 Gamers have always looked for ways to be more immersed in their games. Vibration inducing body suits, Omni-directional treadmills, Headphones with pinpoint location accurate sounds. These gadgets promise to take us deeper into the worlds we love. But there has never been something quite like The Vortex 4D environmental simulator. Wow! I mean look at this! It's actually blowing air at him like in the game! So how is it Riley? Are you immersed? My eyes are kind of dry. Okay, yeah let's talk about that. So this curious device comes to us courtesy of a company called Whirlwind FX, and it's called The Vortex. It's supposed to increase game or video immersion by blowing air at your face, which may not be quite as stupid as it sounds. So to differentiate their product from just a US product, to differentiate their product from just a USB powered desk fan, the Airstream actually changes in intensity and even in temperature depending on the audio and video playing on your PC. With the basic idea being that if you see like a snowy scene, you'll feel blustery gusts of wind, and if there's a fiery explosion, you'll feel a hot blast. So Riley, how'd that work? Well, so there's an intake fan at the back. Air is deflected with a plate to either pass through a heating element inside or to avoid it before exiting through this beautiful front nozzle. Now the Vortex has a desktop app that uses what Whirlwind FX calls the EX algorithm to monitor and analyze the audio waveform, which informs the intensity of the wind blast. The video, meanwhile, informs how hot or cold the air will be. The orange and red in fire and explosions translate to heat, while bluish colors translate to cold. I mean, that's really cool, but you didn't actually tell me, does it work? Um, I mean, sort of. You should probably try for yourself, to be honest. Okay. Yeah, get in here. All right, I'm ready to get immersed. Oh yeah, get immersed. Well, okay, so this is just... Oh, it kind of smells like electronics-y or rubbery. Yeah, I thought that would go away. It didn't really. It smells like one of those cheap heaters, you know? So this is not a great first impression. All right, I'm gonna, I'm opening up my mind. Okay. I'm closing these earphones and opening up my mind. So this is their demo video. This is the demo video, and it works like, as soon as you make something full screen, then the EX algorithm will start like, okay, now it's analyzing. Okay, so this is best case scenario. This is best case scenario according to the makers of the Vortex. I've got to give credit where credit is due. It does feel more like I am outside. Right, right. And so, watch this part, watch this part. It kind of slows down when it slows down. It slows down in slow motion. And then it gets going again. Oh, oh, wipeout, sort of. There is definitely a legitimate difference in feeling. Yeah. This should be blasting past your head. Yeah. Hugely intense air. And it's just kind of a gentle breeze. I mean, a gentle breeze is better than nothing. That's true. Very true. In much the same way that, you know, force feedback through a controller was considered revolutionary for gaming, even though obviously, you know, a slap shot feels different from a, in your hands. It's like it's blowing only at one side of my face though. Yeah. That's part of the problem. Okay. Okay. So clearly the solution is two of them. My eyes are drying out though. And I've only been here for like three minutes. Yeah. How does Batman fight Superman? That's stupid. Okay. Batman has many ways. And he's dead now. He's human. Yeah. Again, it's not really picking up on the correct intensity because it just kind of relies on the movement of the screen itself. And it's just kind of going, yeah, you're outside. There's probably a breeze. I do it here. Can I try an actual game? Yeah. Okay. So I'm getting air blown at me. Whoa. I'm getting some warm air blown at me. Yeah. Lots of warmness. Yep. I'm running along. There's some air blowing at me. Okay. I'm standing in the fire. You're getting hurt. Yeah. Don't kill yourself. Getting a little hotter. Do you feel like you're actually fighting demons on a hell infested Mars? The smell is kind of distracting. I mean, it kind of smells like burning. I don't feel like there's a strong connection between the air bursts and the action on the screen. And that can almost make it feel like you're reminded that you're not in the game world. You're sitting at a desk pretending to be the doom guy. You're not actually the doom guy. You know? Don't put words in my mouth. I am the doom guy. Okay. Hey, that's fine, man. You live your life. So is this the part where you make fun of my rocket league skills? No. Ah! There was some wind. Wow. See that's kind of interesting. When the explosion, when you can score a goal, it's like. It blew a thing at me. So if we- Watch this. Yeah. Love the vortex. Embrace the vortex. Now it's time to really enter the matrix. Thanks. Immerse yourself. That matrix reference is so, so now and edgy. Well, are you- Ready player one. Ready player one. I was just gonna- Ah. I have actually never played this game before. Um, man- You gotta throw it. Yep. Grab that. That. Grab that. You gotta go slower, man. Go slower? You gotta go slower. Cause time moves as fast as you do. Hmm. So I could just- Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do There you go. I can't believe I've never played this game. It's cool. I know. It's awesome. The doodad is not contributing in any meaningful way whatsoever. Maybe part of it is that I'm standing further than you were. Yeah. And it's not hot. It might be. But also you said you felt it. It's not super or hot. And this is, this is consistent with what I- So in response to my own question, does the Vortex increase immersion? Well it does. Something. It does something. The first time you watch a video or play a game, there's- you're gonna have a, whoa, cool moment. Or like maybe a, whoa, warm breeze moment. And it's at its best when there's a sudden change in scenery that's accompanied by a blast of air. And there are more than one moments when it actually works pretty well. But the issue is that we found that while actually gaming, like not just watching the Vortex demo reel 2018, whirlwinds detection engine just isn't smart enough to tell the difference between stepping out of a cave into the icy air and flipping on a light switch. So it mostly translates into bursts of air being sent at your head every time you move your view from side to side, which maybe makes a little bit of sense. There's like a little bit of wind on my face when I move my hair. But the issue is that for every time the wind syncs up with what's happening on screen, there are three to seventeen instances where it doesn't. Like an event will occur where you would expect to have a corresponding blast of warm or cold air and it's not there. And then other times you'll feel air on your face when you shouldn't. Like when you're driving a car, flying an aircraft. Also, I should hope that you don't feel air on your face when you're in a starfighter, because then something is definitely wrong. Because you're in space. Yeah. So yeah, for the most part, it just feels like gaming with a fan on. Like an oscillating fan that's blowing at you from one side, which can actually cause a bit of cognitive dissonance when the explosion is happening over on the other side. Since the Vortex is supposed to make gaming more immersive, I guess one thing we haven't addressed yet is motion sickness. So the feeling of motion sickness is apparently caused by a mismatch between what a player is experiencing in game and in real life. So Edzel, one of our editors here, gets motion sickness from using VR normally. So we had him playing a racing game with the Vortex. And his verdict? It might be a little better. And then for comparison's sake, we had him play the game again with a regular fan blowing at him, and he said that that was just as good. Bummer. Looks like they probably could have saved themselves some R&D. Now for the sake of science, since the Vortex apparently uses colors to inform the wind temperature to a certain degree, we wondered whether we could game the system by displaying full screen solid colors. So what we did is just bring up a full screen, you know, light blue solid color. But switching between light blue and orange didn't consistently change the temperature. Instead, like before, we simply got a burst of air whenever the screen changed. So air temperature does change between hot and cold when an actual scene is displayed. So there does seem to be some aspect of the algorithm that informs that change other than just color. So maybe that's whirlwind FX's actual end game. To use the Vortex as a development tool to continue to refine their sensing technology, something that does have potential. Like I've done this bird simulator thing in VR, where the changing fan blowing in front of you really affects the way that you perceive your rate of movement through the air. But it should be noted that that's with a custom built experience, like there's a whole rig that you strap yourself into with a game that's specifically built for it. And it's unlikely that we're going to see that kind of integration with mainstream games anytime soon. So should you get this? For me, I'm going to say no. Not unless you've got 120 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, and you just desperately need some kind of air ejection device to put it out. Riley, do you have any closing thoughts? No, sorry, can't talk. I'm too immersed right now. I'm very immersed. So thanks for watching, guys. If you disliked this video, you can hit that button. But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed, and maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description. Not that we're like recommending it in this case. Also down there is a link to our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should totally join. There's a bug in Riley's computer. Like a big one. Got to fix this bug ASAP. Hey!