A few years back, Alluvian used to sport a set of ugly, clunky, shuttered 3-d glasses. I always thought they'd look better if he wore them in conjunction with a tinfoil hat. They proved that he was a complete techno-gadget nerd. I used to make fun of him… until I actually tried them myself.

Our MMOG de jour was Anarchy Online then, and when I tried the nerd-goggles with the game it was an incredible rush… and I had to run to take some Dramamine, because my stodgy Dwarven brain did not appreciate the sudden additional depth input. It was great to see things suddenly "come to life".

The glasses in question were not terribly well supported, and after a time, programming changes in many games (such as EverQuest, our main game at the time) messed up the presentation of depth and caused parts of the scene (usually UI elements such as floaty names, interface windows, etc.) to sit right on top, almost literally poking you in the eyes.

Soon enough the ugly techno-nerd-wear was put away, although Alluvian would periodically test them on new games he started. I think I finally managed to dispose of them during our last move.

That is all old news, but here is what's new… someone is redoing the VR goggles thing, and doing it RIGHT.

Check these out: streamlined, light, loaded with features and most important of all…. supported fully by a dedicated manufacturer who does nothing but make these peripheral products. They don't even look like nerd-gear.

When I first saw this headgear at CES in January, I was able to try them with a racing game (yawn), and they looked good, but ICUITI did not have an MMO on hand to test with. I heard they were supposed to work well with WoW, but I had no way of finding out for myself.

At CES, a loud, obnoxious tradeshow, ICUITI's technical staff and highly informational, no-nonsense booth design could not compete for attention with the flashy, in-your-face headset manufacturers who used leggy ladies in tight dresses to smile blankly and hand out flyers which said absolutely nothing useful about their product… but I can tell you that the ICUITI gear was much sturdier and far, far better quality than anything else I saw while there. Remember that the pretty women do NOT come with the gear. Honest. The geeks at the ICUITI desk though? They work for the company and will continue to work for you.

On to GDC in March, where a more advanced prototype of the new iWear VR920 was ready for me to look at. Sleek and very efficient in design.

I even had an opportunity to speak with the President and CEO of ICUITI, Paul Travers. He is a very open, savvy fellow, who understands all aspects of his product and has long-term plans for software support. He has people dedicated to developing drivers to work with more and more titles.

Here he is, modeling the VR920:


At last, I got to try the VR920 with World of Warcraft. The glasses rendered the world extremely well, and I took great delight in running about the Trolly village, going up and down steps and looking around. I mean literally looking around! Turn your head, tilt it, raise or lower it, and you get real-time matching movement in game.

Throw out your mouselook, ladies and gents. This integrated head-tracking thing is faaaaaar better. Bearing in mind Alluvian's extremely limited neck mobility, I asked if that feature was adjustable. Paul assured me that it was. They really seem to attend to details, these ICUITI people.

Technical stuffs:
The VR920 device features two 640x480 LCD displays with VGA support for up to 1024 x 768 resolution. Translation – it looks pretty darn good for something that weighs only 3 oz.

As Paul mentioned, the VR920 gives the visual impression of viewing 62" screens from a distance of 9 feet. The screens provide 32 degree field of vision at any time.

Voice is increasingly used in MMOGs, and vital in many FPS games, so the headset also features built in a noise-canceling microphone and ear buds. No need to figure out how to wear this over a regular headset. The VR920 will also fit over prescription eyeglasses. Handy indeed.

Functionally speaking, the VR920 was flawless in my short time testing it out. It was indeed VERY light (again, only 3 oz), and I could tell they'd not hurt my nose and ears like the old, clunky 3d glasses used to.

I was very keen to learn if these glasses would work for the MMOGs that I play, of course. Drivers for WoW are working great, and ICUITI has a bunch of people working hard on developing drivers for other popular titles – I am hoping that EQII and LOTRO are among them!

The VR920 is of course extremely well suited for FPS games. Finally you can look sideways and run straight, while shooting, without engaging in some warped game of finger-Twister on your keyboard. That might even make me capable of playing those games.

As of March 13th, the following games are fully supported:
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
- Half-Life II
- Counter-Strike
- rFactor Racing Simulation
- Microsoft Flight Simulator X
- XPlane Flight Simulator
- Unreal Tournament (2004)
- GTR 2
- Second Life

There is only one real MMOG on the list at this point (no, you cannot convince me that Second Life is a 'real' mmog – go away!). Driver updates at www.icuiti.com will include patches for additional titles as they become available.

I have to include one of ICUITI's official posed shots:


Now, you know this guy has never actually played WoW, because his shirt has no food stains on it and his fingers are on the wrong keys, but the point is… he does not look like a complete dork with these on. I wish I could dig up a picture of Alluvian in his old ones for comparison.

The VR920 does come with a rather hefty price-tag, slated for $399 retail at release, at the end of April, 2007; a significant investment for the average gamer, and not a purchase to be made lightly. I suspect that ICUITI's long-term success hinges on wrapping up as many titles as possible under its drivers, because people will not want to fork over that kind of money unless they can use it for most of their games.

I want to see LOTRO and EQII on the list of supported games – then I will be happy. It is still at the top of my Christmas list this year, because I am hopeful like that... and it is a very, VERY cool device.

For more information (and pre-orders), visit ICUITI yourself, and drool. Just don't get it all over your keyboard. You'll still need that.