In 15 Years, Tilt Brush is Going to Look Like Microsoft Paint
It’s not enough to simply use 3d, we have to use it effectively.
In a talk on content creation, Stanford professor Jay Borenstein analogized VR apps today with the first television shows. The earliest TV shows were essentially two or three dudes sitting around a table and talking. And that’s it. It was basically a radio show that was televised; that was how people began thinking about TV as a medium. They just weren’t really exploring what they could do. Why? Because the thinking back then was grounded in the old way, the reigning paradigm. It’s hard to let go of old notions that have formed our view of the world thus far. Now, of course, we have pushed the limits of what we can do with this medium, and movies and TV shows are constantly improving.
But we are seeing diminishing returns. 3D TVs try to simulate a 3D effect which isn’t nearly convincing enough. The envelope has been pushed, the needle has been moved, but now it slows. A new medium must take its place.
Enter VR.
VR and AR seem like worthy solutions, new types of immersive interfaces that promise to make us go “wow, that looks so real!”
However, we are again seeing people operate in the existing paradigm. VR creates a 3d world, but we’re still thinking in terms of 2d — essentially building 2d apps that work in 3d. Many video games available for Oculus or Vive were originally 2d games that have been ported over to exist in 3-space, but the core design was done with a flat display in mind. For instance, many games stay within a localized field of view, use traditional controllers, and result in a sedentary user.
The biggest evidence of our obsession with 2d? Lists and menus. Many apps still have linear, hierarchical lists, menus, and directories — flat systems of organization. For instance, the Samsung Gear home screen is organized with a limited assortment of tiles that you have to click/scroll through. Browsing the web is done on flat pages that are hanging in 3-space, conjuring a sort of 2.5d effect. VR is a spatial medium — why not take advantage of it?
The motivation actually goes deeper than just using 3d effectively. We simply don’t process information that way. We don’t think in menus and mental transcripts; we’re actually very spatial thinkers. VR apps have the potential to portray information more closely to how we conceptualize it, and we should jump on that opportunity. Our interfaces should resemble how we think.
A Microsoft’s Hololens demo video shows a user projecting videos and games on various flat surfaces around the house. Yes, it’s cool, but it’s still focused on 2d media, 2d platforms (literally). This is an example of augmented reality (AR), but the sentiment still applies.
Partially to blame for why we’re so stuck in flatland is the fact that we’re creating VR apps on desktop computers — building 3d on 2d screens. It’s hard to take advantage of 3d when your tools are missing a dimension. We have to create for VR, in VR. Unity and Unreal are developing VR platforms for the development of VR content, but they still have a long way to go. I personally like this ambitious and highly promising project by a couple of USC students, called Sandbox VR (great name too).
As we become more familiar with this new medium, we will start to explore what we can really do with it. And today’s apps are going to seem like the televised radio of the 1930’s. It sounds crazy to say, since I absolutely love Tilt Brush— but in 15 years, Tilt Brush is going to look like Microsoft Paint compared to the more advanced tools we will be using.
Advancing VR
How should we go about exploring VR and pushing the boundaries of this new medium? We can start by answering these two questions:
- What are the assumptions that we’re bringing over from the 2d world that are limiting how much we take advantage of VR?
- What is unique about VR that we can exploit to achieve new heights?
In 1884, a man named Edwin Abbott Abbott published a book called Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It is narrated by “A Square,” a 2-dimensional character living in a flat Victorian world. One day, he is visited by “A Sphere” who informs him of a 3-dimensional land where so much more is possible. (Sadly, the townspeople declare A Square a heretic when he tries to share the wisdom he has newly received.)
For decades, our digital characters have been living in Flatland. It’s time someone visit them and relate the possibilities of a 3rd dimension. Maybe doing so will help us access a 4th and a 5th.
