Supporting HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Supermedium is a new, fully VR browser from the creators of VR web framework ‘A-Frame’ and part of the original Mozilla team behind the WebVR initiative. Available to download on Supermedium’s website, the browser aims to become the new home for lightweight, fast-loading, web-based VR experiences.
There are several VR-enabled browsers already available, but these are often used to access traditional 2D webpages, something that is not currently possible with Supermedium. For now, it only links to curated sites, and the team plans to expand the number of bookmarks rapidly over the coming weeks. Support for traditional URL entry is also planned, which will make sense once more sites “adhere to best practices for WebVR,” as the team explains in their opening blog post.
This VR-first approach could open the floodgates to VR experiences not found through content stores, either due to their tiny size, or their questionable ‘value’ or subject matter. Nobody wants to search the Steam or Oculus stores and install an app for the VR equivalent of a funny GIF, for example, and of course, the open web offers the least-sheltered environment for content discovery. The beauty of web-based VR is that is operates with standard web technologies such as WebGL, WebVR, and Javascript, with no installation and no publishers.
“The Web breathes freshness and diversity into the VR content ecosystem,” writes the team in their blog entry. “A VR site could be a bite-sized meme, a low fidelity game, a small store, a wedding page, an educational outing quickly thrown together for some students, or something taboo. Experiences that would otherwise not make it past the app store standards. With the Web, everything is permitted.”
Kevin Ngo, Diego Marcos, and Diego Goberna’s new San Francisco-based startup is supported by seed funding from Y Combinator, as part of the Winter 2018 batch, which also includes social augmented reality platform Hippo.