‘V’ is your new favorite VR app.
Virtual reality has the incredible ability to fully captivate users by transporting them from reality, to endless virtual worlds. However completely ditching reality does have its drawbacks. For one thing you’re completely cut off from the outside world and all communication to it. While playing the average game on a television allows you the freedom to check your phone or hit the web, VR requires you to tediously remove your head-mounted display and re-adjust to reality before accessing your device. This is where V comes in. Yes, just V.
This handy little app is about to become every VR enthusiasts best friend. This is because V allows users to launch a custom dashboard that gives access to some of the webs best locations such as YouTube, Soundcloud, Twitter, and Skype all without leaving their VR game/movie.
The idea goes like this: All these awesome websites have equally amazing mobile apps specifically designed for simple, touch controls. These controls translate extremely well to VR, which is why V ports them into any virtual reality application via a pleasant and easy-to-navigate dashboard. How you ask? It’s actually incredibly intuitive: The dashboard is uploaded directly into the render pipeline, allowing it to display as an overlay in any virtual reality experience designed using Unreal Engine or Unity (Currently the two most popular engine options). This feature is HUGE as it doesn’t require pre-integration by developers, making its accessibility almost endless.
The potential is huge for this app. Allowing users to access YouTube for walkthroughs (or cat videos), streaming music from SoundCloud for those long, in-game treks, logging into Skype to stay in touch with the outside world, the list goes on. The developers are about to launch a private beta for the Oculus Rift, with support coming to the HTC Vive in the near future.
If you want to hop on the train early, apply for the beta on the V website. With new technology comes new challenges, virtual reality being no exception. Luckily, we have people like the V developers here to answer the call. Thanks fella’s!
