With the cricket season in full swing, fans can now put their batting skills to the test whatever the weather in ‘Balls!’, a virtual reality cricket game. It was developed by Stickee Studios in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bath‘s state-of-the-art motion capture studio the Centre for the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research and Applications (CAMERA).

To make ‘Balls!’ feel as real as possible, researchers have used the latest motion-capture tech to record movements of actors playing cricket in a studio with the data used to animate fielders, bowlers and umpires in the game.

You can take a look at one of the motion capture shots of a bowler in the video clip below:

 

Due to the level of data collected, cricket fans can test their batting skills against a range of different bowlers. It’s also hoped that the motion capture data collected can feed into other applications in entertainment to create a more immersive experience for gamers.

Head of Studio at CAMERA Martin Parsons says: “Working with commercial partners from the games industry gives us valuable experience with clients to better understand their needs and work outside the ‘research bubble’.”

Anyone interested in trying out Balls! Virtual Reality Cricket for themselves can check out the Virtual Reality Cricket Club website. To find out more about motion capture research in Bath, take a look at the CAMERA website or follow them on Twitter here: @CAMERA_Bath.

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