Immersive Web Weekly

Issue #020, September 22, 2020, ImmersiveWebWeekly.com

The big news this week came from Facebook in the form of new hardware and a massive overhaul of the Oculus Browser. Less noticed but just as intriguing is the announcement of another experimental browser that takes on the problem of how to mix immersive web content with native apps. That's two new browsers in two weeks! If my math is correct then in a year's time we'll have another 52 browsers on the scene. ;-)
Hold on to your code repositories and switch your browser into dark mode because it's time for another issue of the Immersive Web Weekly!

- Trevor Flowers from Transmutable

Yet Another WebXR-centric Browser Announced

Metachromium is a fork of Chromium that runs WebXR content in a SteamVR layer. It doesn't take over the scene but instead composites together the base experience and WebXR content. Like the Aardvark browser (mentioned in issue 19) Metachromium explores the possibility of mixing long-running XR gadgets with session-oriented content.

New Features of Oculus Browser

At Facebook Connect 2020 the Oculus Browser became the core of their infinite office initiative, providing a mixed reality workspace in the new Quest 2 headset. This twitter thread and this video from Jacob Rossi cover the major new features, including PWAs!

WebXR Entries in js13kgames 2020

This was the first year that the long-running js13kgames competition included a category for WebXR and 15 people submitted entries, including Three.js creator Ricardo Cabello. Participants were allowed to use A-frame, Babylon, or Three.js without counting against their 13 kilobytes of code but at least one entry used no external libraries.

Representative One-Ups Chair with a Half-length WebXR Introduction

In last week's issue we covered our chair Ada Rose Cannon's 30 minute introduction to the immersive web only to find out that this week our W3C representative, Dominique Hazael-Massieux released a 15 minute introduction. While your editor could find no evidence that this is a competition the timing is quite a coincidence. What will be next, a 7.5 minute introduction?