virtual reality

The creation of images and tactile sensations by means of a computer, producing the illusion of reality. Images are often projected onto special goggles to strengthen the illusion. (See cyberspace.)

virtual reality
(VR)
1. Computer simulations that use 3D graphics and devices such as the data glove to allow the user to interact with the simulation.
2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and "true confessions" magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as Usenet's alt.callahans newsgroup or the MUD experiments on Internet and elsewhere), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, "foreground characters" that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common "background characters" manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who "owns" it, otherwise, anything goes.
See bamf, cyberspace.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-01-30)