Epic’s Tim Sweeney: The tech for the metaverse is about 3 years away

We’ve overcome some of the early roadblocks that are preventing us from living every moment in virtual reality, and Epic Games founder thinks we’ll figure out the rest of the issues within the next few years.

During a presentation at the GamesBeat Summit today in Berkeley (watch it here), Epic chief executive Tim Sweeney explained that the “metaverse” — the concept of an equivalent digital reality that people exist in simultaneously with the real world — is nearly viable. He says that making people feel like they’re really immersed completely in a VR space will require “deep inputs” that go beyond the motion tracking that the Rift and Vive systems are currently capable of. Specifically, he notes that consumers will need an array of cameras that monitor their skin and facial expressions, and then developer need to combine that data with deep learning algorithms that can create artificial characters that are capable of believable, human-like interactions.