My name is Jacob. During 2020, in lockdown, I turned 18. I am clinically extremely venerable, and during one of the worst stretches of Covid in the UK, I wasn’t able to leave my house for months and months on end. I had two birthdays during the lockdowns here in the UK, and could barely leave my house for safety in between them.
So, for my 18th, I decided it would be a good move going forward to have a powerful PC. I knew it would be beneficial for my future at Uni, as I knew I was definitely going to be using a lot of powerful software. However, I didn’t know yet quite what course I wanted to do. I just knew I was going to be pursuing something creative. I have always been fascinated with creative outlets and expression using technology.
And also, if I got a beastly PC, I could play really amazing video games too. But something I hadn’t realised was that powerful gaming PC’s are also used to run VR. I had never really tried VR or thought I was going to be able to have my own headset, I just didn’t really understand the hardware or the market. But after I got into building a gaming PC, I quickly got to grips with the deep world of VR, VR hardware, and VR games. I was hooked.
So I built my PC, bought a headset, and I was away. VR blew my mind. It was truly the coolest and most immersive gaming and entertainment experience I have ever had. Half Life:Alyx released just before I got into all of this. So one of the first games I ever completed in VR was one of the most influential, most developed and critically acclaimed, successful and breath-taking experiences there has ever been developed. I discovered social platforms such as VRChat. Games that brought people together from all cultures and backgrounds, from all over the world, to live together, and be themselves, at a time where I was stuck in my house, unable to socialise. I lived many many months in VR on these social platforms, while I was trapped in isolation in my room. I made friends, learnt how to create content, and even found my soul mate.
Social VR brought me on a social journey, but also a technological journey. I sold my first headset, an Oculus Rift S, after many months, and bought a Quest 2 which I used powered by my PC. I performed many upgrades on my PC. I bought numerous accessories; ceiling mounted cable management, upgraded microphones, audio equipment. But then came the big upgrades; full body tracking equipment with Vive trackers, Index controllers, wireless headset hardware. As my understanding with VR grew, so did my technology to fuel that growth.
I learned how to work in Blender and Unity to upload content and avatars to use in these games. And the longer I spent online, the more my virtual identity grew into its own. I am extremely interested in the ethics and phycology of identity in virtual social environments, having lived in these worlds and seen the issues and social structures first hand.
I even created successful VR tutorials and content for YouTube, and continue to create online content demoing hardware and games;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLF8T_N62ge7a3ByFrTHtqA
I chose to go into VR at LCC because I have lived it for over the past year, and I believe in its future and its importance in so many fields. I want to develop my software skills to coincide with my hardware and game passion. I look forward to developing my ability to create content and find a place for myself in this technological era, that brings people and worlds, real and virtual, together.