VR Annotations and Markdown (Vive tested)

annotations
vr
#1

Is anyone else seeing issues with their annotations in VR mode? Often the text doesn't appear and any markdown links are broken, such as images or urls. This is a bit of let down on our VR wreck tours so far.

Anyway, I realise its early days on Sketchfab's VR journey and its very exciting to see where WebVR is heading. Any tips on this issue appreciated.

(Mauricesvay) #4

Hi @maritimearchaeologyt,

  • images are not currently supported in annotations with markdown. There are some technical challenges we need to solve to support them.
  • links are not supported either. To help us implement links, could you tell us how would you expect them to be rendered? Do you expect them to be clickable? If so, what do you think should happend when you click a link in VR?
  • Regular text should work. If it doesn't appear, it might be a bug. Could send us the link to your model so we check?

As you said, we are still in the early days of VR on Sketchfab. We plan to improve the features for virtual reality in the coming months.

#5

Hi @mauricesvay

Shame about the images, but all good things. I see what you mean about links. What might be ideal, but probably a lot of work, would be an 'in scene' browser that can show a webpage on a virtual panel, much the same as how the PC desktop is viewable within the HTC Vive startup screen. This could display a single image, a browser page, possibly video/YouTube?

Our annotations are very hit and miss in WebVR. Please check our instamuseum that has several annotations, just one of of many that are not showing any text. https://skfb.ly/PoUG

We're using WebVr enabled chromium from July 10th as the latest versions seemed to break navigation. Perhaps this build is the problem.

(Mauricesvay) #6

Hi @maritimearchaeologyt,

I'm afraid the scenario you describe for opening links is almost impossible in WebVR. As far as I know, it's is not possible render a website to a texture so it can be displayed in VR. This is a browser limitation to prevent security issues.

#7

Thanks Maurice, perhaps some of the approaches used in JanusVR (http://janusvr.com/) might help, which is geared towards making the whole web available in a VR space. We setup a room in there which by default contains a large theatre screen and a virtual sofa on which you can browse our website and explore anywhere else on the web. We are also uploading some of our models from Sketchfab on there to test.

I only mention this as they seem to have solved some of the issues you mention. Hope it helps.

Did you have a chance to look at our annotation text issue?

#8

@mauricesvay here's a youtube video posted by the JanusVR team which shows just such a popup browser in VR space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8a93wKiFUc

Perhaps this is possible because of the fact that Janus runs from a desktip application, rather than a web-browser running another instance of a web-browser? I merely speculate...

(Mauricesvay) #9

@maritimearchaeologyt yes, it is possible with a native application, but unfortunately web browsers don't allow this.

#10

@mauricesvay understood.

Any word on the annotation issue? Were you able to replicate this on any of our annotated models?