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VR dream builders at Google work on immersive browsing

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31 pointsdnetesn21 comments

I wonder if this will be a thing or of it will fade into obscurity like all the 1990s 3D web stuff. Does anyone remember VRML?

VRML is exactly that I thought when I read the title.

The article didn't disappoint.

How so? Everything is different from VRML (programming model, penetration of the internet, actual VR devices, etc). The idea that random websites can produce a nice experience on my Oculus is a great one -- this is how the open web can embrace a new technology early on and make sure we don't get app silos again.

It's not a technology issue, it's a content issue.

There's huge cliff between being able to build easy to consume 2D content(the web) and 3D content(VR/3D). The reason AAA game budgets have exploded exponentially is due to the increased complexity and work required to build a compelling experience.

There's a reason 3D UIs never took off and it's the same reason this is dead in the water aside from a few niche markets.

> The reason AAA game budgets have exploded exponentially is due to the increased complexity and work required to build a compelling experience

The indie scene is exploding with compelling experiences. AAA budgets are not necessary for (I would guess) a large majority of what makes up a 3d "compelling experience".

Sure and a good majority of them are 2D or using art styles that have the lower production costs(space sims excel at this for instance, House of the Dying Sun being the latest great example).

Once you go 2D -> 3D you have to worry about:

    Matrix math
    Import pipelines
    Skeletal animation and skinning
    Perspective, z-buffers and z-fighting
    Culling, LoD, etc
    Texturing, mipmaps and shaders
    and more...

From a technical perspective I think it's totally a cool thing. However from a user perspective it's normally a net-loss. As someone who's been in the 2D/3D IxD space I'd love for it to be the other way around but sadly it's not.

I do think there are areas like architectural and space visualization where VR could be compelling but that's a small market and probably not something we'll ever see at 'web scale'.

I don't know if "The Web in VR" is going to work out. But, "VR in The Web" is going to work out about as well as "(fullscreenable) Videos in the Web".

When picking a houses to visit with a realtor, would you rather flip through a galleries of photos or stand in each house's living room and look around?

Exactly this. I was just in the situation to look for a new apartment, and one big reason I chose my current place is because it had a "virtual tour" that allowed walking around in 3D. If that were in VR, even better.

Once I tried one of the new VR helmets, it was clear to me that these devices should have some kind of role in improving productivity- They are not to be dismissed merely as gaming devices.

The problem is, I really have very little conception so far as to HOW they can improve productivity. For one, the idea of using them merely as "a virtual giant monitor" is really an unsatisfying approach.

Ah, but it is not only a giant monitor, but also a portable one. Much easier to carry one of these babies than, say, lugging two monitors around. Imagine, for example, coding on a beach!

Why are you even at the beach in this scenario?

I take frequent breaks when I work. Sometimes I just need to take a little walk for 30 minutes or an hour to think through some code. The beach would be a nice place for that.

Once HDR headsets come out, you won't even need to be near a beach to do that ;)

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3w408o/valve_create...

I'm very bullish on VR, but it will be a very long time before a HDR headset creates an experience close to what it feels like to be at the ocean.

I was too young to ever see or use VRML, but I believe that VR is much more accessible now than it's ever been. At this point, you only need a 3D capable smartphone in order to view VR. Forget the cardboard, you can still use the phone as a small viewport to view the virtual world. Right now, I still feel like VR is a novelty though, kind of like the smartwatch. Sure it's cool, but it's not necessarily a need quite yet.

There were some good 3D android offerings (HTC 3D; no glasses and similar to the Nintendo 3DS), but they faded back in the late 2000s

Just a thought... I wonder if all the 3-d overlays that the maps apps have now could be dumped to VRML. I presume so. That would allow people to go through maps in VRML, and Google Street View in VRML would be pretty darn cool.

Just tangential, does anyone remember the name of that Secondlife-like persistent 3D world in the 90s?

You might be thinking of Active Worlds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Worlds

This particular bit might, but demoing the vive convinced me that VR is here to stay. It's biggest obstacle is price; the hardware itself is incredibly pleasing.

I'm curious to see if the VR version of Chrome will operate similarly to JanusVR: http://janusvr.com/

JanusVR is a fun experience and linking via portals is novel, but it's more of a place to hang out than anything else.

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