"I believe that augmented reality will be the biggest technological revolution that happens in our lifetimes."
- Epic's Tim Sweeney
In a speech at the ChinaJoy show as reported by VentureBeat, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney was very bullish about virtual reality -- but reserved his highest praise for augmented reality, which he expects to see take off in the next 10 years.
"Once you have an augmented reality display, you don’t need any other form of display. Your smart phone does not need a screen. You don’t need a tablet. You don’t need a TV. You just take the screen with you on your glasses wherever you go.”
"Combine with convenience of mobile and the display is with you everywhere you go and you don’t need anything else. Augmented reality will drive all things like chat, social networking, photos, videos, organizing data, modeling, painting, motion capture, and visual programming," he said.
Virtual reality devices set to launch in the near future -- such as the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive -- meanwhile, are "1.0" of the tech, with both "great potential" and "flaws."
"Over time, they will have a high level of realism and quality content. They will be adopted everywhere," Sweeney said.
"We see a convergence of different forms of media. VR and AR provide next-generation viewing experiences for games, movies, and visualization."
This last sentiment is unsurprising coming from Sweeney, who spent GDC touting just this convergence -- one he sees his company's Unreal Engine poised to capitalize on. "This is the convergence of all of these different forms of media," Sweeney said at the time. "This was talked about in the 1990s; it was an abysmal failure. It's happening now, for real."
"In 10 years, kids growing up will experience the world in a completely different way than we did growing up," he said.