Vicher will run on either platform and can be easily ported to higher quality equipment, such as Silicon Graphics workstations at a later date. The virtual environment being modeled in Vicher consists of a small portion of a modern chemical plant, plus two microscopic exploration areas. The rooms consist of a welcome center, in which users learn how to use the program and receive other pertinent information, a reactor room, where users can control and observe an operating reactor, and a debriefing room, designed to test student's mastery of the concepts presented. The microscopic areas are the inside and the outside of a catalyst pellet. Users interface with Vicher using a joystick for movement, a mouse for activating objects and requesting information, and a keyboard for various other tasks.
Users can receive information on any object or area, by using the right mouse button.
In the Windows environment this brings up a separate window with the appropriate help text. This help is also linked to other help screens, via a hypertext interface. Work is currently underway to implement a similar feature in the DOS version. The pictures on the walls can be activated, which provides a teleport to the location pictured. A variation of this is to fly through the pictures, which also provides a teleport.