At OC5, Oculus Showed They Were Serious About WebVR. Phew.
At the last Oculus Connect, as at every Oculus Connect, there was a big emphasis on the tools that developers can use to build native VR experiences for Oculus hardware. Unity3D and Unreal, the leading game engines, usually get the lion's share of the attention during the main keynotes. Those who have been following WebVR though, know that there's another way of creating and publishing VR experiences: building websites that use the browser to deliver VR through their use of the WebVR API (soon to be WebXR).
It's clear that to a certain extent, Oculus is interested in the immersive web. For example, their VR web browser, the Oculus Browser, provides the best way to view WebVR experiences from the Oculus Go (sorry Firefox Reality - but we look forward to seeing how you evolve!). Oculus is also behind React360, one of the leading WebVR development frameworks.
It was encouraging, though, to see Oculus be even more explicit at Oculus Connect 5 about their commitment to making the web a "first class medium" for delivering virtual reality. As Andrew Mo from Oculus says in his talk below, "The web is already a big deal in VR, and it will play an important role in shaping its future." He also notes that the Oculus Quest will have full support for room-scale WebXR.
Here at Frame, we couldn't agree more - which is why we are building Frame with WebVR and why, as a custom development studio, we only take on WebVR projects.
Check out Andrew's whole session below to hear him detail Oculus' recognition of the power of WebVR and their commitment to nurturing the ecosystem of the immersive web.