Google announced the Daydream VR platform yesterday during the opening keynote presentation for Google I/O 2016. Today, the company showed more details about Daydream Home, the platform's content discovery and delivery system, that show that the company is taking the VR experience seriously.
Daydream Home will be the main launch point for Daydream VR. Google said it wanted to make Daydream Home into a place you want to spend time in. Here you’ll find your library of content, the settings menu and the VR Google Play store. Daydream Home will let you navigate all of your content without ever taking the HMD off.
The main Daydream Home screen features three large floating panes. Google calls these “Discovery Windows” and plans to use this space to promote curated content from the Play Store. The most interesting thing about the discovery windows is that they are immersive. Google said you can “peer into the world and get a real sense of 3D” if you lean in to see the preview closer.
Google gave the whole Play Store an overhaul to better take advantage of VR’s unique abilities. If you click on a store item for more details, you’ll find yourself immersed inside 360-degree screenshots of the experience or game. Google has also followed Oculus’s lead and will provide a “motion intensity rating” for every VR app, which sounds exactly the same as Oculus’s comfort rating.
Navigating through the VR version of the Play Store is done with the Daydream controller. You’ll simply swipe through pages and use the device as a pointer to select content.
Though Google wants you to spend as much time as possible in VR, the company will still allow you to purchase and discover content the traditional way. The Daydream mobile app will let you queue up VR videos to view later or purchase and download apps and games even if you don’t have the HMD with you.
Google has not yet revealed the exact release date for Daydream, but the company said it will launch this fall and will be supported by many vendors.
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