Mozilla (the company behind the popular Firefox web browser) has announced a new social VR space today called Hubs. According to an article by VentureBeat:
You begin by visiting the Hubs portal through any browser, then you choose a name for your virtual room, a robotic avatar, and a name for yourself, and you can enter the virtual world. To interact with friends, you can then copy/paste the URL and share a dedicated link with them.
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…Hubs adheres to web standards, works with any device, supports all the usual headsets/goggles (including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream, and Cardboard), and [is] also open to those with no specialist VR hardware on desktops and mobile phones — an inclusive gesture to ensure everyone can participate, not just those with dedicated VR hardware.
This means that in Firefox or Chrome, for example, you can view and interact with friends using your touchscreen, mouse, and keyboard.
Hubs is based on WebVR, which is an open specification which makes it possible to experience VR in your browser. Mozilla is one of the leading developers of WebVR.
I have tried to use Hubs on two computers with Oculus Rift and Touch VR hardware. On the first computer, it wouldn’t recognize my Rift at all. I could only get into Hubs in desktop mode. But it worked just fine on the second computer. So Mozilla still has a few bugs to iron out!
The fact that anybody with any kind of VR gear, as well as desktop and mobile users, can participate in Mozilla Hubs means that this is a potential game-changer, since a much larger audience can participate. It’s another interesting social VR platform to keep an eye on…
