There’s a new version of Firefox for VR

* I know that URLs are awesome... But URLs don't need to be HTTP. The Browser can launch this "VR Browser" thing I want. On desktop, or as you say on Android mobile it could do it with what are they called, Intents URLs?

* I think you're under-estimating how important Beautiful is. You know and I know that graphics and gameplay are completely orthogonal, but WWW beat out Gopher partly because WWW was more beautiful (HTML had better layout, and had Images.) And you and I are on completely different pages if you're talking about smartphones, unless you mean like Gear VR or maybe Daydream, or the new Oculus thing...

* Web browsers were too elitist. Lynx browser existed for some of them. But then people got bigger machines, faster internet connections. (Heck GLSL was too much for even state-of-the-art gaming machines, now IT runs in the Browser as WebGL!!!) I'd rather reach for the high end knowing that it becomes available.

* Authoring: No question, it sucks. That's why things like this are awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKO9fEjNiio Also we need "VR Wiki". And "VR Wordpress."

I know, right?

Except browsers sucked at the time, JS really, really sucked at the time. WebGL didn't exist. WebVR didn't exist at the time. VR Controllers didn't exist at the time. Bandwidth sucked. Most people didn't have GPUs, and couldn't render many triangles...

Thank you, it is interesting to have feedback on those subjects ! Sorry it is going to be a bit long, but you raised interesting points that I don't always have the oportunity to discuss :

* Even if I build a insanely good native VR browser there will be (a lot of) people who won't have it on their devices. This is why at least from a business perspective, for the moment it is far better to have a link towards an experience people can use rather than a link towards a native/desktop app that if downloaded can open an experience.

* I think that in 2018 it is important to have a "responsive" VR experience. It should go from a basic non-VR 3D experience (smartphone) to a full fledged high-end immersive VR one with everything else in between (So yeah GearVR, Daydream and Oculus Go).

People with any device should be able to take part, to interact, to share. My take on graphics is not that it is unimportant but rather that it is not what is lacking in current 3D content. Plus with some polish WebVR can deliver a decent graphical experience. Don't get me wrong : Beautiful is important. It is photo-realism that is not.

* I meant too elitist to use for authoring but you talk about it in your next point, so I will answer to your point about technological evolution. Before having people to buy high end VR hardware and the gaming rig that goes with it, we have to give people good reasons to do so. Gamers have obvious incentives, but most other people currently don't.

First we have to give social content interesting to non gamers and it has to run on their current hardware or they won't really use it. Then by interacting regularly with people with headsets, people without VR headsets will gradually convert into VR users. Then as VR users, they will have incentives to get better hardware. Then with better average hardware there will be competition on software features (graphics, interaction, ecosystem etc)

We still have the (very hard) first step to pass first. Web browser did not start with WebGL: they figured out text first, then layout, then animations, then media etc...

* This video is sweet, this is the future. And agreed about both "VR Wiki" and "VR Wordpress"

Check out Supermedium, part of the last YC batch. We're doing exactly that. A full VR browser that runs on Web technology, but trying to seem indistinguishable from native VR. Worlds load in seconds, people publish via Web, access via links that look like anything, and "VR pages" can do anything. Scrapping a lot of the old Web baggage and redefining it for VR. http://store.steampowered.com/app/803010/Supermedium/

If you're interested in using a browser like this today, you can also checkout my free Viewport VR browser for Android and iOS:

https://www.viewport.org/ (don't mind the video - it's old at this point)

I just released an update to the Android version last week to make the graphics rendering about as performant as 2D Chrome on Android, and I'm currently working on the same update for the iOS version. There are still features missing (the big one being support for video), but I'm constantly iterating on it and appreciate feedback.