
Apply HN: Digital Teleportation = SocialAR/VR - joak
Talking with a previously unknown person is common in the real world but is quite hard to do online. Thanks to VR that mimics the real world it should be possible now to meet people on the internet...<p>Imagine a never ending street fair welcoming people from everywhere...<p>First we need to solve two problems:<p>- break the limit &quot;no more than ~100 can attend an event in VR&quot;<p>- build a virtual world with relevant content<p>DiveReal networking technology: a distributed system, a 3-layered overlay tested with 20k simulated avatars together in one place.
Long story short: add more servers to accommodate more users in your room.
btw: there is only one &quot;room&quot;, planet-sized.<p>DiveReal virtual world: we use streetview, we use the whole planet, you can send your avatar anywhere on earth. With AR devices you&#x27;ll see the avatars coming to your living-room (see &quot;holoportation&quot; from MS Research)<p>Go at http:&#x2F;&#x2F;divereal.com and try the software for Oculus Rift DK2 (0.7)<p>Also I am working on a new release due in few weeks, to betatest the dev version send me an email at contact@divereal.com   
Builds available for: GearVR, Oculus Rift and desktops (Windows, OS X, Ubuntu)<p>This is an application for YC fellowship, if you like the project and want to help, upvote and discuss, see: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11440627<p>Questions, comments, ... your valuable feedback is very welcome
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9erdelta
In the real world I pretty much never talk with other people unless I have a
specific reason to do so. On the other hand, I talk to random people on the
internet everyday via channels like IRC, reddit, Twitch, video games etc. So
your initial claims are a little hollow to me. I'd rather VR/AR interaction
not become more real worldy b/c real world interaction sucks.

~~~
joak
You make a point: SocialVR is not yet a success, I still believe it will.

However, actual systems for realtime communication with "random" people have
the merits of existing but are less than perfect.

\- Reddit: not realtime, you post and hopefully get an answer. Most of the
time, never.

\- IRC: most channels are empty, some are overcrowded, rarely there is the
right number to an interesting chat

\- twitch: better than irc, but still the most popular chatrooms are
overcrowded and then useless. So people are not chatting or interacting, just
watching tv.

\- video games: the interaction is around the game, you rarely start talking
of something else

I strongly agree with you: online is better than real world in many ways, for
example: you do not need to physically move yourself to meet people. Also
maybe online is useful to overcome shyness. SocialVR have to take what's good
in real world and what's good online.

I have to stress that last element in my pitch. Thanks for challenging me.

------
buss
> Talking with a previously unknown person is common in the real world but is
> quite hard to do online.

My personal experience doesn't match your claim. Are you sure about this?

Aren't the people who have trouble meeting someone online going to have the
same problems in VR? Wouldn't people who have trouble talking to people face-
to-face have the same trouble in VR?

~~~
joak
Yes, I understand is not so easy to meet new people in the real world.

But look, check your facebook friends, where have you met them? How many
online?

I am curious: how do you meet people online ? Can you describe how it works ?

What social service, app or website, will you recommend ?

------
sharemywin
So it's got a really cool Facebook like factor to it. But, How do you out
facebook, facebook and microsoft with their own tech. So, you need to provide
access to this world with as many options as possible. Kind of like dropbox
did with file sharing. You can connect to this platform with what ever tech
you bought. At least my opinion.

~~~
joak
Thanks for yours comments/questions.

Peter Thiel in Zero to One asks "What Do You Know Is True That No One Else
Agrees Upon?"

Actually facebook et al. only imagine SocialVR with rooms. But rooms are a
fiasco.

Do you remember
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lively](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lively)
? The hype on Second Life was high and google decided to enter the social VW
arena. In google lively, you could spawn a new room for free, 20 users max per
room. It end up with thousands of empty rooms and a bunch of full ones with
everyone trying to enter those already full. It was a total failure, stopped
after few months.

Every SL user know how it works: you spend a lot of time and energy organising
an event, sending invitations, preparing new content, etc... Hopefully people
start arriving and then you have fifty attendees and things start lagging and
you need to repel new people arriving. There are maybe thousands willing to
attend but no avail you will only get <100.

DiveReal have no "rooms", only one contiguous space that never gets too
crowded. This makes a huge difference.

Facebook don't know that. They do not understand that with multiuser rooms
they are going to have many empty rooms and few overcrowded.

But I agree with you: DiveReal has to be open to all devices. I just started
with Oculus Rift because they were more developer friendly than alternatives.

