Follow and Support me on these Media Channels
As with anything new in our life experience, it takes time to gain an understanding of what we are experiencing. We need to learn the basics and gain a certain level of competency, before we can begin to build upon what we've learned and apply our new-found knowledge for everyday use.
My second experience in VR began with learning more of the fundamental basics that would enable me to explore and interact more with the Oculus virtual environment.
After plugging my Oculus Rift S into my workstation, the Oculus application booted and began updating both my headset and the hand controllers.
Headset and controller software updates occur frequently; this can be a blessing if you're experiencing an issue with either the headset or controller, as a fix be only an update away from resolution.
Once the headset and controllers completed updating, I put on my headset and found myself in my virtual home space.
It took me over a half an hour to relearn some of what I had learned during my previous first session in my Oculus Home space. Working with hand controllers in an immersive spatial environment is a new experience for me.
As repetition, practice and experience develops and reinforces learning, my goal going forward is to work in VR when I have to opportunity to do so.
Having lived in a beautiful Colorado mountain home with a gorgeous view of Mt. Evans for over twenty years, I appreciated the beautiful view of a snow-capped mountain peak that my virtual home offered me.
Now in the third year of enjoying my beautiful home and scenery in Tampa Bay, I'm interested in seeing if I can change my virtual home scenery to that of a gorgeous beach view.
Wouldn't it be great if I could set the default view for my virtual home and have the view change dynamically with the time of day? I could experience a beautiful sunrise in my VR home when in early morning, and a beautiful sunset overlooking the beach at the end of a day. Nice!
I found my virtual home in the same condition that I had left it, complete with a table decoration that I had knocked to the floor when I was learning how to select and grab objects in my virtual space. Now that I had mastered the fundamental basics of my two hand controllers, I was able to pick the decoration up off the floor and place it back in the center of the table.
In poking around the circular Oculus control console that I could summon into my virtual home, I found that I had earned some rewards for the time that I had invested nosing around in-world the prior week. My rewards consisted of additional furnishings for my virtual home, like bookshelves, tables, artwork, etc.
To the casual VR observer, these rewards, along with my virtual Oculus home, appear to be nothing more than an interesting form of entertainment, like gaming, as some might perceive. I believe, however, there is significantly much more to all of this than meets the eye.
Consider, for example, that the next phase of development for the Internet/Web is for personal, organizational and business web sites to transition to virtual spaces in communities that are now forming in several VR worlds, such as Sansar and High Fidelity.
As a virtual talk show personality, imagine interviewing a noted academic authority in outdoor community setting, with a live VR audience engaging and actively participating in the event. This is happening presently in High Fidelity and other virtual worlds.
Professional Profiles and Twitter presences will also make the transition to VR spaces, as the premier environment for immersive visual engagement and home base for spatial computing applications.
Over the next few years, personal entertainment, professional and not-for-profit collaborations, along with for-profit business enterprises and associated eCommerce transactions, all will transition from the current legacy 2D Web to the multidimensional virtual and mixed-reality space.
Having one or more functional virtual homes and work spaces within the desired virtual communities populating one or more virtual worlds, will have the same level of significance as having a personal, professional or business presence on the Web.
With this in mind, I go through my Oculus space inventory, looking for virtual objects that will personalize my virtual home. I’m crafting my virtual home space to be a reflection of who I am; my beliefs, friends and family, interests, profession and life passions.
At some point when I am ready, I will flip the switch to "Public" for my private virtual home in VR cyberspace, enabling visitors worldwide to drop in for a visit. If you’re the Oculus platform, I’d love to Connect and visit your virtual home space and see what you’ve done with your space.
—
Entering the Rift Web (ETR Web) is a series of creative expressions created by Jim Intriglia, a Virtual Reality, storytelling and journalism enthusiast. ETR Web experiences strive to apply the best of present day Web-based creative storytelling by fusing best practices that engage video, 360 photography, audio, graphic arts, journalism and narrative storytelling (autobiographies) in a multimedia experience that provides an interactive and immersive experience for the participant.
Managed, developed and produced using the best of Agile practices and methodologies, ETR Web experiences are iterative works that bring fresh creative content to participants each month. Over time, each of the expressions published in the series will evolve and develop in context, agency and engaging experiences.
If you found this article informative and beneficial, please consider supporting my work through Patreon. Your support helps fund the creation of beneficial educational business and professional endeavors.
