big plastic box on the head, check
big plastic gun, check
standing in a big plastic circle, check
looks pretty similar to me
The plastic box in the Virtuality VR pod had a combined resolution of 552x372 refreshing at 30 hz. The headset weighed 1050g. The "Big Plastic Circle" in the virtuality pod is merely a magnetic ring that tracks the headset along two axis - X, and Z - with no regard to rotation, only pitch and yaw (2 IMUs), nor any Y axis (height) tracking. The magnetic ring was subject to interference by any metal objects around, including change in your pocket. The pod itself is not actually an omnidirectional treadmill, it's merely a magnetic ring designed to keep you in tracking range - you don't actually move in Virtuality games. The Virtuality Pod is 12' x 4' big. The entire unit weighs 286 pounds.
The computer running those demos were Amiga 3000's - running on 16 bit M68000 processors - the same processor as the Sega Genesis - running at 15 mhz - slightly faster than a Sega CD. They had absolutely no 3D hardware what so ever. An upgraded version of the Virtuality pod offered a 486 (not DX) PC, but was too cost prohibitive. It had 2 mb of ram.
The entire pod cost $65,000.
The game being played looked like this:
This is my Virtual Reality kit:
It's an Oculus Rift DK2, a Virtuix Omni, and my PC.
A single eye in the already extremely out of date Oculus Rift DK2 has an effective resolution of 640×800, refreshing at 75 hz. Meaning each eye has twice the resolution and refreshes more than twice as fast as the entirety of the virtuality headset. The headset weighs 440g, less than half the weight of the Virtuality headset.
The DK2 is tracked using outside-in positional tracking of imbedded IR LEDs at 60 hz, plus 3 IMUs inside the headset tracking yaw, pitch, and rotation. Through sensor fusion from the 1000hz IMUs and 60hz outside-in positional tracking, the headset tracks position in X, Y, and Z.
The pod itself is not merely a stand, it is an Omnidirectional treadmill. It is modeled with a curve that matches the walking gait of a 6' tall person, tracking each foot independently with an IMU polling at 1000 hz. Additionally, the ring uses magnetic induction with a weak magnetic field on the attached harness to discern body orientation, tracking separately from feet and head. The Virtuix Omni is 4.5' x 4.5' big. The entire unit weighs 90 pounds, almost 1/3 the weight of the virtuality pod.
The computer running this VR demo has an i7-4970k. Each individual core is at 4 ghz - each core is 250 times faster than the CPU of the Amiga 3000, and there are 4 cores capable of running 8 threads total. It is packing a GTX 980 sc. My video card alone is hundreds of times faster than the entirety of the 486. My PC has 16 gb of ram - 8000 times more memory.
My entire set up - Rift, Treadmill, and PC - could be had today for about $2500 total.
The game being played looked like this:
