WebVR is here!

[Lorne Covington]

You can download a nightly build of FireFox that has built-in Rift support:

http://blog.bitops.com/blog/2014/06/26/first-steps-for-vr-on-the-web/

I fired it up, plugged in my Rift, and went to this web page:

http://media.tojicode.com/q3bsp/

Clicked the VR button and it worked. No downloads, no drivers, just
plug-and-play VR web goodness.

I am still reeling thinking of the implications/possibilities. I knew
this was coming but actually DOING it...

Enjoy!

- Lorne

--
http://noirflux.com

[Jan Ciger]

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Hello,

On 06/28/2014 04:08 AM, Lorne Covington wrote:
>
> You can download a nightly build of FireFox that has built-in Rift
> support:
>
> http://blog.bitops.com/blog/2014/06/26/first-steps-for-vr-on-the-web/
>
>

No Linux build :(

I am also not sure how it is with combining the proprietary SDKs (such
as Leap's and Oculus Rift's) with Mozilla's code. Neither of those is
compatible with (L)GPL like licenses. Mozilla's MPL is a lot more
complicated to read, so I am withholding my judgement on this, but I
think the author should make sure that he can comply with all the
relevant licenses before releasing the code.

He will also run afoul of Mozilla's trademark policy - basically a
modified version of Firefox must not be called Firefox nor is it
allowed to use their logos and graphics (that's why Debian distributes
Iceweasel and not Firefox - they have rebranded it).

> I fired it up, plugged in my Rift, and went to this web page:
>
> http://media.tojicode.com/q3bsp/
>
> Clicked the VR button and it worked. No downloads, no drivers,
> just plug-and-play VR web goodness.

Except that you need an all custom browser that has the drivers
hardwired :(

Not exactly plug-and-play.

J.


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[Lorne Covington]

Jan, the author of the article, Vladimir Vukićević, is director of
engineering at Mozilla, and that is an official nightly build.

"Windows and OS X builds are available below, with Linux coming soon."

So this is not some kluged hacker version of Firefox, this is the real
deal. It is in fact plug-and-play.

Everyone knows (or will soon) that HTML5/WebGL is changing everything -
that IS the delivery platform of the future. Unity and Unreal will do
direct export in their next releases. Adobe just announced Flash Pro
export to HTML5, so even that format war is dead. There are an
ever-increasing number of tools such as Goo Create and Outracks that
directly export it. Goo is even written in HTML5/WebGL itself and runs
in your browser!

What this means for VR is that complex interactive 3D content can be
delivered with no drivers, no plugins, cross-platform. Lots of folks
realize that doing the same for hardware is not just a good idea, but
will be a commercial necessity. I guarantee you Facebook, Leap, etc.
will want Firefox, Chrome, etc. to natively support their hardware.

Check out (this may have been posted here before):

http://tonyparisi.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/virtually-anywhere/

and the things linked in that story as well:

http://www.slideshare.net/auradeluxe/virtually-anywhere
- his slideshow, links to cool stuff

https://air.mozilla.org/virtual-reality-the-future-of-the-web/

Ever onward!

- Lorne

--

http://noirflux.com

[Maxim Lysak]

Sounds exciting Lorne!

I'll try to check it up soon.

Thanks for the info,

Maxim

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[Jan Ciger]

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On 06/28/2014 06:46 PM, Lorne Covington wrote:
>
> Jan, the author of the article, Vladimir Vukićević, is director of
> engineering at Mozilla, and that is an official nightly build.

Oh ok, that I didn't know.

However, that means that only Mozilla can legally distribute that (as
the copyright holder). If I took the sources (they are available),
compiled them and put it online, I would be violating the licenses of
the various proprietary SDKs :( That's a pity, because that will cause
problems for many Linux distributions that are rebuilding Mozilla in
order to package it for their users (and to ensure compatibility).

> What this means for VR is that complex interactive 3D content can
> be delivered with no drivers, no plugins, cross-platform. Lots of
> folks realize that doing the same for hardware is not just a good
> idea, but will be a commercial necessity. I guarantee you
> Facebook, Leap, etc. will want Firefox, Chrome, etc. to natively
> support their hardware.

The problem is that unless the various SDK vendors fix the licenses,
the Linux version cannot be distributed except by Mozilla. Not good :(
Or the Linux distros will have to build without the support for these
devices, in order to stay kosher with their licences. But then it
won't be an unmodified build of Firefox and they will have to forcibly
rebrand or Mozilla goes after them. Grrr ...

I think the Mozilla folks didn't think this through. I love the idea,
but unless the license mess is fixed (by getting the SDK vendors to
lift the incompatible clauses, by Mozilla providing an exception to
their MPL, etc.), this is going to be a big headache for Linux users.

Regards,

J.

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[Maxim Lysak]

Just checked the Q3 demo, and it is awesome!

It really just works with latest nightly build, very very cool :)

Maxim

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