VR Websites: A Reality?

Virtual reality or VR refers to using computer technology for creating a simulated environment. Virtual reality places the user inside experience, and instead of watching on a screen, the users get immersed and can carry out interactions with the 3D world. Through virtual reality, many senses are simulated, including the sense of vision, hearing, touch and even smell. Here, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper for the artificial world.

Difference Between Virtual and Augmented Reality

The concepts of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) differ on the following three major factors-

Differentiating Factor	Virtual Reality	Augmented Reality
Immersion	In the case of virtual reality, it generates a completely computer-generated world, i.e. everything seen by the user is due to artificial recreation, and the user begins to lose contact with the real environment	Augmented reality enhances the reality by addition of digital information to it, and the user is still in contact with the real environment during the augmented reality experience. It allows the users to interact with augmented set of objects while being in contact with the real world
Devices	Virtual reality uses headsets that immerse into the user’s vision and hearing into the virtual world	Augmented reality can be provided by some devices which include the AR headsets, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.
Application in Education Technology	Virtual reality could be used for immersing students into the historical worlds, giving a good solution to the theoretical lessons carried out	Augmented reality holds the ability to interact with an augmented world and thus can be used for providing students with more practical sessions

Major Players in Virtual Reality

1. Oculus Rift: This is the top leading player in the field of virtual reality. This is a small and well-crafted device that requires a connection to the computer. With this, the user can either sit or stand while playing games, but movements are somewhat limited. A large number of units are being sold every year, and thus Oculus stays at the forefront of virtual reality hardware
    
2. Microsoft HoloLens: Microsoft HoloLens uses holographic technology and is often marketed as augmented reality rather than virtual reality. It provides the users with an opportunity to interact with holograms present around them
    
3. HTC Vive: It is famous for developing the Steam platform for gaming. It is the first headset for SteamVR products
    
4. Samsung GearVR: By the use of head-tracking technology in combination with Android smartphones to power the experiences of a mobile VR. The lenses transform the phone’s screen into a stereoscopic screen.
    
5. Google Cardboard: It is the most uncomplicated and most affordable VR headset. It is a device for Android smartphones at a very cheaper rate and with the variety of games and applications that are available from the Play Store

Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML)

The Web has already experimented with Virtual Reality before under VRML It is a language that is used for describing the 3D image sequences and possible user interactions. By the use of VRML, the users can build a sequence of visual images into the Web Settings with which he (user) can interact by viewing, moving, rotating and otherwise interacting with apparent 3D scenes.  It is a standard file format for representing 3D interactive vector graphics, that are designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind.

Virtual Reality and the Web

The web has carried out its experiment with virtual reality before, with VRML and now WebVR is taking a new approach to the virtual reality. 3D on the internet was accelerated since 2011 with the releases of WebGL. These days the web can handle virtual reality with credits going to the new APIs which take advantage of the VR hardware utilizing a WebGL.

WebVR was developed in the year 2014 at Mozilla, and in the year 2016, an earlier version of it was available for desktop Chrome, Firefox as well as Samsung’s VR web browser- the Samsung Internet for Gear VR. The ability of the web to handle VR content allows an individual to quickly share a VR experience in a URL and view it in the browser without much complication in app stores and longer downloading times that are associated with native VRs.

Emerging Trends in Web VR

1. The New VR: In today’s time, most of the technology companies are emphasizing more on immersive technologies. Players such as Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla have announced their intention of bringing in the support for the VR experiences in desktop browsers in the future. Facebook has added the native 360 photos and playback of videos to their site, and mobile browsers can seamlessly act as platforms for the immersive websites.
    
2. WebVR API: The core of WebVR API is the VR display interface, which abstracts out the difference between the desktop head-mounted displays, mobile devices, and additional peripheral devices and represents them as a single entity to the developer. The headsets can then be queried for presentations and connections status, allowing the browser to detect the state for an application to use
    
3. Native Applications: With the rise of VR web support across desktop and mobile devices, native applications running on different platforms have embraced the API in unique ways.

   Ex: AltspaceVR, an application for desktop and GearVR, has developed an in-app web browser with customized WebGL renderer to make 3D objects from WebVR sites appear within the VR world as a part of the holographic mixed-reality content.

4. 3D Graphics Libraries: The web developers can utilize the 3D frameworks for generating objects, materials, textures and other application components for improving the experience. These can handle the translation of these concepts, such that they can be rendered directly to WebGL canvases and displayed in browsers. Whenever a user visits the page with a WebVR-enabled 3D experience, it’ll appear with a single camera until the browser has been asked to shift into the VR mode

VR Elements for a Website

1. 360. Videos: A 360-degree video is a perfect way of creating immersive experiences out of any event or location across the world. The tools needed for making such videos could include a spherical camera that has a 360-degree lens and tripods. The use of drones could also be a viable option. Post-production, the website developer needs to have software such as Videostitch for bringing all the footages in one single piece and ensuring a high quality of visuals. The developer should also make sure that the content looks good on every possible device- desktops, smartphones, tablets, headsets, etc.

2. 3D Animations in VR: With the use of 3D animation, the users are not limited to viewing, as in the case of 360-degree videos. Here the users can move and interact with a particular set of objects. The web-developer can use plenty of tools and platforms for creating simple virtual 3D environments, which include- Maya, Structure Sensor, 3dsMax, etc.

The 3D graphics can take some of the following multiple forms and expressions-

1. Computer animations
2. 3D modeling
3. Visual effects
4. Product designs
5. Graphic and motion designs
6. Visualization for architecture, engineering
7. Stereoscopic 3D effects

Businesses Benefitting from VR

Some of the businesses that can benefit VR for better customer experience includes-

Business	Benefit Gained
Real Estate	The struggles of the agent such as spending time visiting properties etc. could be solved. VR offers a more of a realistic feel for the interior and exterior of properties
Tourism	Companies such as Thomas Cook were the first ones to introduce VR to their customers in the store for experiencing journeys
Education	This makes it easier for students to understand and process the information in subjects of history, biology, etc.

Thus, the web ecosystem with time will grow around the immersive content. The interaction patterns may vary across a different set of devices. Link traversal and navigation-related security considerations also require re-imagination of how global information is being conveyed across the web.

The browser is capable enough of, and the ability to shape new worlds on the web will prove to be influential for both- the internet as well as virtual reality development communities, which are increasingly overlapping.