Welcome to our weekly feature where we ask some of the industry’s leading developers and personalities 20 questions.

This week we feature James McCrae the developer of VR Web Browser Janus VR

1. State Your Name:

James Palmer McCrae

2. What is your current Job / Role ?

Up until about 2 months ago, I was a graduate student. I am now the co-founder of a company called FlatFab, and I am also the creator of Janus VR.

3. What are you most famous for ?

Probably Janus VR. And maybe a couple of academic papers I’ve written.

4. What is currently on the desk in front of you ?

Desktop PC, monitor, Xbox controller, Blue Snowball microphone, laptop, DK2 and a 20 euro cent coin to adjust the eye relief with 🙂

5. What was your first VR experience ?

I had a View-Master growing up, and I tried Nintendo’s Virtual Boy at a Toys-R-Us. I’ve had the nvidia 3D vision system for a while. But I think my first real VR experience was Oculus VR’s Tuscany demo on the DK1. I found someone online who lived close by and received maybe one of the first 10 units they ever shipped, and tried it at his place!

6. Did you feel any sim sickness or do you ever feel any sim sickness ?

Oh definitely. The first day was the most severe, it happened after only a few minutes of use (and I had that worry I’d never get over it). After about two days though sessions could get longer and the sickness disappeared. I’ve also screwed up my eyeballs a few times while in the process of getting the code for all the projection-related stuff for the Rift right 🙂

7. What’s the longest amount of time you have spent in VR in one play session ?

Probably about 2 hours without a break, playing Skyrim with Vireio. With small breaks, probably 4-5 hours 🙂

8. What’s the strangest experience you have had with VR ?

There is an “evil Sesame Street room” in Janus by someone named Xerion which has Ernie as Satan or something like this and reference to a “cult of the rubber ducky”. It is weird 🙂

When I got positional voice audio working in Janus with Mumble, when testing it people would come up from behind and whisper. Pretty unsettling!

9. What’s the funniest experience you have had with VR ?

Well, it relates to VR. I had a good friend come by to try out teddy0k’s “Hydra Cover Shooter” demo. When he ducked to avoid some incoming fire, he hit his head on the desk pretty hard, and just collapsed on the floor. We were both laughing hysterically.

10. What game or hardware device are you currently working on ?

I REALLY want to get the DK2 working with Janus. So, DK2 and Janus VR.

11. Do you have a release date in mind for your project ?

Releases are always ongoing! I’m really enjoying doing it this way – and I’m getting a ton of feedback and help as the project moves along!

12. What is the biggest surprise you have had since you started to work in VR ?

There have been many surprises, but the biggest would be Oculus VR themselves. They just came to exist somewhat suddenly, becoming a company worth billions of dollars – and in such a short time!

13. If you could only choose one game from your childhood to be remade for VR what would it be ?

I am a huge fan of these open-world, sandbox-style adventure games, such as the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. I’d love to see Bethesda make a great VR adventure game (or a VR remake of any previous game) – despite the legal battle going on!

In my childhood though, I have too many favourites to choose from. Of these, I’d prefer a VR remake of the games which are the “largest” in terms of their scale – more to do and see, more like entire worlds! Some of the best might be:

SNES: Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Starfox, Mega Man X. Playstation: Final Fantasy 7/8, Tenchu Stealth Assassins. PC: Starcraft, MechWarrior 2.

14. Besides games what do you think will be the most useful application for VR ?

VR brings the possibility of people who are physically separated the sense they are actually together within a shared space. This will have an enormously positive effect on people’s ability to collaborate. I think the most useful applications will be those that benefit from the enhanced ability for collaboration that VR brings.

I think Janus VR is a promising framework from which many possible applications may take place – it already provides a collaborative experience, and uses the existing structure and technologies of the internet to define the virtual and shared space which can be traversed in a seamless way.

I’m biased, obviously. 🙂

15. What advice would you give to people on how to get into VR development ?

Start with something small, a modest goal or project, and build on it.

And as you grow more comfortable learning something new, slowly peel back the layers of abstraction, and come to know about how something works more deeply. However, this pursuit requires you to be motivated and interested in what you are doing.

16. What is your favorite VR related movie ?

The Matrix, I’d say. If Demolition Man could be considered a VR movie (it had that one scene), then I’d say that too. Guilty admission: I enjoyed the Sword Art Online series.

17. If you had a crystal ball and could see 10 years into the future what developments in VR do you think will have happened?

The progress one would expect: headsets which are higher resolution and much more portable.

18. Outside of VR what do you do to relax ?

I don’t relax.

But seriously, when I’m not quite so busy I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend Chantal, jogging, riding my motorcycle, campfires/barbeques with friends, and watching various television series (there’s some great stuff out there!). I travel a lot, but often it’s for school.

19. What’s your current favorite VR experience that you have not developed your self ?

Ohh, such a hard question. Can I say the rooms/worlds/experiences people create in Janus, because technically I didn’t develop them myself? 😀

(Shout outs to qster123, nukemarine, lisa_lionheart, dantevasquez, firefoxg, codenamesrcl, oculushut and everyone else on /r/janusvr who have all created various cool experiences)

Janus VR aside – Titans of Space hit me pretty deeply in an emotional way. Technolust is brilliant. Riftmax Theater and VRChat are both really cool too.

20. Sum up how you feel about Virtual Reality in 6 words or less ?

What I wanted without knowing it!

Download Janus VR Browser Click here

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