My name is Adrian Łapczyński. I am currently writing these words in June 2022 – I am the Chairman of the Board of EPICVR Limited Liability Company. My adventure with virtual reality started much earlierthan indicated in the company’s registration data. As a child, when I was a few years old (and this was in the 90s of the last century), a magazine called ‘World of Knowledge’was very popular among young people. These were blue bindings collected by young people, which were a modern encyclopedia.
Previously, the encyclopedias I knew did not contain photos or diagrams. They consisted mainly of white pages printed with small text. The world of knowledge has been an overwhelming source of information about tech news for me. At that time, the Internet was not widely available in Poland. A few years later, a black modem appeared in the house, which worked on the basis of a fixed telecommunications network. Each Internet connection was preceded by a series of distinctive sounds.
Do not forget that it was very expensive. As far as I remember, it paid for each pulse, which totaled about 3 minutes of connection, but I’m not sure if there weren’t additional fees for downloaded kilobytes. However, at that time, the Internet was not widely available, as in American films, where, for example, Agents Mulder and Scully had a so-called fixed connection, that is, their computers were constantly connected to the Internet.
So hard copies of the newspaper were my window to the world. In one of them, I came across an article about virtual reality. It showed a woman wearing an extremely futuristic helmet on her head and a large black mechanical glove on her hand. This picture stuck in my head for years. Virtual Reality although it began in the 60s of the last century,it still ‘crawled’. There is no indication that it went mainstream in those years. The potential of this technology was huge. Even then, there was talk of VR design, military training, medical therapy, and many other possible uses for this technology in the service of humans. I knew that the golden era of virtual reality would finally arrive.
Slow development of VR technology to the present day
For many years, nothing groundbreaking in the field of virtual reality happened until 2012, when a young Palmer Luckey developed the first prototype of high-quality virtual reality glasses based on several old smartphones. I heard about this at the end of 2013, when I first tested a VR headset. I realized it was time … the time when virtual reality will float into the wide waters of our digital world. My first experience was watching 360 movies wearing VR glasses. Due to the fact that I myself was then engaged in film production professionally,I began to look for the possibility of creating such a film on my own. I set up a 360 camera that was designed primarily for geodetic calculations. A side effect of its work was the ability to record video. And it’s pretty good, because at 15 frames per second. We organized the first recording session, invited the actors, and recorded the first two videos, which we uploaded more than a year later to Youtube, when it already supported 360 video playback:
- A Horror movie”For You’
- Comedy ‘ Time Machine”
The films were warmly received.
First VR events in Poland
At that time, the virtual reality industry was very small. I rememberthe first event in Lodz, which brought together almost the entire industry in Poland.
I dare say that everyone who was doing anything VR – related in Poland at that time was there.
Also worth mentioning is a series of events organized by us in Krakow called ‘Krakow meetings with virtual Reality‘.:
Although little else was said about VR in 2015, the Polish market for VR solutions began to grow. Gradually, we began to implement commercial projects, which at that time were based mainly on 360 movies. Often these were presentations of production facilities or 360-degree marketing videos.
Further development of VR technology
Gradually, the market grew, and customers explored the business opportunities of using virtual reality. We have also played a significant role in educating potential clients. We traveled with VR glasses and presented our capabilities and solutions to potential customers. They often looked at us as magicians. We came to the place, pulled out the ‘rabbit out of the hat’ – read: VR glasses out of the box. We put them on our heads and moved them to different places and situations which they had never encountered before. Roller coasters, skydiving, canal boat rides in Venice, emergency simulation at a production facility, visit to a large factory…
The potential was huge. Everyone who has experienced virtual reality knew this. People themselves told us what they can use this technology for. Everything was moving forward. They say that 2017 will be the ‘ year of virtual reality”’ Again, 2018 was supposed to be like this. In 2019, no one talked about the ‘year of virtual reality’anymore” In my opinion, the ‘year of virtual reality’ has not yet arrived. Will this happen soon? It seems to me that virtual reality will quietly enter our lives before we realize it. Most companies are already using this technology to improve efficiency, speed, and security. As our clients prove, virtual reality also allows you to save money:
Projects in virtual reality that I remember the most
Gradually, there were clients interested in implementing an interactive VR project in which the user can influence the environment and 3D models.we started expanding our teamto include developers, 3D graphics developers, and testers. We have started implementing a number of ambitious and innovative virtual reality projects that have taken the limits of what is possible to a new level.
One of the most interesting projects, of course, was simulators for the aviation military Academy, in which flight attendants could train several people at once – emergency situations on the plane. One of these situations was a fire in the plane. In multiplayer mode, 4 people who can physically be in different parts of the world-perform procedures in the virtual fuselage of the aircraft, which is digested by a fire.
Their progress is permanently stored in the cloud, so that the person overseeing their training can fully track the exact path, analyzing mistakes and discussing shortcomings.
The second equally interesting project was an emergency water landing simulator, also implemented for the Aviation Military Academy in Deblin. In this case, 4 people also take on the role of a flight attendant and must interact in the event of a break in the cabin of the aircraft on the water. Ensuring the safety of all passengers is crucial here.
In my opinion, if I actually found an airplane that made an emergency landing on water, I would be much calmer knowing how precise the procedures are in this regard. Having gone through our virtual reality training several times and tested it, I am sure that the chances of dying in this case are low.
EPICVR’s history hasn’t been tumultuous, but it’s been pretty intense. There are months when a cluster of projects makes itself felt. Nevertheless, we are still committed to this and continue to implement selected, innovative projects.
We are developing and entering new directions. We are currently busy implementing a major project in which we are creating our own piece of the Metaverse, providing advanced tools for developers and people who will ‘populate’ various metaverses in the future.
Sincerely, thank you for your participation in reading this content.
Adrian Łapczyński
