Okay, time for an update and seeing what people think of what can be achieved.
First, let's give you a rundown of the browsers DreamArena 3 will include;
Dreamkey 3.0 - UK PAL Browser, Modem only.
Dream Passport VF4 - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated
Dream Passport Premier - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated
Dream Passport 3 Urban - JP Browser, Modem only, English Translated
Dream Passport 2 for LAN - JP Browser, LAN only, English Translated
PlanetWeb 2.0 - US Browser, Modem & BBA
WebTV - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated (Work In Progress)
Each browser has benefits and features over the others. The closest to a feature complete browser is Dream Passport Urban 3, but it doesn't work with the BBA Adapter. Dream Passport Premier is similar but lacks the IRC features for some reason.
After you've selected your browser, you'll need to connect. Once connection has been established, you'll be loaded into this splashpage (which is stored on the disc, so should be an instant load). This page will be unique to each browser as some features for some browsers aren't available on others. Some browsers will allow me to add Settings buttons to access browser settings (and Manual to access the in-browser instructions - fully translated where need be), others (such as PlanetWeb) will be barebones with only the option to Go Online/Offline as they have no functionality options. Either way, the stars pass by and the water moves in the bottom right - with the DreamArena logo moving in and out of the screen.
This index page hasn't changed much since it first appeared. It was one of the first stylised pages built and acts as a landing page for the navigation bar and updates on the right hand side (currently filled with placeholders). The navigation and updates bars could be sped up by accessing their relevant pages stored on the disc, but for the time being they access via the site server.
NAVIGATION OPTIONSSega "S" Icon - Currently goes to the pinball page that houses online game information.
Dreamcast Controller Icon - Goes to the DreamArena Community page. Goes to San Francisco with moving city lights, trees blowing in the breeze and a randomised vehicle in the foreground. This example shows Axel's Crazy Taxi cab, but it can also load the Virtua Racing F1 Car, a Ferrari F355, Ferrari Testarossa, Scarlett Moon buggy (Buggy Heat). I may add more vehicles, but it's not a necessity atm. Though I am open to suggestions. You'll see Sonic on a board in the yellow street sign as a nod to SA2. DreamOn Profiles is part of something I want to develop where you log in via Dreampi and into a set "gamertag" for setting leaderboard times, chat etc - though this may not be plausible. I'm not a coder, so it's just a concept right now.
VMU Icon - DLC Pages. I may change these up as the design is nice but too static for my liking. I also don't like the Games List menu as it resorts to quite bland late-90s design, which sticks out badly against the more visual assets across the rest of the site.
Dream Library Icon - The Green and Yellow icon is the logo for the original Dream Library software. I may swap this back out with the Mega Drive Icon I have already as a better visual indicator of where this leads, but essentially it moves us to the emulator section of the site. The first page shows a selection of TVs. This used to be a menu stage for selecting a "bank" of ROMs - as each ROM had to be loaded individually. However -drez01- has moved us away from Dream Library/Smash Pack to
Gens4ALL due to it's superior emulation, and ROM selection is dealt with in-emulator. My reimagining of this page will be to instead use it to link to different emulators on the "disc". So "Sega Channel" would be replaced with an artwork sending you to the Mega Drive emulator. Other emulators would be down to consideration and disc space.
I do wish to keep the Arcade, however, as it has a great visual flair. I may try to pull the Arcade ROMs from Yu Suzuki GameWorks/Shenmue/Shenmue II so that they can be booted from this Arcade - that way the Arcade aesthetic fits and the emulation will be more accurate than simply emulating the Mega Drive versions.
IRC Icon - The IRC button will be browser-specific (another good reason to store the navi page on-disc, it'll be customised to each browser that boots it), with the browsers that include IRC functions showing this option. This will boot up the built-in IRC feature that was built for the browser.
E-Mail Icon - The E-mail icon will be similar to the IRC one, in that it will be browser specific. It will load up the Dreamcast's built in email functionality.
Cog Icon - Settings, will load up browser settings when selected. This will again be browser-specific.
Disc Icon - Return to DreamArena menu (DreamOn Menu) to select another browser.
NEW FEATURESWebTV - This browser is being rebuilt and recovered by two friends, JarHead and WindowsXPCat. They are avid fans of WebTV, and are working tirelessly to revive it for the Dreamcast. WebTV only came out on DC in Japan, and it is a unique browser with it's own user interface and built-in functionality. The vast majority of us (if not all of us) would have never had the chance to try this out on DC before. They're translating it as they go, and have had a breakthrough on a new feature (below).
Gens4ALL Emulation - Mega Drive Emulation will be vastly improved with Gens4All replacing Dream Library/Smash Pack. It also allows us to store all the ROMs in one easy to use menu rather than having to return to the browser to select a new game.
Discord On Dreamcast - While working on WebTV, JarHead and WindowsXPCat managed to get the browser to connect to Discord and post there in real time. One click Discord chat on Dreamcast! Then, because he's also a legend, -drez01- found a way to do the same within Dream Passport's IRC feature! And this is a browser that I have fully translated into English (images, text etc) for ease of use. I'm sharing a couple of stills from both browsers, however I can't show much because it's still a Work In Progress and it's not my place to give out too many details on this development.
DISCORD ON WEBTVDISCORD IN DREAM PASSPORT