Classic Field of Dreams logic is driving news media companies into the loosely-defined virtual reality space, while hoping that a business model will accompany their efforts.

But unlike the baseball diamond envisioned by the film's Iowa farmer, it seems media companies can't build the potential asset fast enough.

News Corp - which has already identified digital real estate as a growth area - is among those gathering key technologies and talent in what is becoming a race to reach the virtual destination first.

Last week it invested in Melbourne start-up Plattar, its lead role in the $1.1 million seed capital funding complementing the acquisition of Thai-developed 3D and VR tool Diakrit - focussed on property ads - in February. Both are investments of local subsidiary News Corp Australia following the arrival as executive chairman of Michael Miller last year.

Cloud-based Plattar - still in private beta - had already impressed with a collaboration with the part-owned REA Group and real estate firm Ray White, as well as with virtual tour startup Scann3d and property developer BPM to create self-guided 3D tours to enable prospective buyers to view unfinished "off the plan" apartments. Plattar's chief executive Rupert Deans says the platform will allow "anybody with any skill set" to create AR experiences.

What News Australia's chief technology officer Alisa Bowen described this week as a major component of the "next wave of consumer engagement", is already drawing audience. Project profiles including 3D tours on the realestate.com.au property website had already been found to engage visitors for 52 per cent longer than those that didn't.

The engagement potential has also been leveraged for native advertising, with a recent paid post produced for General Electric by the New York Times' TBrand Studio hailed as a standout example so far.

Diakrit has been around somewhat longer than Plattar, established in 2001 and now with a staff of 450 across seven offices. Its forte is 3D floor plans, rendering and "interior visualisations", another good fit for News' ambitions.

Meanwhile, the big money is on virtual reality, the spending power of Facebook (with Oculus Rift) and Google - which have VR "viewers" at various pricepoints - leaving the NYT, US participant Gannett, and even News trailing. The interest is there, with the New York Times giving away a million Google Cardboard viewers recently, but reactions are mixed.

Perhaps that is because - irrespective of the cost of the viewer - the content experience itself can be indifferent. I was interested to see the makers of the old ViewMaster stereoscopic viewer I recall as a child, muscling in on the immersive excitement of VR with a Cardboard-based version. The original ViewMaster appeared in 1939, but as TV historian Tony Robinson emphasised with a recent documentary using so-called 3D images of World War I conflicts, that story goes back a bit before that.

And hence the dilemma, as the "computer-generated simulation or recreation of an environment" that is VR is confused with the enhanced and augmented reality of AR, as well as with 360 video and 3D.

Since we first posted this, there has been further excitement with YouTube combining technologies with Live 360 video, and of course there are numerous examples of 360 video online including NBA vasketball, the Coachella music festival... and the release of Adobe editing software. Personally I find being able to look around the 'set' where a video is being shot is a distraction, lacking the impact of well-made video.

As for AR, it's a few years now since the technology was being spruiked around the aisles of the World Publishing Expo with live images of fish demonstrated jumping out of the water as soon as you focussed your smartphone on Sydney harbour. These days, frequently-static web links triggered by a newspaper or magazine image are being passed off as AR, with the currency progressively debased.

Let's hope both technologies evolve fast enough to catch those who find it a big yawn, before they finally fall asleep.

My Dutch son-in-law learned to speak English from watching videos, and went on to work as a producer in video games, a market said to be bigger than films and music put together. Perhaps those seeking to understand (and find a business model in) what they are calling VR need to spend more time in Los Santos or Liberty City.

Peter Coleman