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Show HN: DiveReal – A Virtual World inside StreetView

divereal.com

23 pointsjoak16 comments

I'd be happy to have some feedback on what to do next.

eXaQuark the networking powering DiveReal allows crowds. So thousands of people can gather for event like a concert. What's the best path to reach that point.

Is the OSX version coming any time soon?

The OSX and linux versions are still buggy and crashing: It's time consuming to maintain several versions of the software for different platforms. I definitively want to move to webGL...

I think an in-browser version would make a world's difference in the number of people actually trying it out, although requiring the Unity plugin will not help. Something based on WebGL might be the coolest, but maybe difficult to put together. And more details on the underlying technology would be awesome (especially for the HN crowd). I'm wondering if it's open source, because I found a repo but it seems a bit old [1]. If it is, you should mention this more prominently!

[1]: https://bitbucket.org/joaquinkeller/earthvr/src

Actually, unity 5 (released last month) can now compile in webgl. So next step is clearly an html5 version. It would be great to have urls that bring you directly inside DiveReal at given coordinates. However, this will take sometime and put meanwhile divereal in standby.

I think I should also interact with today's users to try to figure out for what divereal could be useful..

It is not open source: google's ToU/copyright does not allow to release a reverse engineering of streetview.

> I'd be happy to have some feedback on what to do next.

Hm.

Open-source it? Or at the very least, make it available for platforms that aren't Windows? That would be a good start, I'd reckon.

>what to do next.

That's a hard question because Virtual Worlds look so exciting until the moment you stop and ask: Why should I use it? What for? In what way it's better than the solutions I already use?

I think that in case of regular consumers, it will be really difficult to find convincing answers ("I've got FB already and I don't need to move in it! I can stream the concert and don't need the crowd around me" etc.), unless you spice up your world with some game aspects. Personally I'd really dive into some kind of Ingress 2.0 which would creatively mix the real on-site presence with avatars.

You could also explore some more "serious&practial" applications of your technology: 1. Education, especially for kids 2. Planning and preparing the personnel for mass events. 3. Some kinds of behavioral therapy. 4. Immersive language training.

Just some rough ideas from top of my head. But I hope you will go for Ingress II :)

Woaw. Many ideas at once. Gaming needs game designers and investors (am I wrong?). Will they come on a totally new concept? Maybe the risk is too high... An yes, I agree with you: that's the hard question. A VW what for ?

I think it's too early to think about institutional investors at this point (a piece of technology without a defined problem it aims to solve, without a customer and a business model). It sounds like a classical challenge of many tech startups :)

But fortunately we live in times which provide other options. You could for example try to crowdfound your idea (on IndieGoGo or similar platfrom) when you will find it. The design and development of software itself also isn't that scary nowadays: you can find plenty of enthusiasts who will be eager to help in places like assembly.com or weekendhacker.net

If I was on your place, I'd go the following route: 1. Form a team (even as small as 2 people) to brainstorm the possible (and impossible) applications for your technology. 2. Do the basic Customer Development for the most promising/exciting ideas. They don't have to be very complicated. 3. Sketch a possible business model. 4. If it's promising go on with the Customer Development (mockups, prototypes and so long) 5. Go for crowdfunding.

That way you could quickly gather lots of inspiration and finally come at the interesting idea, before investing time and effort in risky building.

And speaking about ideas of mixing reality and VW, here comes additional one: Remote Tour Guide - while sight-seeing (in reality) you are guided by a person who's in front of a computer and walks with you virtually, sharing information, memories and tips. I'm pretty sure that in every city there are interesting locals who could be amazing guides but don't do that for many reasons (disability, elder age etc.)

I always thought it seemed impossible to make a new virtual world community because of all the energy and time that would go into building all the background graphics. Using Streetview solves the problem. Very cool idea!

Yes. And what's cool with a mirror world is that it will continue to enhance as sensors will continue to provide more and more precise data from more places. The coverage and the spatiotemporal resolution will grow with time...

I got to the site with my tablet and I couldn't see anything. I suggest to embed a video somewhere in the page. Maybe I'll remember to look at it on the computer later on but this is a way of losing potential users.

Btw, here's a video for other mobile users http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=plr7CZuWPJQ

Thanks for the advice ! To be done ASAP.

Done :-)

So the conclusion is: more development ? What about to try to organise some events

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