Combining Portal with virtual reality isn't exactly new, but have you ever wondered what that experience would be like in augmented reality? Your home or office, transformed into a Portal level. Of course, only Valve would be capable of achieving something like that, but independent developer Kenny W. took the first step using the Microsoft HoloLens, and it looks fantastic.
The first Portal came to us on October 9, 2007. In April 2011 we enjoyed its second part to the fullest, and since then the saga has become a must-see classic, which sometimes appears almost free on Steam. However, unlike what happened (or rather, "didn't" happen) with a certain theoretical physicist expert in hunting aliens and starting revolutions, the Portal saga had a sort of continuation through different experiments. If my memory serves, one of them came through here in July 2015. Playing Portal with a VR headset is probably one of the first things Rift or Vive owners should do... but it would be crazy to forget about the HoloLens. Although technically it's augmented reality (or as Microsoft likes to call it, "mixed reality"), the possibility of transforming a known space into a Portal level doesn't sound bad at all, right?
The only "problem" with this demo developed by Kenny W. is that we can't go through the portals, but the rest is very, very good. The way the cube adapts and interacts with the multiple details of each surface, the response speed, the execution of loops when the cube passes from one portal to another without pauses... Microsoft may say the HoloLens is a work in progress, but if a developer who works for neither company can do something like this with a kit, I think everyone involved should pay more attention.
At the end of the day, this kind of demo is important for virtual reality as well. The high price of its technology will be resolved over time, but what prevents it from fully exploding is the lack of content. There are no "killer apps". If in a not-too-distant future Valve decides to release Portal 3, or with a bit of luck, Half-Life 3, the Vive-Rift support should be complete, and the HoloLens will need to find a way to fit.
