> [Grinding gear noise]
> On the subject of transportation, the only reason to force
> people to simulate a mode of transportation, instead of allowing
> them to "beam" wherever they wish, is to simulate a mode
> of transportation. Q.E.D.
>
>Yes, I agree totally here. In fact, I'll dub this "The Virtual
>Fallacy." That is to say, the idea that people will want to waste
>their time with slow 3d access methods when they could have instant
>gratification through either keyword search or 2d Web GUI's.
>
>Why do VR enthusiasts participate in The Virtual Fallacy? Because VR
>is still a technology lacking purpose, in many respects, and the
>venture capitalists haven't lost enough money on it yet to be
>convinced that VR is a stupid way to approach many applications. When
>3d is as fast as the 2d GUI's of today, then I'll believe otherwise.
>
>Let's get on with the _important_ stuff: Art, Entertainment, etc. :-)
First, all information access is of the 'find this' type, where you know
what you want to find. Sometimes you're looking for something along these
lines, or in this rough subject. In these cases, information bandwith is
more important than speed. In a 3d space, far more information may be
coded, and thus it's better suited for browsing for 'something'.
Take for instance shopping for books or CD's. At least I got into a shop
without any clear thought of what to buy, instead I'm looking for something
to catch my interest, be it through a familiar title, interesting cover, or
whatever. Think of what a VR system could do for that kind of information
immersion, walking or flying through the acid-jazz recordings or the sci-fi
of the last twenty years.
I know this borders to commersialism, but then again I think we have a lot
to add to more utilitybased VR systems as well as the artistic ones.
Claiming that 2d information access is fundamentally better than 3d, just
because there are no proper 3d systems developed yet would be like saying
2d GUI is a bad idea back in 1980 :-)
Now, I for one am not comfortable with the one-dimensional OSes.
-----------------------------------------
Torbjoern Caspersen casper@due.unit.no
http://www.stud.unit.no/~casper/
Student of Architecture
at the Norwegian faculty of technology, NTH, Trondheim.