Oculus Browser V8.3 "kills" WebVR pages

  • Oculus, with the release of the V15 OS and v8.3 browser, is kicking WebVR content developers in the ba...knees. From the release notes a couple of days ago:

    Quote

    Oculus Browser now loads desktop sites by default. This mode is better for the large browser windows in VR and desktop sites let you get more done.

    * You can change the current site you’re on back to mobile mode by clicking a button in the address bar.

    * This feature will only roll out to some users initially, but will eventually become available for everyone.


    So, when users go to one of my tours they are presented with the desktop version, not my caefully crafted VR Headset version. Almost none of them will know about clicking the screen icon to exit desktop mode and since Oculus even tells the page that WebVR isn't available you can't use the cardboard method to jump into the immersive VR experience.

    This makes no sense to me. If a VR page is available, why force users into the desktop version?!?!?

    Klaus, where can we make our voice heard to the people at Oculus who could change this. I fear the post I made on the user forum will easily get overlooked.

  • Oculus fools websites into thinking they are on a desktop by removing the "Mobile VR" attribute from their UserAgent string by default.

    On the OculusBrowser homepage, there are some virtual tours (below) that default to VR, not desktop! I haven't figured out how they do this magic. Maybe some wiser coder could ferret that out. Sure would be useful.

    The British Museum

    Svalbard Seed Vault

    For sites that have no VR version (Kuula.co) you get the exact same screen in desktop and VR mode, as one might expect. So.... why bother forcing it to desktop in the first place???

    To further illustrate the dramatic difference between VR and Desktop mode for a page that doesn't care, try this viewport test. Naada!

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