WebXR in 2020

In 2020, WebXR is beginning to mature…

• There’s a new home portal for WebXR projects
  • https://immersiveweb.dev/
• A new GitHub for all things WebXR
  • https://github.com/immersive-web/webxr/blob/master/explainer.md
• A WebXR emulator for Chrome and Firefox allows testing without a headset
  • https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/webxr-api-emulator/mjddjgeghkdijejnciaefnkjmkafnnje
• Both Google Chrome and Firefox have made WebXR a default for their distribution browsers. The Firefox WebXR portal has matured:
  • https://mixedreality.mozilla.org/hello-webxr/
• A simple framework for viewing models in AR
  • https://immersiveweb.dev/#model-viewer
• Frameworks allowing authoring like PlayCanvas, Argon.js, babylon.js, three.js, React 360 and A-frame have also stabilized

Compared to native code authoring in as Unreal Engine, Unity 3D, Vuforia, Wikitude, WebXR has a couple of advantages for building virtual worlds. First, it runs in the browser, so there is no separate app download step. Second, it can run in a variety of modes – anything from “magic window” (move the smartphone around to see an otherwise invisible scene) to high-end headsets like Hololens, Oculus, NReal.

The addition of WebXR exports from Unity is a greate enabler for WebXR. Now, Unity developers can work in their favorite platform, and then export to WebXR instead of a native Unity app.

However, working directly in WebXR may be more comfortable for the typical front-end developer. The following article describes has code snippets in Unity and WebXR JavaScript, both setting up a standard “spinning cube”.
https://medium.com/xrpractices/webxr-the-new-web-779168b1e6f4

The biggest limitation of WebXR is limited AR support. All the libraries and frameworks are pretty good at creating a VR space, but sometimes struggle to create a good user AR esperience.