3DVR environments for coding

[Gimmick]

So with this VR headset I got a month or so ago, I'm interested in using it to code in VR.

Unrelated but please don't bother telling me how the text is all blurry and stuff, people have been getting by without glasses for centuries by just increasing the text size, aka looking closer.

I already do it to an extent by using BigScreen VR and opening up a virtual screen, but I'm limited by the fact that I don't have enough ports to connect more than 1 monitor on my device. Since I'll be doing this all in VR (theoretically), a perfect alternative would be to have something like an upgraded version of RiftSketch, where there are multiple IDEs present, and instead of using controllers, people can use the mouse (just like how it's done by default with Windows Mixed Reality).

What I'm thinking of at present is to use multiple WebViews, with an instance of VS Code running in each WebView - that way, I won't have to develop the IDE, only the VR interface. There's a couple of limitations with this, namely that I don't think I can use extensions, and that it basically requires you to open up a VS Code Server that they're all going to listen to, but these are acceptable, especially if you're working remotely where you'll already be running a Code server, for example.

The question then becomes, which software or set of tools would get me on the ground running the fastest? Given that the acceptance criteria is basically:

• a VR environment
• multiple WebViews that can be spawned
• mouse based control

I would think there's not much that needs to be worked on (as more complex issues such as focus, overlapping keyboard shortcuts, etc. can all be figured out later), and that most engines would support it.

I was looking at Godot for this since Godot apparently supports developing for VR? But all I could find were a couple of discussion threads on Github about how they don't have proper WebViews yet, and the ones that they do have are going to be for more basic, non-interactive views instead.

[Gimmick]

I found some reference to DOM Overlays for WebXR which may sound like what I need, but I'm not really sure where to go from here. This was in a Babylon.js discussion thread, so maybe using Babylon Native + WebXR + DOM Overlays could be what I need? I'm not really familiar with either of these so maybe someone else better versed in web dev / webXR would be able to clarify.

[3p0ch]

I wish I had a VR headset to be able to help, but if there's a way to port from Google Cardboard to whatever hardware you're using then maybe that'll be within my budget.

Edit: I feel like cardboard VR might be a cool thing to do for a silly gamejam - if a bunch of people make cardboard VR games at once, players might actually buy or make headsets to play them (moreso than if it just one game got published and used it).

[Gimmick]

At 4/17/23 10:16 AM, 3p0ch wrote: I wish I had a VR headset to be able to help, but if there's a way to port from Google Cardboard to whatever hardware you're using then maybe that'll be within my budget.

Edit: I feel like cardboard VR might be a cool thing to do for a silly gamejam - if a bunch of people make cardboard VR games at once, players might actually buy or make headsets to play them (moreso than if it just one game got published and used it).

Looks like this isn't needed. The default Windows Mixed Reality portal already has something like this with Edge, I'm not sure why but only Edge can open multiple windows in VR. Doesn't work in SteamVR, only in the Microsoft spaces (such as Cliff House and Infinite Expanse), which is a bummer because it probably means that it's relying on a lot of internal Microsoft voodoo to work. Oh well, at least I saved myself a lot of trouble. In the meantime here's a demo: (and yes, that is the default zoom I'm using in order to be able to see anything on this screen* - but that I have multiple windows open is in itself amazing)

*of 150% - it doesn't show in the video because it appears a reasonable size, but it's basically like viewing it on a 640x480 monitor. The text was bonkers huge when I exited VR and saw the Edge window on the desktop.

And yes, a VR jam sounds great in principle - WebXR is supposed to be platform agnostic, so Android with Cardboard VR can play it as well as WMR or other PCVR. But I'm not yet too versed with developing for it, and Cardboard itself is fairly a dead end these days, and it doesn't support 6DOF; it only supports 3DOF, so all games would have to be a seated experience only, at which point it basically just becomes a @gimmick.