Neos VR

I read New World Notes and Hypergridbusiness semi-regularly to keep abreast of developments in immersive worlds. I have read them both since the days of our involvement in the Marinetta project in Second Life.

Things have never really taken off in the ways that people like Philip Rosedale expected, and certainly nobody has yet found a compelling business (”adult”) use for experiences like Second Life.

Things still move forward though, powered nowadays mainly by enthusiasts and hobbyists, rather than venture capitalists.

I read today about Neos VR, who seem unusual in several ways.

I’m posting this because NeosVR seriously seems like the most graphically robust and feature-rich social VR platform on the market. (And I’m not sure NeosVR counts as being “on the market” since it’s not an actual company. but three developers splitting $7328 a month in Patreon donations.) But you look at the graphics with dynamic lighting, the responsiveness of the avatars — especially integrated to a full VR rig — not to mention the content creation tools and so on, and it certainly seems many years ahead of, say, VRChat.

I looked at their latest show reaal on YouTube, which you can see here.

I then looked at their page on Steam. At that point I realised there that I have no way to access the game. I learned that “Neos VR requires a controller in order to play. Playing with a keyboard and mouse isn’t supported”.

Never mind. It looks interesting and I will continue to monitor its development and wish it well.