Revisiting virtual reality training using modern head mounted display and game engines

Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) is an aid to mastering the spatial complexities of 3D data. Christian Michelsen Research (CMR) previously developed a virtual reality system for safety training using a large-screen and shutter glasses for stereo vision along with positional and rotational tracking. Building and maintaining a custom system has been expensive and time consuming. The recent availability of affordable and capable head mounted displays (HMD) along with powerful 3D game engines has created new opportunities for affordable immersive VR. In this paper we compare our custom made VR hardware system and 3D engine with a solution built on Oculus Rift HMD and the Unity 5 game engine.