FreeVR: Honoring the past, Looking to the future

Fifteen years of experience in designing and implementing a VR integration library have produced a wealth of lessons upon which we can further build and improve our capability to write worthwhile virtual reality applications. The FreeVR virtual reality library is a mature library, yet continues to progress and benefit from the insights and requests encountered during application development. We compare FreeVR with the standard provisions of virtual reality integration libraries, and provide an in-depth look at FreeVR itself. We examine what design decisions worked, and which fell short. In particular, we look at how the features of FreeVR serve to restore applications of the past into working condition and aid in providing longevity to newly developed applications.