Why WebVR?
I’ve been working with the web since the mid-nineties, although sometimes against it (I was a CD-ROM developer. Remember those?)
In the early days, many people were dismissive in the face of it’s potential. In a way, this piece isn’t only about WebVR, but about the web.
Criticisms often went something like this…
“An encyclopaedia online? It’ll never replace CD-ROM, you can’t deliver rich media content via the web.”
“Online shopping? — it’ll never replace shops, people want to touch the things they buy.”
“Voice over IP will never replace the telephone”
or
“Social media won’t last, you can’t beat meeting your friends in person”
and
“There’ll always be a place for broadcast TV”
Yet, people still continue talk about the death of the web, or where you consume the web.
“No-one would ever do THAT on their mobile, it’s a terrible experience.”
Perhaps the best VR experiences are currently reserved for Vive and Rift. But, VR on the web is part of the future.
Bandwidth gets bigger, phones get more powerful, and few have a spare £2000 for desktop VR. But, they do have a phone in their pocket.
For many people, convenience, not quality, is the driving force behind their choices.
Friction
I hear it said often, that App Stores suffer from a discoverability problem. Yet, I would contest this.
It’s Developers that suffer from the lack of discoverability. Users suffer from lack of discoverability. App stores still get paid.
Consider the difference here between the web, and an app store. A typical scenario of discovering a new game or application.
a) In an app store :
- See a post on Twitter
- Follow link
- Get redirected to relevant app store (assuming the makers have supported your device)
- Install (assuming you’re on the right device)
- Open
- Play
b) On the web
- See a post on Twitter
- Follow link
- Play
Sure you can add more steps for payments / logins / licenses etc, but they still apply to both.
Let’s not let VR get bogged down in the same-old-shizzle as mobile apps and game distribution. We need to empower makers of new realities to put them in front of whoever they want.
Distribution
Another problem are the “publishing guidelines”. For instance, an App store might not allow apps with nudity or gambling, but would allow extreme graphic violence. It’s a monopoly on your culture.
If you’re comfortable with nudity, but uncomfortable with violence, tough. Google knows better; Valve knows better; Facebook and Apple know better.
Let’s assume you have a great idea for a VR experience about naked gardening (yeah, it’s a thing)
a) On the web:
- Set up website (You can do this for a very low cost)
- ???
- Profit!!!
b) In an app store:
- Pay money to each store, for a license to create the app
- Submit app to app store
- Wait, then app is rejected
- Cover nipples and resubmit
- App is rejected again (failing to adhere to copy guidelines)
- Change title and resubmit
- App is rejected again
- ???
App stores may get the prices down, submission guidelines clearer and timelines are only a couple of days, but that’s not the point.
If we’re going to build exciting, compelling new worlds, why should we be forced to limit ourselves to a few people’s idea of ‘acceptable’? Why should we be exposed to things that do not think are acceptable?
Virtual Reality is a very compelling medium, and we have to question whether a few unknown people should be allowed to control what can be seen.
To which I bring you to my next point.
Control
With that combination of monopoly and secrecy, app stores have the potential to be easily abused by those in power.
Luckily, most of the biggest app stores are based in a country unaffected by corruption, religious fundamentalism or dubious foreign influence. Oh… wait…
Now, the web isn’t perfect. Check out this great talk by Blockstack founder Muneeb Ali about who owns which bits of the web, and what you can do about it. Yet, for the most part, you can still publish pretty much whatever you want.
Web VR is not perfect either, but it’s perfect right now for ‘snackable’ VR experiences. The tech is advancing quickly, WebVR2.0 is imminent; WebAssembly looks incredible and there are great libraries and frameworks arriving all the time.
It can be painful to work with, especially at the bleeding edge. Things that work in one browser don’t in another, but that’s a symptom of the resilience of the web.
It’s hard to predict what kind of experience people will get, or the quality of the hardware, or which browsers they’ll have installed. But, where the high-end brings quality, the web brings audience.
This is the great thing about web technologies, there’s always a way to deliver a something of the experience to everyone, regardless of device.
Trust me, immersive technologies on the web are going to be huge. The Metaverse is coming, and you won’t even have to download an app to find it.
https://explore.web-vr.xyz/t/why-webvr-and-ar-mr-xr/24
This article was adapted from a presentation given at VR Business London, Feb 2017.
