The 5 Coolest Non-Gaming Virtual Reality Apps

Google Street View

Google Street View is already a compatible app with a number of VR devices, namely Oculus Rift. The app allows users to go exploring the streets of wherever they want that has been captured and processed by Google’s imaging service. While some of the pictures can be quite grainy, as time passes and technology also improves, the quality of the experience is likely to improve too.

Of course, visiting somewhere through Google Street View and Virtual Reality is never going to be the same as actually visiting the location in real life; but for those who simply cannot travel due to a health problem or some other form of limitation, then this is a great way to allow more people to see more of the world we live in.

Hopefully, Google Street View is only the start of virtually visiting foreign places, and we’ll eventually see either the app itself or another branch out into allowing the user to take detailed guided tours of famous landmarks or tourist hot spots.

Oculus Cinema

Oculus Cinema will be available free to every Oculus Rift owner on release. The app will allow users to watch movies in a virtual cinema screening, giving you that true experience of going to the movies even when you just want to watch an old classic.

When you have chosen your file you want to watch, you’ll be placed in that perfect middle seat of a virtual cinema screen and are given the ability to change your settings from a standard movie screen to an ‘IMAX screen’ or even a sweet home cinema setup. While the seats around you in your virtual cinema visit are empty for now, Oculus believes the technology has the potential in the future to allow your friends and family who also have the app, watching the same video, to virtually sit behind you.

Oculus Cinema sounds like the movie viewing VR experience a lot of people have been looking for. Not only will it block out all the distractions of the outside world and allow you to get fully immersed in the experience, but it’ll also help you grow accustomed to having the headset on for extended periods of time.

Design

Using an Oculus Rift DK2 and a Razer Hydra controller, a developer was able to create a 3D sculpting system that gives players the ability to get up-close and personal with their creations. By allowing players to quite literally get hands-on with their material, view it from a number of different angles, and work much more accurately, Virtual Reality could result in some really interesting creations.

Whether it’s used in a professional environment or just messing around for fun, it’d be great to just play around with. In an educational environment, it would provide a new outlet for creativity to inspire a new generation of creators. With such creative-centric apps being developed for VR, the future looks bright for a new era of creativity and the exciting results that will come with it.

LiveLike VR

LiveLike is a social sports viewing app for virtual reality compatible with the GearVR, but is also due to come to other VR devices such as the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive as the development of the app continues. The app allows users to sit inside a luxury skybox with a giant window overlooking the stadium. LiveLike uses footage from cameras already present in the sports industry. Meaning that unlike some of its competitors aiming to bring full 360 degree viewing experiences to VR adopters, it can make a quick entry into the market.

LiveLike uses a wide lens camera to provide a 170-degree view of the pitch/field of the game that you’re watching, allowing you to sit in the comfort of your home but get a sense of that feeling you can only get from being at a live match. As the technology develops and the 360-degree live environment apps begin to pick up, there’s a good chance that LiveLike will also up its game. For those who have always wanted to go to see their favorite team however, this is the closest and most affordable experience available in the near future.

Trillenium

Trillenium is looking to change the way we do online shopping. When you think of the term, you probably imagine sitting at your computer or looking at your smartphone browsing through a catalogue of static images. Trillenium aims to change this by marrying online shopping with the social experience and the practicalities of real-life shopping.

Trillenium is a start-up that creates virtual stores for brands and allows users to tour them. If they spot a product they like they can get a closer look and more information simply by looking at the product they’re interested in. While the service is currently only partnered up with massive European retailer ASOS, founder Hrvoje Prpic believes that with the growing market in online retailing, more firms will adopt the technology in the coming years.