VR on the Web?
VR has become quite popular among those that game and those that do not. It offers a fun and unique experience to go out to a virtual reality arcade and try different games or explore different worlds that are not possible in our ordinary life. Virtual reality arcades are a great way to experience VR, but for those that do not live close to a city or populated town that can offer this experience, the possibility of VR on the web is an interesting idea.
The Web as a Viable Source?
Jamieson Brettle, a member of Google, believes it is quite possible to stream VR content over the web. At the VR World Congress he mentioned some specific projects that are attempting to bring VR to web browsers. Of course this would be great if VR could be online, as it would be much more viable for consumers as the cost would be lowered, and the apps could be easily downloaded with constantly up-to-date content. However, the ability to create VR online comes at a cost as there are serious challenges about how to compress the files to make it function properly.
On average a “piece of content consists of 360 stereoscopic video, fully immersive spatial audio where the content is rendered binaurally, and virtual environment rendering and indoor mapping. The latter in particular involves huge amounts of data if point clouds are used” according to VR360, but apparently “the challenge of how to get all this data over the web to a browser is being attacked by a number of different Google-backed projects.” The first one is OPLUs which is a compression technology for spatial audio. It uses a process known as ambisonic compression where sound is projected on a 360 sphere around the user. The more spheres you add the better the sound, but that also means higher bits… a problem if compression is your main issue. The current compression level for OPUS is 192kbps for 4 channels and 384kbps for 16 channels. Another compression source is Draco which currently boasts a decode speed of 35ms, or real-time.
The Results
In conclusion, the web could be a viable platform for VR but it requires a lot of data, and with that a lot of compression. One thing for sure is if a company or individual can solve this problem, it will create a whole new marketplace in the VR industry that is likely to soar.