Facebook Launches React VR to Let Devs Extend the Web into Virtual Reality

Facebook has officially launched React VR, an open-source JavaScript library that lets developers create cross-platform WebVR experiences.

Oculus and Facebook announced React VR in October last year, an open-source JavaScript library (based on the popular React library) that’s designed to make it easy for web developers and programmers to deliver WebVR experiences that can be served to a range of VR headsets directly through the web browser.

Following a pre-release, this week at Facebook’s F8 conference, the company officially released the full React VR codebase on GitHub so that developers can begin to use and contribute to the code. Along with the codebase comes a useful set of documentation, including a simple Hello World tutorial for developers to begin poking around with React VR to see how it works. Oculus writes on its developer blog:

Today we’re releasing React VR, a new library that lets developers everywhere build compelling experiences for VR. Expanding on the declarative programming style of React and React Native, React VR lets anyone with an understanding of JavaScript rapidly build and deploy VR experiences using standard web tools. Those experiences can then be distributed across the web—React VR leverages APIs like WebGL and WebVR to connect immersive headsets with a scene in a web page. And to maximize your potential audience, sites built in React VR are also accessible on mobile phones and PCs, using accelerometers or the cursor for navigation.

With React VR, you can use React components to compose scenes in 3D, combining 360 panoramas with 2D UI, text, and images. You can increase immersion with audio and video capabilities, plus take full advantage of the space around you with 3D models. If you know React, you now know how to build 360 and VR content!

Although React VR is maintained by Facebook/Oculus, the library is designed to create WebVR content with universal support for VR headsets regardless of vendor, at least that’s the vision; WebVR is still early, and although the majority of major browser makers are on board, development on the initial WebVR web specification is still ongoing, and most support for WebVR in today’s browsers is still through beta and other experimental releases.

With today’s release, developers can begin crafting WebVR experiences and take advantage of React VR as a supported and documented library as browsers continue to refine and bring WebVR support to mainstream releases.

The post Facebook Launches React VR to Let Devs Extend the Web into Virtual Reality appeared first on Road to VR.

An Inflection Point for WebVR and the Open Metaverse

tony-parisiThere’s been a couple of key developments in the evolution of WebVR during the month of October. First, Nate Mitchell announced during his Oculus Connect 3 keynote that Oculus will be supporting the WebVR ecosystem with the React VR framework and a VR-enabled browser called Carmel. And then on October 19th and 20th, there was a historic W3C Workshop on Web & Virtual Reality where all of the major VR players gathered in San Jose to hash out the WebVR web standards for delivering VR and AR applications over the web. Some the participating companies included Mozilla, Google, Samsung, Oculus, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Valve, Sony, Yahoo, Unity, Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, HP, Dolby, High Fidelity, JanusVR, and Sketchfab. With Oculus’ public support and the gathering momentum around delivering VR over the web, WebVR hit an inflection point of buy-in and momentum such that the future of the metaverse will more likely be based upon the principles of the open web rather than driven by a more closed, walled garden application ecosystem.

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I had a chance to catch up with Tony Parisi at Oculus Connect 3, and he’s now started his own WebVR-focused company called Form VR that collaborated with Oculus on the TripAdvisor WebVR demo that was shown during the OC3 keynote. We talk about some of the latest developments in WebVR, how Microsoft is getting involved to get support for AR WebVR apps for the HoloLens, how Form VR is developing tools for creating WebVR applications, and some of the other big developments that are showing a lot of buy-in and momentum around WebVR.


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Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

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