JanusVR
JanusVR was a virtual reality internet browser & chat application, founded & created by James McCrae and Karan Singh in December 2014. Inspired by Snow Crash's Metaverse like so many other Virtual World platforms before it, JanusVR sought to build a network of portals within which users could collaborate, communicate, explore, and even create new 3D content.
The program allowed users to create virtual spaces with an intuitive suite of in-application editing tools. Assets such as models and textures had to be uploaded to the internet, ideally on a user's personal website, and could then be referred to by the code generated by the editing tools. This code could then be appended to a webpage, which would then allow other users to visit these virtual spaces upon traveling to the webpage's URL.
This allowed web hosts/designers to essentially create a 3D version of their website that users could explore and interact with, essentially making JanusVR a 3D Web Browser.
JanusVR as a corporation closed its doors on February 11, 2020, citing an inability to maintain their status due to expenses relating to legal, accounting, patent/IP filings, etc. James McCrae would go on to maintain JanusVR "as a personal expense" under the modified title of JanusXR.
Downloads
JanusVR is Open Source, and code for all of its components, client & presence server can be found here:
https://github.com/janusvr
Trivia
JanusVR is named after Janus, the Roman God of Passages.
JanusVR began its life as Firebox. This name was promptly changed due to its similarity to Mozilla's Firefox browser, though remnants of the Firebox Project can be seen in JanusVR's room code still being defined as "FireBoxRoom".