| This is so 100% not what I want. I want Unreal Engine, running full time. When I go into a World, it starts downloading the neighboring worlds. When I touch a Portkey or walk through a Portal or answer a ringing phone in a phonebooth, I'm now in the next world. That's what a "VR browser" is, to me. A loadable Unreal Engine level is the new "HTTP / CSS / JS." And in those levels, there need to be "Hyperlinks" that let me navigate to a new level. Give me some kind of Back button, and some way to enter a new "URL." URLs probably need # anchors with 6-degree-of-freedom starting positions embedded in them. Some worlds are single-user instances, some are multi-user (party rooms with your friends), some are like MMOs. All of our current VR technology feels like the equivalent of downloading a PostScript file over FTP. The Web kicked ass, because it had embedded Images, and Hyperlinks - you never left it, and it felt beautifully immersive. I want to never leave VR, and for it to be beautifully immersive. What's "Reddit" look like? It's a museum. There are images hanging on the wall. Under them is a cute plaque with the Title, and an Up and Down button, and a Comments. You can record a VR video comment. You can record an Audio comment. You can type a comment. You can be in a live VR / or maybe Video / or maybe Audio / or maybe IRC chat room, discussing that image. The items in the museum are sorted by Popular / Best / Hot / New / Controversial, and you can change it. There are also VR Objects that we're voting on. (Websites like this exist, but they aren't IN VR.) There are Videos. There are Portals to Worlds that you can hop into, and then hop back out. I also don't just want a "VR Browser," I want a "VR OS." The same way different Window Managers were all the rage on X, I want there to be lively debate about the best Application Managers in VR. Do they act like a HUD? How does Copy and Paste work? Is there Object Linking and Embedding? How do you get interrupted by Facebook Messenger? What is it like to have two VR apps at the same time? INNOVATE, PEOPLE. We don't know the answers to these questions, but they are for sure OPERATING SYSTEM questions. We keep screwing around within each game. But that's like putting a floppy in your PC and BOOTING FROM THAT DISK (no OS). DOS and later Windows were COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from how we used to boot, and required lots of changes in behavior. We need that, for VR, now. |
In addition, it's hard to use any current VR headset for more than an hour or so because of eye strain.