Given the audience here, I think it's worth a plug that web developers looking to develop VR experiences such as for the Vive should look into A-Frame (https://aframe.io), a WebVR framework.
I really like aframe, but I just has the feeling that for things like aframe, it would be similar to what the Web Apps has been experiencing: the performance will always a few steps behind the native alternative. Even for Vive/Rift, there's still vast space for improvement on the hardware/performance side, so I'd assume a long way before efforts like aframe.io to really take off.
Not all the VR experiences will be AAA games. There are plenty of mobile and desktop indie games that are engaging and don't require state of the art performance (see GearVR). Also WebVR content doesn't rely on traditional DOM rendering that it's the main bottle neck for web applications to feel smooth.
Yes, WebVR is more performant (many webpages struggle to achieve even 60fps). But minimum 90fps, at a much higher resolution is a challenge even running on bare metal right now. And that is needed for even the simplest VR experience (unless you don't move your head that much, but then what's the point of VR).
True, the 2D web may have had its performance issues, but the 3D web can actually be surprisingly performant. Browsers with the new WebVR API implementations can maintain high framerates starting with 90.
I'm running a DK2 on a GTX 660Ti and, now that there are more games that support VR, I'm starting to get those stutters. It breaks the experience entirely.
We studied carefully the latest implementations, and I can tell you that the performance of webglis in on par with OpenGL Desktop. It makes sense when you look at how Webgl is implemented, being a simple binding to OpenGL ES. If you are in SF, there will be a presentation tomorrow evening Thursday 07/07 at the Mozilla's HQ about this.
I do use my browser on my iPhone still though, quite a bit. I think if webVR makes it possible to make more "VR friendly" interfaces for websites, it could be really helpful. As a web developer, I shudder at the idea of "responsive" now including designing for VR but as a VR early adopter that idea sounds great.
Not specifically. I'm sure that running on GearVR and Google's Gear-equivalent DayDream-certified phones is a goal. But, so far the focus has been just getting it to work well at all. Mostly on desktop.
