View source for GopherVR

{{Short description|Graphical Gopher client}}
[[File:Gophervr.png|right|thumb|GopherVR displaying the major works of author [[William S. Burroughs]]]]
'''GopherVR''' is an enhanced [[Gopher (protocol)|Internet Gopher]] client that includes a 3D [[Visualization (computer graphics)|visualization]] tool for viewing resource collections as 3D scenes. It explored how people outside of formal research laboratories could use spatial metaphors to access information.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chen|first=Chaomei|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48W9BwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Gopher+VR%22&pg=PA187|title=Information Visualisation and Virtual Environments|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4471-3622-4|pages=187–189|language=en}}</ref> The 3D view was intended to be similar to 3D games of the time, like ''[[Spectre (1991 video game)|Spectre]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=McCahill|first=Mark|title=A Preliminary Design for a 3-D Spatial User Interface for Internet Gopher|url=http://www.tomeri.org/GopherVR.html|access-date=2 June 2021|quote=we can make the user experience similar to some of the better arcade style games (like Spectre)}}</ref> The authors were interested in how this spatial representation could address the "lost in hyperspace" feeling that people using conventional Gopher clients sometimes experienced.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite thesis |last= Wolf |first= Peter |date= 1996 |title= Three-Dimensional Information Visualisation: The Harmony Information Landscape |type= |chapter= |page= 40 |publisher= |citeseerx= 10.1.1.44.9705 |docket= |oclc= }}</ref>

In 1995,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/PastProjects/NH/95-04/95-04-21/0014.html|title = Projects &#124; Internet Scout}}</ref> the [[Gopher (protocol)|Gopher]] developers at the [[University of Minnesota]] released GopherVR. Using [[Gopher (protocol)#Gopher+|Gopher+]] protocol extensions, spatial positions for Gopher resources are specified, and GopherVR clients combine traditional Gopher hierarchy browsing with 3D scene navigation.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Videos circa 1994-95 of GopherVR|url=https://www.myu.umn.edu/metadot/index.pl?iid=445087&isa=Category|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514004122/https://www.myu.umn.edu/metadot/index.pl?iid=445087&isa=Category|archive-date=2011-05-14|access-date=2005-12-29}}</ref> It was primarily written by [[Mark P. McCahill]], Paul Lindner and Neophytos Iacovou. This original version was available for [[Unix]], using [[Motif (software)|Motif]] and [[X Window System|X11]], and the [[classic Mac OS]]; although incomplete, they were offered as partially functional [[alpha release|alpha]] versions for testing.

[[Godot (game engine)|Godot]] was another GopherVR client. It used a [[Z39.50]] interface to libraries, allowing you to navigate the contents of a library in 3D.

According to McCahill, GopherVR's goals included showing the potential of structures that "separate the organization from the content", so "you could display the organizational structure a bunch of different ways", which the Web did not have ways of handling at the time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McCahill|first=Mark P.|date=2001-09-13|title=Oral History Interview with Mark P. McCahill|url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107471|access-date=2021-05-16|website=University Digital Conservancy at the University of Minnesota|publisher=Charles Babbage Institute|hdl=11299/107471 }}</ref>

At the time GopherVR became available, the [[World Wide Web]] had recently been growing, and Gopher was already less commonly used.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Williams|first=Margot|date=August 7, 1995|title=The Gopher Navigator Finds a Niche in the Web World Order|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/08/07/the-gopher-navigator-finds-a-niche-in-the-web-world-order/c0c7c0e4-0e64-4f57-ac8f-7bb295a893ba/|access-date=2021-05-16}}</ref>

== Revival ==
The software packages for GopherVR were stored on the UMN Boombox [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server, and (probably due to a defective backup and restore) virtually all Gopher software on this server over 96k in length had become corrupted, resulting in the loss of all publicly available copies of the [[source code]] until it was rediscovered and made available by Mark McCahill in June 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|last=McCarthy|first=Maurice|date=25 June 2008|title=[gopher] gopherVR|url=https://lists.complete.org/gopher@complete.org/2008/06/msg00086.html|access-date=2021-06-02|website=lists.complete.org}}</ref>

In December 2009, GopherVR was re-released by Cameron Kaiser in an updated form for [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]] and other platforms,<ref>{{cite web|last=Kaiser|first=Cameron|date=29 December 2009|title=Re: [gopher] a picture is worth a thousand words|url=http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.gopher.general/2950|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921091521/http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.gopher.general/2950|archive-date=2016-09-21|access-date=2 June 2021}}</ref> but is still considered incomplete.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/gophervr Floodgap GopherVR project gopherspace] includes source code and Mac OS X binaries
* [http://www.tomeri.org/GopherVR.html Paper - A Preliminary Design for a 3-D Spatial User Interface for Internet Gopher]
* [http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-vrml.1995q1/0304.html Paper - Announcing GopherVR]
* [http://lists.complete.org/gopher@complete.org/2008/06/msg00086.html.gz Rediscovered source code]
* [http://launchpad.net/gophervr GopherVR in Launchpad]
* [http://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/gopher/Gopher_Conference_95/Papers/3DUnixServer Paper - Customizing Unix Servers For 3D]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120304214243/http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/gopher/Macintosh-TurboGopher/TurboGopherVR/ TurboGopherVR Client for Mac at Sunet]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120304214251/http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/gopher/Unix/GopherVR/ GopherVR Client for Irix at Sunet]
* Godot http://www.botik.ru/~znamensk/CTAN/tools/gopher/Unix/Godot/GODOT%20v0.1

{{gopher clients}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gophervr}}
[[Category:Gopher (protocol)]]


{{network-software-stub}}