Virtual Reality gaming may just make a big comeback this  decade after not fully taking off in the 1990s due to clunky and heavy devices and the lack of software that can fully take the power of Virtual Reality. In the recent CES 2014, Oculus Rift, the promising Virtual Reality Gear, with its Crystal Cove prototype was named as Best of CES 2014. With legendary video game developer John Romero leaving iD software to join the Oculus Rift team, the device might become a must have for video gamers when it gets released.

The promise of Virtual Reality is immersion into a virtual world where you get to interact within that world as though you are living in a digital world. When immersive, we mean this is a 360-degree digital world and you won't see the real world until you remove your device from your head. There are many potential applications of Virtual Reality but gaming is where it has made a breakthrough with Oculus Rift.

Whilst Virtual Reality is an immersive word, devices such as Oculus Rift only provide just a portion of that immersive digital world. The other is the gaming software,  and to make it totally immersive, a motion platform where you really run, jump, walk --- full movement in this case which, depending on the game, will not only immerse you, it will also make your body move rather than your just your fingers doing the movement.

With this, Oculus Rift has been designed to work with Virtuix Omni, the platform that will allow you to move freely in the video game or as they call it a " Natural Motion Interface". Just like Oculus Rift, Virtuix Omni was also a Kickstarter Project that was able to meet more than its intended funding goals.

Virtuix Omni may not exactly a totally new technology, as we have seen simulators that use the same principle that are used in tactical training. But Virtuix Omni is the only project that is aimed at the civilian market and its compact (as long as you have enough room to put it) and interfacing with Oculus Rift, gives you a 360 degree environment without needing a massive hall for it to happen.

Looking like a shortened treadmill, Virtuix Omni will allow you to do more movement whilst playing COD: Ghosts or Battlefield 4 as shown in the videos below:

How much will it cost? Well, apart from the Oculus Rift, the Virtuix Omni Packages are is not really too expensive at all as compared  to prices of some airsoft guns. It costs US$499 to get the Virtuix Omni natural motion interface, including platform, shoes, support harness and tracking hardware and software. For "Duel Package" you get to pay US$1,019.00.

You could have wished that Oculus Rift and Virtuix Omni to be already available this Winter as you can't go outside and play airsoft without freezing your balls off. With this contraption you get to play FPS video games and be able to do movement that you do in airsoft at the confines of your home. It's nowhere near airsoft or milsim games, but immersive enough to also exhaust just like any skirmish.

Now, if I can only find the space here in the UK to put one. It's hard when space is at a premium.