How to use WebXR with THEOplayer

This article will show you how to play a VR source in THEOplayer using WebXR. If you are not familiar with THEOplayer, we strongly recommend reading the getting started documentation for web first.

SDKs

Web SDK	Android SDK	iOS SDK	tvOS SDK	Android TV SDK	Chromecast SDK
Yes	No	No	No	No	No

Pre-requirements

1. You need THEOplayer version 5.0 or greater.

Older versions of THEOplayer will work with regular VR, but not with WebXR.

2. Your THEOplayer SDK needs to have the vr-webxr feature enabled.

You can quickly check using THEOplayer.features.

3. You will need the WebXR polyfill for platforms that do not have native support.

Notice: The official polyfill has a bug in its rendering. THEOplayer has proposed a fix, but it has not yet merged into the main project. In the meanwhile you can use a patched build from our CDN. We highly recommend you to download this patch, since it will no longer be available when the main polyfill is fixed.

Add the polyfill to your page:

<script src="//cdn.theoplayer.com/webxr/webxr-polyfill-patched.js"></script>

And enable it:

const POLYFILL_CONFIG = {
  allowCardboardOnDesktop: true,
};
new WebXRPolyfill(POLYFILL_CONFIG);

Add useWebXR to your PlayerConfiguration

The default behavior for THEOplayer is to use regular VR, so make sure to add the following VR configuration to your PlayerConfiguration:

const playerConfig: PlayerConfiguration = {
  // ...
  vr: {
    useWebXR: true,
  },
};

Setting a VR source

You can set the following source to test:

player.source = {
  sources: {
    src: '//demo.theoplayer.com/hubfs/videos/natgeo/playlist.m3u8',
    crossOrigin: 'anonymous',
  },
  vr: {
    panoramaMode: '360',
    stereoMode: 'none',
  },
  poster: '//demo.theoplayer.com/hubfs/videos/natgeo/poster.jpg',
};

If everything went well, you should now be using WebXR!