WebXR – The Web Extended Reality Technology Solution (Web XR)

The next revolutionary step in digitalization?

In short: It can be a QR code or an image linked to this WebXR, WebVR, or WebAR technology. You simply hold your smartphone over the QR code or image, scan it, and CAD or 3D product models are immediately displayed in your web browser. Additional information can also be shown. Depending on the WebXR 3D modeling, you're not just a passive observer; you can interact with this 3D world.

In the desktop version, you can view and interact with the 3D visualization in your browser via a link.

WebVR was an experimental JavaScript API capable only of rendering virtual reality. It was superseded by WebXR.

This API was developed with the following goals:

• Detection of available virtual reality devices
• Querying the device's capabilities
• Querying the position and orientation of the device
• Displaying images on the device at the appropriate frame rate

The WebVR API was first developed for Mozilla by Vladimir Vukićević in the spring of 2014. Contributors to the API include Brandon Jones, Boris Smus, and other members of the Mozilla team. On March 1, 2016, the Mozilla VR team and the Google Chrome team announced the release of version 1.0 of the WebVR API proposal. The resulting API refactoring brought many improvements to WebVR.

The latest marked version is 1.1, last edited on April 5, 2017. The document's editors include members of the Mozilla and Google teams. However, some Microsoft members have joined and are actively contributing to the drafting process for version 2.0 of the WebVR API.

The WebVR API offered several new interfaces (e.g., VR Display, VR Pose) that enabled web applications to display content in virtual reality by using WebGL with the necessary camera settings and device interactions (e.g., controller or point of view). The API was designed to follow a specific path, very similar to other intrusive web APIs like the Geolocation API. The necessary steps are:

• Query a list of available VR devices
• Check if the desired device supports the display modes required by the application
• If so, does the application offer the user VR functionality?
• The user performs an action indicating that they wish to switch to VR mode
• Request a VR session to present VR content
• Start of a rendering loop that generates graphical frames to be displayed on the VR device
• Frame production continues until the user indicates that they wish to exit VR mode
• End the VR session

WebVR 1.0 was supported in the release version of Firefox 55+ for Windows (64-bit version only) and was used by Chrome for Android up to version 80 as an Origin Trial Experiment, meaning developers could request a token to add to their website to seamlessly enable WebVR. WebVR 1.1 was supported in Microsoft Edge from build 15002+ and in Samsung Internet, Chromium, Servo, and Oculus Carmel.

Chrome for Windows supports WebVR 1.1 in a special build. Firefox 55+ on macOS also supported WebVR if a user enabled a setting.

Although WebVR is unique as an API, most devices have native applications that enable connected experiences and access to web content. Several major tools, such as Unity and Blender, can also export to the web, giving users a way to use their content without installing a dedicated application.

WebGL (short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics with hardware acceleration in any compatible web browser without the use of plugins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards and enables GPU-accelerated use of image processing and effects as part of web page rendering. WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and combined with other parts of the page or the page background.

WebGL programs consist of control code written in JavaScript and shader code written in OpenGL ES Shading Language (GLSL ES), a language similar to C or C++, which runs on a computer's graphics processing unit (GPU). WebGL is developed and maintained by the non-profit Khronos group.

In early 2009, the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group founded the WebGL working group, which initially included Apple, Google, Mozilla, Opera, and others. Version 1.0 of the WebGL specification was released in March 2011.

The first version of the WebGL specification was released at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 3, 2011. In March 2011, WebGL was supported by Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox web browsers, and was enabled by default in pre-release versions of Apple's Safari and Opera browsers.

In November 2011, the Angle project (which stands for Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine), introduced by Google in March 2011, was certified for OpenGL ES version 2.0, making it possible to develop cross-platform applications with WebGL support for, among others, the three most well-known operating system platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux.

One of the first applications of WebGL was Zygote Body. In November 2012, Autodesk announced that it had migrated most of its applications running on local WebGL clients to the cloud. These applications include Fusion 360 and AutoCAD 360.

Development of the WebGL 2 specification began in 2013 and was completed in January 2017. This specification is based on OpenGL ES 3.0. Initial implementations can be found in Firefox 51, Chrome 56, and Opera 43.

Since 2017, W3C has been working on the successor WebGPU.

WebGPU is the working title of a future web standard and JavaScript API for low-level, accelerated graphics and compute calculations, with the goal of replacing WebGL. It is being developed by software engineers from Apple, Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, and others within the W3C GPU for the Web Community Group.

Unlike WebGL, which was based on OpenGL ES, WebGPU is not a direct port of an existing graphics interface. However, it is based on concepts from the low-level interfaces Vulkan, Metal, and Direct3D 12. Both mobile devices and desktop platforms are expected to benefit from the speed improvements.

On February 7, 2017, Apple's WebKit team presented a proof of concept along with ideas for a standard called "WebGPU," based on their own "Metal" interface. They also proposed the creation of a W3C Community Group.

The W3C “GPU for the Web” Community Group began its work on February 16, 2017. At that time, Apple, Google, and Mozilla had already conducted experiments, but only Apple had an official proposal. Mozilla followed on March 21, 2017, with its own proposal for the WebGPU standard.

On June 1, 2018, the developers behind Google's Chrome browser announced that they had agreed on the most important aspects and now planned to implement the standard in the future.

The name “WebGPU” was later adopted by the community group as a working title for an open standard. The original Apple presentation was renamed “Web-Metal” to avoid confusion.