WebXR on Meta Quest

Step by step

1. 1

   Choose a boundary and open Browser

   If you'll sit, pick a Stationary boundary first: press the Meta button, then Quick controls, Settings, Environment setup, Boundary. Then open Browser from Apps in the Navigator.

2. 2

   Go to the site

   Select the address bar and type sparksbud.com, or any WebXR address. You can also send a link from your phone or computer with Meta's Web Launch, which asks you to sign in to your Meta account first.

3. 3

   Wait, then press Enter VR

   WebXR pages need a secure https address and a tap from you before they can go immersive, so every site has a button. Sparksbud's ENTER VR button stays greyed out until the world has loaded and the browser has confirmed it can open VR.

4. 4

   Choose your permissions

   Quest Browser shows a notice when a site wants hand tracking or spatial data, and you can approve or decline it. Sparksbud asks for hand tracking and floor height as optional extras, so declining still leaves controllers and head tracking working.

5. 5

   Look around, then leave

   The world surrounds you and a control dock appears ahead of you, below eye level. To leave, choose Exit VR on the dock, press the menu button on your left controller, or do a palm pinch with your left hand. You land back on the page in the 2D browser.

Skybloom is a good first world: a flower meadow above a mirror sea, where you stay in one spot and nothing pulls you forward.

Quest models differ in their lenses and in how finely you can set the lens spacing, not in the browser steps. Set the spacing to your eyes before you start (a wheel on Quest 3, three positions on Quest 3S). The Quest 3S versus Quest 3 comparison covers why that matters.

For a first visit, open Skybloom before a moving world. Its viewpoint stays put while you learn the dock and Exit VR controls.

Controllers or hands

Sparksbud handles controller selection and hand pinches in its code. The gestures below describe that implementation, not a test of every Quest model and input mode:

• Point and pull the trigger, or pinch. Selects the button your ray hits. If the dock is hidden, the same press brings it back in front of you.
• Hold on a slider and move. Start the press on Speed or Brightness, move along the slider, then let go.
• Squeeze a controller grip. Moves the dock back in front of you if you've turned away from it. Hands probably don't send a squeeze, so with hands use Hide, then pinch to bring it back.
• Push a thumbstick left or right. Turns your view smoothly, at up to 45 degrees a second. There's no snap turn.
• Look and wait, with no controllers or hands. Look at a button for 1.5 seconds and it fires. To bring back a hidden dock, look away, then look back at where it was for 1.5 seconds.

With controllers, the dock fades after 5 seconds without movement and hides a second later. Pull a trigger to bring it back.

For hand tracking, turn on Hand and Body Tracking under Settings, Tracking. Quest gives each hand a pointing ray, and a regular pinch counts as a press. Meta keeps the palm pinch for the system, and Sparksbud doesn't draw your hands, so by its code you'll see only a thin pointer line and a dot when you aim at the dock.

After hiding the dock, try bringing it back once while you're still seated. That small rehearsal makes Exit VR easier to find later.

Sitting down: the Stationary boundary

Meta's Stationary boundary is for "sitting or standing in place" and starts as a 1 metre square centred on you, which is what Meta recommends for seated use. Keep about 30 to 60 cm of clear space beyond it, and remember there's no overhead boundary. Sparksbud never moves you by controller, so there's nothing to walk to: it uses your real head height, seated or standing, and the worlds where you stay in one place are the gentler ones to start with, though no VR scene is comfortable for everyone (see comfort and motion sickness).

Troubleshooting

Enter VR button missing or greyed out

Check that you're in Meta Quest Browser, not a web view inside another app, and that the address starts with https. On Sparksbud, wait for the world to finish loading, since the button stays grey until then. Reload the page if it never lights up. If nothing helps, check the Store for a Browser update.

"WebXR not supported"

The browser told the page it can't open immersive VR. Usually that's the wrong browser, a plain http page, or a site still built on WebVR, which Quest Browser dropped in version 9.0. Open immersiveweb.dev in the same browser to see what it supports. The full list is in WebXR browser support.

Black screen or stuck loading

Sparksbud shows a loading screen while a world prepares. If the 3D scene can't start, it says so and offers a Reload world button, and if the scene is interrupted it asks you to reload. Close other Browser tabs and reload. If it keeps failing, restart Browser.

No sound

Music is off until you choose it. Select Sound on the dock (or Next, which starts the music if it's off), then check the headset volume. The recordings stream over the internet, so a weak connection can delay them.

Low frame rate

Sparksbud uses the browser's recommended framebuffer size and asks for 72 Hz when that rate is offered, which is still heavy work for a phone-class chip. Its actual frame rate hasn't been measured here. Close other tabs, and try a calmer world: on a Quest, Kaleidoscope switches to a lighter version and several worlds lower their own detail. Lowering Speed changes scene motion, not the requested display rate.

How to exit VR

Choose Exit VR on the dock, press the left controller's menu button, or palm pinch with your left hand. The Meta button and a right-hand palm pinch open the universal menu instead.

Which Quest you have

These are Meta's published device rates. Which of them a WebXR session actually gets hasn't been measured here.

Once you're in, free VR in the browser lists games that open the same way, and you can browse every Sparksbud world from the headset.