One of the things keeping OSVR from becoming a de facto platform for VR is that its software stack, being open source, still hasn't received as much development as Facebook's Oculus or HTC's Vive platforms. However, Sensics, one of the players which has put its stock on the OSVR ecosystem from the beginning, is aiming to gradually change that. Its recent introduction of the Sensics Home Suite brings, in itself, some much-needed quality of life improvements for any VR platform.First up is Protector, a proximity-alert system much like the Vive's Chaperone and Oculus' Guardian; these let you configure your play space so the VR world's boundaries are defined by the physical dimension you're in. After all, it might be a little painful if you'd try to punch a VR bad guy through one of your walls.


As Sensics describes it, the Protector, in its initial set-up, "(...) allows the user to define the safe play area. The system then continuously monitors the user's head and arm positions (using any available OSVR-supported sensors) and presents a warning grid when the edge of the play area is approached." Protector can work with the wide variety of devices supported by OSVR, being simply an app that subscribes position information and wraps it with any other app that's currently running in the system.Second is the inclusion of a much needed Home Screen, which features a revenue market interface (ie, the Store) as well as a library interface for your OSVR content. The Home Suite also includes Sensics Tray, a focal point for your access to stores, manage devices and plugins, adjusting settings and your profile.Of less immediate interest for users, but still interesting and a point to consider, is Sensics' Home Suite adoption of branding and customization options through an advertising platform built into the software. This essentially represents a commerce layer on top of the OSVR platform, which grants businesses and companies the ability to insert ads and their own store interface, leveraging analytics and big data."We give the ads, the analytics, the store, and the ability to customize. Now, we're not an ad platform, but what we have is an API that connects ad platforms. [Before], if I'm an ad platform and I want to advertise in VR, I have to go to a whole bunch of publishers and try to convince them to include my plug in," said Yuval Boger, Sensics' CEO.

"With this," he added, "it becomes almost an OS service." This interface is engine-agnostic, meaning it can be used in any gaming engine through the use of dead space or moments to run ads - such as in a level's loading screen, for example. According to Sensics, this shouldn't impact the user experience or the system's performance, since "Ad insertion is done independently of the graphics engine that is used to create the experience." It also allows targeted ads by geographic location, and the platform can even (if the hardware is being used) leverage eye tracking to create a heat map of where you look so advertisers can craft more effective ads.

This in itself isn't much attractive at the outset - ads are naturally (and sometimes correctly) viewed as intrusions in our choice of content. However, I expect future games to incorporate in-game real-life ads at some point in time. Is there a reason why Deus EX: Mankind Divided's ads need to be hand crafted at all, when the creators can just run some real ads and make some money in the process? Naturally, this would mean the ads would have to be carefully selected so as to not jar the gameplay experience. They have to make sense. Thus, an advertisement for a 3D printer, or the latest sci-fi movie, might make sense in mankind Divided's world. However, in a game grounded at least partially in our world, in our time frame, it might even make sense to run some Chanel Nº 5 ads. If the implementation wasn't obtrusive and made sense (appearing in TV screens and posters around the game world), and if I saw a benefit from seeing these ads peppered (like a $30 price-tag on a $60 AAA game, for instance), I don't think I'd mind. Those ads might even lend credibility to the game world.

Going back to Sensics' Home Screen ads, these might make sense as a way to subsidize hardware. One can imagine Acer, for example, running ads of it's product catalogue inside their own OSVR headset; or even running Google's ad system. If that went some ways towards subsidizing a quality VR experience, with hardware costs coming down and democratizing VR access, why not?