reality headset, displayed only 2-D images and was noticeably cumbersome to wear. However, it boasted a 90-degree field of vision that was previously unseen anywhere in the market at the time. This initial design would later serve as a basis from which the later designs came.[25]
On March 25, 2014, Facebook purchased a company that makes virtual reality headsets, Oculus VR, for $2 billion.[29] In that same month, Sony announced Project Morpheus (its code name for PlayStation VR), a virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4 video game console.[30] Google announces Cardboard, a do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphones. The user places her smartphone in the cardboard holder, which she wears on her head. In 2015, the Kickstarter campaign for Gloveone, a pair of gloves providing motion tracking and haptic feedback, was successfully funded, with over $150,000 in contributions.[31]
In February–March 2015, HTC partnered with Valve Corporation announced their virtual reality headset HTC Vive and controllers, along with their tracking technology called Lighthouse, which utilizes "base stations" mounted to the wall above the user's head in the corners of a room for positional tracking of the Vive headset and its motion controllers using infrared light.[32][33][34][35] The company announced its plans to release the Vive to the public in April 2016 on December 8, 2015.[36][37] Units began shipping on April 5, 2016.[38]
In July 2015, OnePlus became the first company to launch a product using virtual reality.[39] They used VR as the platform to launch their second flagship device the OnePlus 2, first viewable using an app on the Google Play Store,[40] then on YouTube.[41] The launch was viewable using OnePlus Cardboard, based on the Google's own Cardboard platform. The whole VR launch had a runtime of 33 minutes, and was viewable in all countries. Also in 2015, Jaunt, a startup company developing cameras and a cloud distribution platform, whose content will be accessible using an app, reached $100 million in funding from such sources as Disney and Madison Square Garden.[42] On April 27, 2016, Mojang announced that Minecraft is now playable on the Gear VR.[43] Minecraft is still being developed for the Oculus Rift headset but a separate version was released to the Oculus Store for use with the Gear VR. This version is similar to the Pocket Edition of Minecraft.
Morton Heiligwrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theatre" that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He built a prototype of his vision dubbed theSensoramain 1962, along with five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, and touch). Predating digital computing, the Sensorama was amechanical device. Around the same time,Douglas Engelbartused computer screens as both input and output devices. In 1968,Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his studentBob Sproull, created what is widely considered to be the first virtual reality andaugmented reality(AR)head-mounted display(HMD) system. It was primitive both in terms ofuser interfaceandrealism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy that it had to be suspended from the ceiling. The graphics comprising the virtual environment were simplewire-frame modelrooms. The formidable appearance of the device inspired its name,The Sword of Damocles. 1950–1970[edit]The first references to the concept of virtual reality came from science fiction. Stanley G. Weinbaum's 1935 short story "Pygmalion's Spectacles"[9] describes a goggle-based virtual reality system with holographic recording of fictional experiences, including smell and touch.
During this time, virtual reality was not well known, though it did receive media coverage in the late 1980s. Most of its popularity came from marginal cultures, like cyberpunks, who viewed the technology as a potential means for social change, and the recreational drug subculture, who praised virtual reality not only as a new art form, but as an entirely new frontier.[10] Some drug users consume drugs while using VR technologies.[11] The concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as Brainstorm (1983) and The Lawnmower Man. The VR research boom of the 1990s was accompanied by the non-fiction book Virtual Reality(1991) by Howard Rheingold.[12] The book served to demystify the subject, making it more accessible to researchers outside of the computer sphere and sci-fi enthusiasts.Also notable among the earlier hypermedia and virtual reality systems was the Aspen Movie Map, which was created at MIT in 1978. The program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons. The first two were based on photographs—the researchers actually photographed every possible movement through the city's street grid in both seasons—and the third was a basic 3-D model of the city. Atari founded a research lab for virtual reality in 1982, but the lab was closed after two years due to Atari Shock (North American video game crash of 1983). However, its hired employees, such as Tom Zimmerman, Scott Fisher, Jaron Lanier and Brenda Laurel, kept their research and development on VR-related technologies. By the 1980s the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research in 1985. VPL Research has developed several VR devices like the Data Glove, the Eye Phone, and the Audio Sphere. VPL licensed the Data Glove technology to Mattel, which used it to make an accessory known as the Power Glove. While the Power Glove was hard to use and not popular, at US$75, it was early affordable VR device.
Once the industry began to attract media coverage, some even compared the innovations in virtual reality to the Wright Brothers' pioneering invention of the airplane.[13] In 1990, Jonathan Waldern, a VR Ph.D, demonstrates "Virtuality" at the Computer Graphics 90 exhibition staged at London's Alexandra Palace. This new system was an arcade machine that would use a virtual reality headset to immerse players. CyberEdge and PCVR, two VR industry magazines, started to publish in the early 1990s. However, most ideas about VR remained theoretical due to the limited computing power available at the time. The extremely high cost of the technology made it impossible for consumers to adopt. When the Internet became widely available, this became the technology focus for most people. The VR industry mainly provided VR devices for medical, flight simulation, automobile industry design, and military training purposes from 1970 to 1990.[citation needed]
