WebVR Boilerplate

A starting point for web-based VR experiences that work well in both Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift. Also provides a good fallback for experiencing the same content without requiring a VR device.

Uses the webvr-polyfill project to provide VR support even if no VR device is available. This gives good fallbacks for Cardboard, mobile devices and desktop devices.

What's inside...

THREE.js three.min.js

• WebGL helper library that greatly simplifies 3D graphics.

VRControls VRControls.js

• THREE.js controls which take advantage of the WebVR API.
• Usually attached to the THREE.Camera to look around the scene.

VREffect VREffect.js

• THREE.js effect which renders a scene with two cameras in it.
• Puts the two images side-by-side.

WebVR polyfill webvr-polyfill.js

• For Cardboard rendering.
• On mobile, supports rotation via DeviceOrientation.
• On desktop, supports looking with the mouse or with arrow keys.

WebVR manager webvr-manager.js (lives in this repository)

• Feature detects for WebVR (or the polyfill).
• If WebVR is available, places a generic button in the top right corner, which, when clicked, takes you to VR mode.
• Other means of getting into VR mode: double click anywhere, double tap anywhere.
• Sets good defaults for VR mode: full screen, orientation lock, wake lock.

Instructions

1. Include webvr-polyfill.js in your project.
2. Include webvr-manager.js and instantiate a WebVRManager object, passing in your VREffect instance (from the THREE.js effect library) as first argument.

For example,

var effect = new THREE.VREffect(renderer);
var mgr = new WebVRManager(effect);

For more information, see index.html, which should be well commented and self-explanatory.

Related projects

• WebVR Polyfill: https://github.com/borismus/webvr-polyfill
• A yeoman-based getting started template: https://github.com/dmarcos/vrwebgl
• LEAP's VR quickstart: https://github.com/leapmotion-examples/javascript/blob/master/v2/vr-quickstart/index.html
• A WebVR Polyfill that is unfortunately incomplete: https://github.com/thomasfoster96/WebVR-polyfill
• A three.js + VR starting point: https://github.com/MozVR/vr-web-examples/tree/master/threejs-vr-boilerplate

Useful resources

• Cardboard Java SDK: https://github.com/googlesamples/cardboard-java
• Brandon's info on Chrome's WebVR implementation: http://blog.tojicode.com/2014/07/bringing-vr-to-chrome.html
• Vlad's quick guide to the WebVR API: http://blog.bitops.com/blog/2014/06/26/first-steps-for-vr-on-the-web/
• The WebVR IDL: https://github.com/vvuk/gecko-dev/blob/oculus/dom/webidl/VRDevice.webidl