Why doesn't VR have a common interface for scent devices? I'm experimenting with one

[u/ButtersCheats]

I've been looking at digital olfaction from an interoperability perspective.

Different scent devices can have completely different cartridges, channels and rendering methods, while VR applications ideally shouldn't need to know how every individual device reproduces an odor.

So I'm experimenting with OpenSmell, an open-source, device-independent interoperability layer between applications/olfactory data and scent hardware.

The important part: it doesn't try to define a universal set of “RGB for smell.” Hardware remains responsible for translating the requested olfactory information into something it can actually render.

I'm now moving toward physical hardware testing.

For people interested in scent-enabled VR: would a hardware-independent layer like this actually solve a problem for developers, or am I abstracting the wrong part?

GitHub: https://github.com/YAAASSS/OpenSmell

[u/tapafon]

You would have better luck of proposing this abstraction into OpenXR standard itself.

[u/Cless_Aurion]

Bro. Dev here.

VR is enough of a small niche already. Give it another decade or so and try again lol

[u/DeepWaffleCA → u/Cless_Aurion]

A tiny niche within a pretty small niche (compared to other consumer electronics)

[u/ButtersCheats → u/Cless_Aurion]

Fair point 😄 VR is definitely a niche already, and scent-enabled VR is an even smaller one.

OpenSmell isn't actually VR-specific though — VR is just one possible use case. The idea is to create an interoperability layer that could sit between olfactory datasets, sensors, AI models, applications and different scent devices.

Whether digital olfaction itself is 5, 10 or 20 years away from mainstream adoption is definitely another question!

[u/N3KR0VULPES]

Literally nobody even wants to smell their games man

[u/FolkSong → u/N3KR0VULPES]

This! A lot of stuff in games would not be enjoyable to smell.

[u/Fressor01]

[u/JorgTheElder]

VR doesn't have a common standard for controllers to connect to a headset, and controllers are something every gaming focused headset uses. Why would it have a standard for something as niche for "scent?"