Inaugural “Brighton WebVR” Meetup at Make Real

Twenty-five years since the invention of the World Wide Web, the Internet is once more going into the realms of Virtual Reality – and Brighton has a new group pushing the frontiers of the technology. Thanks to recent advances in the experimental JavaScript API, WebVR allows access to typically closed VR hardware systems, such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR.

As a result, the newly formed Brighton WebVR Meetup group held their first session at our new VR studio space in New England House, providing an initial overview of the possibilities offered by an open, web-based VR platform currently and in the immediate future.

Welcomed by WebVR Guru, Rich Plastow, attendees quickly settled down for a series of talks, armed with free beers and snacks of course. Rich covered an overview of what is, and isn’t WebVR, a brief history of VR on the web before handing over to a demonstration from local developer, Matt Barringer, who provided a series of real world usage examples of what companies are doing with WebVR today. The last talk was from our very own Sam Watts, Operations Lead here at Make Real, who had just returned from San Jose, attending the Oculus Connect 3 conference, sharing what he learned about Oculus plans for WebVR with their ReactVR expanded platform and forthcoming web browser “Carmel”.

After that, a free for all Top 10 WebVR Experiences session invited attendees to load up content on their phones and try out the current crop of best examples on a range of Google Cardboards. Finally, we had an interactive demo comparison of the popular Google Tiltbrush Vs. A-Painter, a WebVR equivalent created with the powerful A-Frame platform.

The next Brighton WebVR meeting is Monday November 28^th at Make Real, Unit A, Level 7 North, New England House from 6:30pm. Entry is free but it is necessary to book a place: https://www.meetup.com/Brighton-WebVR-Meetup/events/233789862/