Immersive Web Weekly

Issue #027, November 17, 2020, ImmersiveWebWeekly.com

As usual, 2020 has delivered an exciting week of technology and transformation. After I put this issue to bed I plan to retire into a tranquil writing space and work on my folio of immersive poetry.
Sharpen your pen nibs, rehydrate your dried inks, and scrape clean your parchment because it's time for another issue of the Immersive Web Weekly!

- Trevor Flowers from Transmutable

Babylon Reloaded

The Babylon.js team seems pretty excited by their 4.2 release and from the WebXR docs, change-log, and demo they might be on to something. Ranaan Weber has been especially busy with XR integration but kudos to the entire team for the big release.

Create WebXR Voxels

It feels like more people are picking up WebXR because every week I run across interesting projects like this experience editor from Daniel Esteban Nombela. The demo video and examples show that this open source project has a lot of potential.

The Oculus Go Wasn't Designed For Black Hair

One designer's approach to widening VR's reach:

For my study, I used the Oculus Go device by Facebook. I chose that device because it was easy to use and lightweight. I can use the device anywhere and pre-downloaded all my content so that Wi-Fi wouldn’t be an issue. From an accessibility perspective, the Go felt like the right decision. But that was before I realized that Black hair was going to be a major issue for the completion of my work.

AIGA In Space

2020 provided AIGA St. Louis with a hard design problem for their annual design show and the immersive web was a part of the solution. With the help of a local agency they created a custom Hubs space for the event. Podcast host Kent Bye recorded a guided tour of the space and show entries, as well.

Global XR Bootcamp Videos

Last week I covered the Global XR Bootcamp and this week the organizers have graciously released all of the talks and sessions in a YouTube play-list. There are a variety of XR-related topics but these popped out as particularly interesting for immersive web creators:
- UI Design for WebXR
- Increasing Scope of WebXR Projects
- Taking Web Based XR to the Hololens