Attention bookworms! Experience stories through virtual reality

With e-readers, book apps for mobile phones and books in Augmented reality The first steps towards virtual reading pleasure were taken many years ago. While some alternative reading options are designed to mimic reading a book as closely as possible, other methods utilise the potential of the devices to create a new experience for the reader. Being completely immersed in a book that takes you into strange worlds fits in very well with the experiences offered by virtual reality. So it's no wonder that a lot is now happening in this area.

You can immerse yourself in the setting of a book with games such as Andromedum. The reader finds themselves in a world that exactly matches the place in the book and thus experiences the plot up close. In Vivepaper, an app for the HTC Vive that focuses more on virtual magazines, it is even possible to bring an image from the current reading into the background and move it around to take a closer look at it. To start the adventure, all you have to do at the beginning is scan a suitable QR code. Those who want to get started right away will unfortunately have to wait a little longer, as HTC's app is initially available in the Chinese Viveport store.

However, those who prefer something more interactive will of course also get their money's worth. In 2014, John Carmack, CTO at Oculus VR, revealed that he was working on a comic book shop that existed entirely in the virtual realm. While this project unfortunately came to nothing, other developers have since taken the idea further and created entire graphic novels in VR. One example of this is SENS VR and Virtual Novel. SENS VR is a game based on the graphic novel of the same name S.E.N.S. by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. The player moves through a labyrinth of abstract arrows and has to find his way. Virtual Novel, on the other hand, takes up the concept of the famous Japanese playable visual novels and allows the player to interact with other characters in order to progress in the story.

The experiences that can be had with virtual books are just as varied as the approaches to the topic. But as in so many areas relating to virtual reality, everything here is still in its infancy. We look forward to everything that is yet to come.

Sources: Imbanova Entertainment Inc, VR focus, Virtual Novel, HTC, Steam