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Edorble WebVR: Announcing the Alpha

by Gabe Baker
Checking out the Photosphere Viewport in Edorble WebVR

At Edorble, we build 3D worlds and experiences for education and collaboration. We're happy now to release an early alpha of Edorble WebVR, a multiplayer Edorble experience built on cross-platform WebVR technology. You can check it out on your own at https://www.edorble.com/webvr or you can create a private room and meet up with your students and colleagues by adding your room name to the end of the URL (simple instructions found at the end of this post).  You can explore Edorble WebVR on your own from just about any device. It works on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, mobile VR headsets (Cardboard, Daydream, GearVR), Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. Just as with our dedicated desktop application, if you're intrigued by our out-of-the-box WebVR experience but you're interested in a custom solution with particular features, integrations, or designs, we'd be happy to work with you. Read on to see what you can do in the Edorble WebVR alpha!

Checking out the news browser with a friend in Edorble WebVR

It's very early days for Edorble WebVR, and we're only laying the foundation for what's to come. The avatars (cute colored spheres with eyes) and the 3D artwork in the scene are all placeholders that, while maybe not the prettiest, at least get the job done in the meantime. A lot of the early features we've built in Edorble WebVR are simple showcases that demonstrate our capabilities and hint at what's to come. That said, here are some of the features in Edorble WebVR:

  • 360 Photosphere Viewer: A 360 photosphere viewer let's you look at 360 photos with those that are outside on the photosphere platform. We've stocked the viewer with just three photospheres to demonstrate the technology, but we'll be adding more. We'll also build a tool that lets you use a URL to load your own 360 photos. This 360 photosphere viewer is networked, so if you change the 360 photo, it will change for everyone out on the platform.

  • Voice Chat: When you first open Edorble WebVR, the web browser (use Chrome) will prompt you for microphone access. Once in Edorble WebVR, there's no way to control the microphone, but we're going to build some simple controls in the next release so that you can mute your microphone, etc.

  • News Viewer: In the corner of the main room you'll see a few columns of panels and at the bottom a few news sources. You can select one of the news sources and the panels will fill up with recent headlines from that source. Some of the sources support images and others don't. This News Viewer is fully networked, so if you're looking at headlines with someone else, they will see what you see! This is a neat way to check out some headlines and chat about them with others. We can bring any type of external data source into Edorble WebVR, and we'd love to hear your ideas on the kinds of things we should pipe in to it.

  • Nametags: One of the panels lets you create a nametag for yourself which will show up to others underneath your avatar sphere. This way, you can tell who is who! There's nothing particularly fancy about this feature, but it sure does come in handy if you're meeting a few students or colleagues.

  • Music Player: WebVR has great audio capabilities, and we put in a simple music player demo so that if you'd like some background music while you explore, you can turn on a song. The music player is not networked, so if you play the song, it will only play for you. That way, not everyone has to listen if they don't want to.

  • Head Tracking: Although the avatars are simple spheres with eyes, they do have head tracking so that you can actually see what other users are looking at. You can do things like nod or shake your head and everyone will see your sphere nod or shake its head. Pretty cool.
 

That's it for now, folks! We'll be actively building on this foundation in the weeks and months to come. Go ahead and take it for a spin, and invite your students or colleagues. We'd love to hear your feedback about what you'd like to see next in Edorble WebVR. If you'd like to stay up to date and be the first to access new features, sign up to be an Edorble Pioneer. If you have a 3D/VR for learning project that you want us to help you bring to life, you can reach out here.

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To use your own private Edorble WebVR world, just put a world name at the end of the URL as follows. Let's say the world name you want is english101. Your url would be: https://edorble.com/webvr?room=english101

Note: We recommend using Google Chrome or Firefox for the most stability and performance. If you're using Edorble WebVR for social, multiplayer experiences, it works on all the same platforms besides iOS, and it's most reliable if your'e connected to wifi. We expect to support iOS for multiplayer in the coming months.