Google's Chrome Web browser now supports the WebVR virtual reality platform, enabling anyone to experience 360-degree photos, videos, and other content originally designed for VR headsets on their desktops or laptops.
Taking VR out of the headset and onto the Chrome browser is a big step forward in making the technology more accessible. It's hardly the first step—Mozilla has been working on something similar for Firefox, and WebVR has already been included in beta versions of Chrome. But given the browser's popularity, it will now be many people's first foray into virtual worlds.
WebVR is designed to unify the VR experience across devices with varying degrees of computing power. In theory, that means that photos and video should look as smooth on the Web as they do in a Google Daydream View or a Samsung Gear VR. That's certainly the case with the demos Google offered in a blog post this week, including a collection of more than 300,000 celebrity homes, museums, canyons, and iconic architecture.
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Ensuring a consistent experience by adhering to WebVR standards, though, is largely up to developers. Google offers extensive developer resources, including guidelines like the all-important frame rate, which can give viewers motion sickness if it's too low. WebVR content on mobile Chrome browsers should have a minimum rate of 60fps, while desktop browsers shouldn't go below 90fps, Google says.
"By assuming a non-VR environment first you can maximize the reach of your experiences, and ensure that you're providing the best possible experience no matter what setup your users have," Google wrote on its developer support page.
Google's frame rates are consistent with what Mozilla is telling its developers, too. It's worth noting, however, that despite the hardware diversity that WebVR is theoretically capable of supporting, you won't yet be able to experience actual VR in Chrome unless you're using Daydream with a compatible phone. For now, that means iOS and other Android users are left out.
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