The pursuit of truly convincing unreality via VR and AR technologies is inching ever closer to a major turning point. As both VR and AR, as well as MR, improve with every passing month, many are looking to two particular paths of technological progress: photorealism of VR characters and photorealism of VR environments.
The Reality of Fantasy
The Matrix films relied heavily upon Jean Baudrillard's concepts of hyperreality in their telling of a rebellion against an artificial reality. [Image: Matrix Resurrections / Warner Bros. Pictures]
While porn fans might generally be more eager for their virtual sex partners to appear as realistic as possible, the environments they immerse themselves in are no less vital to VR achieving true hyperrealism. If you remain unconvinced, just think of a few possibilities and see if you change your mind.
- You walk into a strip club and spot amazingly sexy performers gyrating on scattered stages. You feel the music pumping through the woofers and tweeters, and reach for the drink just poured for you at the bar as if it were really there.
- You cast your gaze at your wild natural surroundings to see the tall trees of a rainforest around you, a leafy, heavily-vined canopy overhead, and below you a woman on her knees with her lips wrapped around your cock, bringing your jungle-fucking fantasy to vivid life.
- In a tuxedo and mask, you enter a ballroom to find yourself surrounded by naked people occupying every flat surface or even standing, having anonymous sex en masse in what seems a carbon copy of Eyes Wide Shut’s most infamous scene.
Simulacra and Stimulation
All of these scenarios may seem achievable with fairly standard VR tech, but throw in advanced photorealism and the immersion factor, the absolute believability starts to suggest that we’re well past merely representing reality in VR and are now creating simulacra.
This image is not a photograph of an artist's studio; it is a photorealistic 3D VR rendering of an artist's studio available in Meta Horizon Hyperscape. [Image: Meta]
Postmodern French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra and simulation have not only proven influential in media theory and philosophy but also in the development of entertainment such as The Matrix, Black Mirror, Barbie, The Truman Show, and Derren Brown’s Apocalypse. Manufactured pseudo-realities are made so believable that they are essentially interpreted not as a simulation but as the very thing being simulated.
Sex & the Hyperreal City
Whatever kind of environment turns you on can be found in VR. [Image: Pexels / Level 23 Media]
Sex, it seems, is heading into a state of hyperreality with photorealistic environments carrying a lot of weight in that particular pursuit. VRPorn.com hosts many CGI games that create believable environments that heighten your sexual adventures. It is all but guaranteed, however, that the best is yet to come.
Meta Horizon Hyperscape has been released in demo form for Quest devices and gives users six hyperrealistic environments to explore as they see fit. Scanned from real-world art studios, conference rooms, and workshops, these environments have been meticulously catalogued and rendered in detail-heavy 3D. The opportunity to bang the babe of your dreams in such locations, it appears, is mere months away. AR could also provide couples the chance to immerse themselves in hyperreal environments for fun and frivolity, adding a new kind of immersion in shared sexual fantasy.
As we await more hyperreal content from creators both in and out of the adult sphere, it is useful to investigate just what we hope to achieve with these creations. For porn fans, the answer is likely quite simple: pleasure.
