Virtual reality

### Limitations

Simulation isn't perfect; limited by energy and computation hardware on aplanet.

**Virtual reality** is a computer-simulated realm that is used to create certain events, situations or entire worlds for those who are connected to it. Unlike a 'jar-brain’ concept, an actual VR has entire individuals connected, thus enhancing and optimizing a required simulation.

## Overview

Homelanders have found great usage for virtual reality during their expansion. Although overwhelming majority of stars had empty planets revolving around them, there were extremely rare occasions of sentient species living under a target star’s light.

In fact, there are only ten sapient species (Homelanders included) within their supercluster that is around 100,000 galaxies large, but they still required a solution.

Fear of death was not only the prime motivation for advancing further but also a factor that determined basically the only rule Homelanders had: prohibition of ending a sapient or undersapient life, be it by action or inaction. Ergo, they refuse to simply let an evil specie to have a chance to spread out of control. While habitable systems' stars could've been turned into generators by making a larger stellar sphere, ensuring the locals' survival, the aforementioned problem had to be solved as well.

## Usage

Connecting civilization to VR is a long and tedious process. Most important thing is to make sure that their brains are altered well enough to accept simulation as a logical continuation of their real life existence.

Changing configuration of a neuron network is a solution chosen by Homelanders. Via minimally invasive procedures performed en masse they are able to alter memories of less developed species, making sure that they won’t realize how their lives will be transformed. But even with all measures and methods applied the process is not perfect, as some individuals would gradually albeit partially see VR as it is.

Individuals have their muscles and tissues artificially stimulated according to events that happen to them in VR to prevent atrophy and supplement the simulation experience their brains receive.

The next step is to build logistics. To do that, Homelanders tap into the existing infrastructure an evil specie had before the formers' arrival, and use it to support the local VR, while extra energy and materials could be used for other projects.

Usually Homelanders leave an artificially-grown group of programmers to maintain the simulation, introduce patches and tweaks and to experiment with it. Their brain is usually hard-wired to follow the protocol. Such changes prevent them from sabotaging VR or causing other troubles.

An evil specie remains in the VR indefinitely, with some of them having a chance to escape by forsaking evil ways. The planet they used to own is usually being inhabited by an artificially created specie.

## Shortcomings

To perfectly simulate something, even as small as a room, VR must take into account everything down to the quantum level. It means that every particle, subatomic and atomic, has to be simulated to behave exactly as a real one would. Then the simulation must take into account their interaction with each other, again just as they interact in reality.

In other words, a perfect simulation requires a prohibitively large amount of energy and resources. Even if Homelanders could supply both, it is deemed grossly uneffected. A planet where VR is established must supply necessary materials and energy; Homelanders' resources are needed elsewhere. Namely, for their ultimate purpose.

Therefore, VR is far from perfect when it comes to its only purpose, but perfection is not required anyway. When connected individuals interact with the simulation, they witness a graphic shell tailored to recreate a natural environment. Once they witness something more complex, they see a simplified picture. For example, if a connected scientist uses a microscope, they see prerecorded footage of the phenomenon they'd have witnessed in reality. Homelanders' knowledge that vastly outmatches that of other species' is used to accurately record and supply such footage to ensure the validity of data received by the connected.

Another shortcoming is closely related to the previous one. Because Homelanders' VR is not a perfect simulation, some individuals can and will start to perceive the world around them as different from the world they've experienced before. Specific techniques and methods are used to suppress such feelings, but in rare cases, such connected require more radical approaches.