
Introducing the React VR Pre-Release - majc2
https://developer.oculus.com/blog/introducing-the-react-vr-pre-release/
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andybak
Compare and contrast: [https://aframe.io/](https://aframe.io/)

A-frame has got a certain amount of traction, it's component based and
declarative. It feels like an extensible "VR HTML" (or "VR Web components").
React is similarly component based - but one step removed from the markup.

~~~
ngokevin
Hi! I work on A-Frame. The biggest difference for now is that A-Frame is ECS-
based (entity-component-system) which promotes composability versus
inheritance, similar to the way Unity is set up. A bit confusing since the
meaning of component in "ECS" vs. component in "Web Component" or "React
Component" are fairly opposite.

A-Frame works with React as well, [https://github.com/ngokevin/aframe-
react](https://github.com/ngokevin/aframe-react) ... but I hope that React VR
will attract more web developers to the WebVR community! Good to have more
friends in the framework space.

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Pfhreak
I don't understand the intent here. What am I building that's a browser VR
experience? That's as foreign to me as saying a browser cooking experience.
Those are words, but I just don't understand how they'd operate together in a
way that would be enjoyable and easy to use.

~~~
Klathmon
VR videos, VR videogames, VR [insert other here].

Being able to watch a 360 degree video in the browser. Optionally hit a button
and put on a headset and use head tracking to look instead of click+drag.

Playing VR games using something like daydream, oculus, etc... All within the
browser.

The idea being it keeps the same cross-platform, cross-device, cross-"viewer"
(VR headset, phone screen, computer screen, KB+mouse, touchscreen, etc...)
that the web is built on.

You probably won't be making the next AAA title in the browser just yet, but
it's more than capable of games, videos, and other VR "experiences".

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cma
The future of the VR web: everyone who uses it gives patent indemnity across
their whole portfolio to Facebook. Facebook only gives reciprocation across
the narrow patents covered by React/ReactVR, not their full portfolio.

If you build a part of your business on this, they can pull the license if you
sue them for infringement in some completely unrelated area and leave you
screwed.

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ilaksh
I really want WebVR to work but when I tested with a Chromium WebVR-capable
build I ran into a bunch of aframe samples that claimed my browser was not VR
capable, some that were really choppy in performance, and a handful thay
worked correctly.

After that I started thinking I should just build in Unity because there was a
much greater liklihood of people actually using it with a client they download
that actually works rather than hoping they would have a working browser for
WebVR.

I also would like to have browser windows available inside of VR for
interfacing with remote desktops or any existing 2d interface. Which you can
do that with Unity using a browser component from the Asset Store.

But I would prefer using JavaScript/A-Frame if it would actually work for most
people.

It seems that Altspace maybe is some custom build of Chromium build because
they support aframe.

~~~
ngokevin
WebVR and browsers and library versions are very much in flux. It is
definitely early-adopter and experimental mode, although WebVR is on clear
tracks to get to release versions of browsers:
[https://iswebvrready.org](https://iswebvrready.org)

Totally fine to not want to deal with all of that now. We're all eager for the
day that WebVR is stable and in the hands of hundreds of millions.

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bowmessage
Who wrote this release copy? Full of English errors...

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adrianpike
ctrl-F: "vrml"

welp, now I feel old.

~~~
ngokevin
Don't feel too old; VRML is mentioned (usually in snark) just about every time
a WebVR framework is discussed. Always found the comparisons weird though: one
is a standardized file format, the others are JS frameworks.

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iamleppert
So, where is all the real work being done?

Oh, that's right, by THREE.js inside the normal WebGL API.

This is just a fancy way to execute a banal-ly simple 3D scene that takes a
single parameter - what text to show. It doesn't do much and I don't see any
useful abstractions for the usual 3D primitives and doesn't meet the
requirements of 3D programming in general.

~~~
DevKoala
It uses the declarative syntax of React to compose views. The benefit is the
common abstraction which will allow people familiar with React to quickly get
something running.

Why the negativity?

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Yokohiii
How do I say that this is total bullshit without being spotted as redditor?

~~~
MorePowerToYou
"VR is the next platform, it's just not ready yet."

