Web-based virtual reality (VR) experiences pale in comparison to the experience one gets through headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. But there is some serious competition in the works as VR divides into 360-degree video content, filmed and stitched together with HDR cameras and purely digital 3D model-based content.
Most prized is getting a piece of the virtual reality hardware market, but making VR appeal to the masses is the whole industry’s collective job. This is why Google Cardboard’s partnership with the New York Times is important, as it is about to add 300,000 additional New York Times subscribers to the list of those million who’ve already received Google Cardboard devices, which were given away during the original promotion.
Bringing web-based VR to the masses has many challenges, and first and foremost is how to equip browsers for content. Getting browsers to interact with VR headsets is challenging, even given the current 3D model rendering capabilities of WebGL.
Google (a subsidiary of Alphabet) is currently the world’s largest company after Apple sunk to a two-year low. Given its current standing, how is the world’s largest company handling the task of making browser-based VR experiences a smooth reality?
Part of the answer came at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference & Expo, where a software engineer from Google named Boris Smus spoke about WebVR and Google Chrome. Smus is responsible for creating the WebVR Boilerplate, which allows programmers to create VR experiences that run in browsers. But if Google Chrome can only render WebGL content at 60 frames per second (FPS), how can it match the current standard of 90 FPS set by Oculus Rift and HTC Vive?
Smus talked about the benefits of Web-based VR and then showed the crowd a custom-built version of Google Chrome running VR at 90 FPS. He encouraged everyone to create VR content, and said he hoped that this custom 90-FPS version of Google Chrome would make it into an updated version of the browser.
If you want to see what this type of VR content looks likes, check out Google’s Chinese New Year lantern experience and “Discovering Gale Crater” from the Los Angeles Times.