About WebXR
Today, the web technologies has since matured and evolved into greater innovative forms. VR/AR has been grouped with similar technologies under the blanket term, XR. In this entry, I will cover the state of WebXR. First, let’s start with a brief history.
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According to Joe Medley’s (Technical Writer at Google) article, published in 2018, WebXR actually took over WebVR. “The origin trial ended on July 24, 2018, and the spec has been superseded by the WebXR Device API and a new origin trial.” This Chrome Status update stated the following:
WebVR was never enabled by default in Chrome, and was never ratified as a web standard. The WebXR Device API is the replacement API for WebVR, and is likely to ship in Chrome within the next several milestones. Removing WebVR from Chrome allows us to focus on the future of WebXR and remove the maintenance burden of WebVR (which has lived behind a flag for numerous milestones), as well as reaffirm that Chrome is committed to WebXR as the future for building immersive web based experiences.
Joe’s “…article was originally published during the Chrome 67 beta period, only VR capabilities were enabled. Augmented reality arrived in Chrome 69. Read about it in Augmented reality for the web.” His article also goes over a few developer tips for WebXR.
Developing for WebXR
As development technologies mature, so does the tools responsible for creating them! This means that developers have increased access to tools to innovate at a faster and more efficient pace. What took extraneous setup to get one certain thing to work, is no more, as the development process has since improved! I present to you a list of a few WebXR development tools/info I have come across so far:
- GitHub Page: Immersive Web at W3C: “This is the union of the Immersive Web Community Group and Immersive Web Working Group at the W3C.” Here you’ll find a repository of information and demos for WebXR!
- A-Frame: Check out their site for demos/samples, Note the Hello WebVR sample! 🤓
- Mozilla: Mozilla’s (Firefox) aframe-xr, Hubs — a multi-user experience in WebVR built with A-Frame.
- An Intro to WebVR (by Glitch): “A free, 5-part video course with interactive code examples that will teach you the fundamentals of WebVR using A-Frame.” (early stage web development)
There are still works that categorize themselves as WebVR and WebAR. I foresee some of them making the conversation to WebXR one day. Outside of the free development tools out there, there are paid ones as well such as 8th Wall (for WebAR).
