I love VirtualReality.io. I’m using the word love here, I know, but it fills a huge hole in the Rift experience so far.

We had the good fortune of having Matt Sonic, creator of VirtualReality.io, present at the last Silicon Valley Virtual Reality meetup. Matt is a confident and engaging speaker, but more importantly, he’s also a talented artist, designer, and software developer.

In the Rift community there are app sites (Oculus Share and RiftEnabled come to mind) and launchers (such as VR Launchpad). What VirtualReality.io does is bring both of those together.

The key features are:

Browse. From within the Rift, you can browse through the list of approved(a), compatible apps. The interface is gorgeous, and as Matt stated, we shouldn’t be so quick to discard 2D motifs we’re used to.

From within the Rift, you can browse through the list of approved(a), compatible apps. The interface is gorgeous, and as Matt stated, we shouldn’t be so quick to discard 2D motifs we’re used to. Download. Click the Download button next to an app and it starts downloading. Files are staged at a CDN so downloads are quick and reliable.

Click the Download button next to an app and it starts downloading. Files are staged at a CDN so downloads are quick and reliable. Launch. Run it! And when you’re done, you can exit any app using Shift-Tab.

Run it! And when you’re done, you can exit any app using Shift-Tab. Review. This one of the most interesting aspects of the marketplace. You can only review apps that you’ve tried. Granted, you can go into an app for a few seconds, exit, and then be allowed to submit a review, but the effects of this should be netted away as more reviews are submitted. You are prompted to submit a review right after exiting the app, when impressions are freshest.

What I find particularly interesting is the usage data that’s available. Since a user starts an app from the launcher and then ends up back there once they’re done, data about how long the app was used is captured. As Matt stated in his talk, if a user spends a short amount of time in an application, that can suggest that perhaps they had a bad experience because 1) the game sucks, or 2) there was motion sickness. Either way, that’s valuable information for the app developer.

It would be interesting to add a feedback mechanism (as opposed to a review) that would notice when a user was only in an app for a short period of time and try to capture why that was the case, perhaps with a quick one or two question survey if the user returned within 1 to 3 minutes of launching.

Overall, I’d obviously suggest that you try VirtualReality.io. After all, it’s free and good! But beyond that, I was impressed with Matt’s stated goals of 1) making VR profitable, 2) improving VR design, and 3) bringing VR to the masses. Making VR profitable for hardware and software developers means that more money and players will enter the market. This validates this burgeoning industry, and means that we as users get cooler technology even sooner. Hooray for capitalism!

(a) There are pros and cons to having a moderated app marketplace, but that’s a blog entry for another day.