Editing Mesh (section)

= Interfacing: AR, VR, and XP =
Mesh media is accessed using one of three protocols: augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or experience playback (XP).

== Augmented Reality ==
Most users perceive data from the mesh as augmented reality—information overlaid on the user’s physical senses. For example, computer-generated graphics will appear as translucent images, icons, or text in the user’s field of vision. While visual AR data—called entoptic data—is the most common, other senses may also be used. AR input includes acoustic sounds and voices, odors, tastes, and even tactile sensations. This sensory data is high-resolution and seemingly “real,” though it is usually presented as something ghostly or otherwise artificial so as not to be confused with real-world interactions (and also to meet safety regulations).
User interfaces are customized to the user’s preferences and needs, both graphically and content-wise. Filters allow users to access the information they are interested in without needing to worry about extraneous data. While AR data is typically placed in the user’s normal field of vision, entoptics are not actually limited by this and may be viewed in the “mind’s eye.” Nevertheless, icons, windows and other interaction prompts can be layered, stacked, toggled, hidden, or shifted out of the way if necessary to interact with the physical world.

=== Avatars ===
Every mesh represents themselves online via a digital avatar. Many people use digital representations of themselves, whereas other prefer more iconic designs. This may be an off-the-shelf look or a customized icon. Libraries of avatars may also be employed, enabling a user to switch their representation according to mood. Avatars are what other users see when they deal with you online—i.e., how you are represented in AR. Most avatars are animated and programmed to reflect the user’s actual mood and speech, so that the avatar seems to speak and have emotions.

=== E-tags ===
Entoptic tags are a way for people to “tag” a physical person, place, or object with a piece of virtual data. These e-tags are stored in networks local to the tagged item, and move with the item if it changes location.
E-tags are viewable in AR, and can hold almost any type of data, though short notes and pictures are the most common. E-tags are often linked to particular social networks or circles within that network, so that people can leave notes, reviews, memorabilia media, and similar things for friends and colleagues.

=== Skinning ===
Since reality can be overlaid with entoptics of hyperreal quality, modern users can “skin” their reality by modifying their perceptual input. Environments around them may be modified to �fi their particular tastes or mood. Need your spirits boosted? Pull up a skin that makes it seems like you're outdoors, with the sun shining down, the sounds of gentle surf in the background, and butterflies drifting lazily overhead. Pissed off? Be comforted as flames engulf the walls and thunder grumbles ominously in the distance. It is not uncommon for people to go about their day, accompanied by their own personal soundtrack that only they can hear. Even olfactory and taste receptors can be artificially stimulated to experience sensations like the smell of roses, fresh air, or freshly-baked pastries. While originally developed to make “space food” less distasteful and as a method to counter space-induced cabin fever for those that weren’t born in space, vast archives of aromas, tastes, and environments are available for download. Skins do not need to be kept private, they may also be shared with others via the mesh. Tired of your cramped habitat cubicle? Decorate it with a custom-themed skin and share it with visitors to make them feel more comfortable. Found a new music track that livens up your day? Share it with others around you, so they can nod to the same beat.
Skinning can also be used for the opposite effect. Any undesired content of reality can be edited out, veiled, or censored by modern software programs or muses that engage in real-time editing. Tired of looking at someone’s face? Add them to your killfile, and you’ll never have to acknowledge their presence again. AR censorware is also common in some communities with strict religious or moral convictions.

== Virtual Reality ==
Virtual reality overrides the user’s physical senses and places them inside an entirely computer-generated environment called a simulspace. While AR is used for all common day activities and interactions, VR is used mainly for recreation (gaming, virtual tourism, escapism), socializing, meeting (when face-to-face meetings are not possible), and training. Dedicated networks with high-capacity information processing are required to render and run large and complex hyper-real simulspaces with many users, and these are often hard-wired for additional stability. Smaller simulspaces capable of hosting a smaller amount of users can be run on a smaller distributed network of linked devices. Many infomorphs and AIs effectively reside within simulspaces, and some transhumans have sworn off the physical world altogether.

=== Sidebar: Aether Jabber ===
''# Start Æther Jabber ## Active Members: 2 #>>I have to tell you, after losing Kiri and Sal to that Exsurgent infection, my team is a lot more worried about contracting the virus from digital sources. Actually, I’d label them as paranoid. I don’t think they’ll ever touch any salvaged electronics again unless they’re behind a zillion ﬁrewalls and the device is completely isolated and tested by a delta fork loaded with every antiviral ware we can ﬁnd ﬁrst. Even then, they’d rather shoot it than access directly or hook it up to an important network. After seeing what the virus did to Sal, I don’t blame them.<<In our line of work, paranoia can be healthy.>>Sure, but it’s also a pain in the ass. Security is always a trade-off. Firewall’s gotta have something up its sleeve that I can pass along to the rest to put their guards at ease.<<Yes ... and no. It’s complicated.>>I don’t see why. Do we have a way of detecting and killing this thing or not?<<Sort of.>>You’re killing me.<<Look. Ever since the Fall, we've had measures in place to detect and counteract Exsurgent infections and all of the other worms and malware the TITANs concocted. Firewall went to great lengths to make sure that everyone had access to the detection signatures and countermeasures—and we mean everyone. They’ve been incorporated in almost every commercial and open source security software released in the past decade. Every habitat in the system—well, every one with a lick of sense anyway—employs such measures in their chokepoints and mesh infrastructure.>>I sense a “but.”<<Yes. The problem is that the Exsurgent virus and similar TITAN infowar worms are adaptive. They’re intelligent. Even though we mostly eradicated them from our networks, new versions periodically pop up, using some new trick to get past the Firewall scans and wreak havoc. Our warning and outbreak response system has it down to a science, and such instances are usually contained.>>Usually.<<Well, there’s always the chance that variants are still skipping around out there, under our radar. What’s worse to contemplate, though, is that we may get another major outbreak that spreads to multiple habitats before we can contain it. That might get very, very bad, very, very quickly.''

=== Defying Nature's Laws ===
A plethora of simulspace environments are available, ranging from simulations of real places to historical recreations to fantastic worlds representing almost every genre imaginable. All of these simulations are bolstered by the fact that possible scenarios are not bound by the laws of nature. The fundamental forces of reality and nature, like gravitation, electromagnetism, atmosphere, temperature, etc., are programmable in VR, allowing for environments that are completely unnatural, such as escheresque simulspace where gravity is relative to position. These domain rules may be altered and manipulated according to the whim of the designer.
Time itself is an adjustable constant in VR, though deviation from true time has its limits. So far, transhuman designers have achieved time dilation up to 60 times faster or slower than real time (roughly one minute equaling either one hour or one second). Time slowdown is far more commonly used, granting more time for simulspace recreational activities (more time, more fun!), learning, or work (economically effective). Time acceleration, on the other hand, is extremely useful for making long distance travel through space more tolerable.

=== Accessing Simulspaces ===
Most simulspaces can be accessed through the mesh just like any other node. Since VR takes over the user’s sensorium, however, and sometimes involves time perception dilation, users are cut off from other mesh-delivered sensory input and interacting directly with other nodes. Instead, outside mesh interactions are routed through the simulspace’s interface (meaning that a character may browse the mesh, communicate with others, etc. from inside a simulspace, if the domain rules allow it).
Since physical senses are overridden when a user accesses VR, most people prefer to rest their body in a safe and comfortable environment while in the simulspace. Body-fitting cushions and couches help users relax and keep them from cramping up or injuring themselves if they happen to thrash around. In case of long-term virtual sojourns (for instance, during space travel), morphs are normally retained in tanks that sustain them in terms of nutrition and oxygen. Many VR entertainment and game networks offer dedicated and hardwired physical VR cafes with private pods. Visitors rent a pod and physically jack in, using either access jacks or an ultrasonic trode net that reads and transmits brain patterns when placed on the head. When accessing a simulspace, the user first enters an electronic buffer “holding space” known as a white room. Here the user chooses a customizable avatar-like persona to represent them in the simulspace, called a simulmorph. From this point, the user immerses themself in the virtual reality environment, effectively becoming their simulmorph.

== Experience Playback ==
Every morph with mesh inserts has the capability to transmit or record their experiences, a form of technology called experience playback, or XP. Since the first programs were developed that provide a simple interface to “snapshot” one's experiences, it has become extremely popular to share XP with friends and social networks, or with the online public at large.
The level of experiences depends on how much of the recorded sensory perception is kept when the clip is made. Full XP includes exteroceptive, interoceptive, and emotive tracks. Exteroceptive tracks include the traditional senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste that process the outside world. Interoceptive tracks include senses originating within the body, such as balance, a sense of motion, pain, hunger and thirst, and a general sense of the location of one’s own body parts. Emotive tracks include the whole spectrum of emotions which can be aroused in a transhumans.
Due to the biological requirements (neuronal and endocrine systems) of expressing emotions, hardcore XP aficionados deem only the experience in and from biomorphs as the real deal.