The unofficial third-party Oculus Quest content platform SideQuest launched a beta version of a web page that aims to collect and list Web-based VR experiences in a similar manner to their SideQuest library for Quest. However, this new online site will work on any headset that supports Web-based VR content and allow in-VR users to easily find, explore and launch content they might not have otherwise seen before.
Web-based VR content provided by the WebXR specification (an evolution of the earlier WebVR implementation) provides headset owners with fully immersive content that launches from a VR-compatible version of a Web browser, without a requirement for prior installation of the experiences. Browsers compatible with the standard include Google Chrome for PC VR or the Oculus Browser or Firefox Reality on the Oculus Quest. When users navigate to a compatible address in their headset browser, they can instantly launch a full VR experience.
With the new online tool, SideQuest is looking to make it easier to find and experience this type of VR content. Users only need to navigate to http://sdq.st/webxr in their headset’s browser to find a long and expansive list of compatible experiences, curated and provided by SideQuest, as pictured above.
Clicking on an experience takes you straight to the correct URL and allows you to launch straight into the VR experience. It is a seamless and accessible way for users to find Web-based VR content without having to memorize or bookmark lots of different URLs.
The SideQuest Web-based VR content list features some notable experiences we’ve covered previously, such as the Spider-Man web swinging experience on Quest. The list is still in beta and while SideQuest as a whole is aimed at Oculus Quest users, the list will work in any VR browser that supports the standard.
Web-based VR experiences have a lot of potential. We recently tried Mozilla’s new ‘Hello WebXR’ application, which was impressive and also promising with regards to the potential that future web-based VR experiences might hold.
You can try out the SideQuest list yourself by navigating to http://sdq.st/webxr on your supported headset browser.
