Valve ports Team Fortress 2 onto Virtual Reality goggles

Valve is preparing discussions for the Game Developers Conference 2013 (GDC 2013), which will cover their porting of Team Fortress 2 to VR goggles, as well as the challenges with virtual reality.

The talks will be part of the Programming and Design tracks of the main GDC conference, that is set to happen from 27-19 March 2013.

Valve programmer Joe Ludwig will particularly discuss the efforts and work of the Valve employees that went into getting Team Fortress 2 running in virtual reality goggles.

These efforts have included “what stereo support entails, rendering 2D user interface in a 90 degree field of view display, dealing with view models and other rendering shortcuts, and how mouselook can interact with head tracking in a first person shooter.” Ludwig will also share ideas on how a game specifically designed for virtual reality could avoid many of the issues that Valve faced when porting Team Fortress 2.

Michael Abrash will then discuss the hardware challenges Valve faces, specifically with what lies ahead for virtual and augmented reality.

The talk will include “technical content involving head-mounted display hardware and its interaction with the human perceptual system,” with Abrash examining one real world discrepancy to which human perception is sensitive. Those curious about the possibility of a platform shift to virtual and/or augmented reality are encouraged to attend.

With the captivating Oculus Rift VR Goggles getting ever closer to commercial launch, hopefully we’ll see Team Fortress 2 from a fresh perspective on the kit.