Would you watch a virtual-reality Casablanca?
The question is ridiculous, but usefully so. VR will never be like the movies, culturally or aesthetically, and the best way to understand why may be to imagine you're experiencing the 1942 Warner Brothers classic not as a linear story viewed from a theater seat, but as an immersive world accessed by a digital headset.
Most of us would never leave Rick's Café Américain. We'd go behind the bar with Sascha, hover by Emil the croupier at the roulette table, hang out with Sam as he played "As Time Goes By" again. Me, I'd be following Peter Lorre's sniveling Ugarte. But the central drama of Rick's rekindled love and sacrifice for Ilsa Lund? We'd probably never get that far. Director Michael Curtiz and the Warner Brothers elves did such a brilliant job imagining the world of Casablanca that we'd be content to explore it until we bumped up against the walls, like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.
[...] VR will never become the new cinema. Instead, it will be a different thing. But what is that thing? And will audiences trained in passive linear narrative—where scene follows scene like beads on a string, and the string always pulls us forward—appreciate what the thing might be? Or will we only recognize it when the new medium has reached a certain maturity, the way audiences in 1903 sat up at The Great Train Robbery and recognized that, finally, here was a movie?
Movie critic Ty Burr goes on to review and discuss several VR productions and how they succeed or fail at using the new potential of virtual reality.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 20 2017, @03:07AM
VR *isn't* a movie kind of thing. Even 3-D is only barely so, but VR explicitly isn't. To see one imagined scenario where it could work, look at the Niven & Barnes Dream Park novels. Or any of several computer games. I don't think the "platform-jumpers" or test-your reflexes games would translate well, but that may just be my taste.
The thing is, true VR requires extensive haptic feedback, and it can't require you to be shackled in one position. It would be a great think to use in a gym that was properly outfitted...but that means being able to run, jump, turn around, etc. while staying in the same real-world location. Nothing yet available will do that.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.