VReal is a application for broadcasting and watching supported VR applications. It enables you to participate in the game you are watching, freely navigating the game world while potentially communicating with other spectators. This required the broadcaster and audience to use VR headsets, greatly shrinking the possible audience, until today. Today VRreal announced “Desktop Mode”, that enables people without VR headsets to get in on the fun.
From the news release:
Hello friends,We’re starting off 2019 with a big update: We’re introducing a new way for everyone to watch their favorite VR content creators in Vreal – no VR headset required! (WHAAAAT?)
That’s right; we’re introducing Desktop mode, which gives you an immersive, two-dimensional look into the VR content made in Vreal. Using the WASD keys and your mouse, you can move around anywhere within the game, giving you full control of where you want to watch from; your very own spectator mode for VR game content.
The viewing experience is cross-platform; so you can watch with friends in Desktop mode or in VR from your own headset.
Simply download the application on Steam, then launch in Non-VR mode when prompted. VReal is currently in early access and is free. There are developer kits for Unity and Unreal Engine if you wish to integrate VReal into your VR title, but sadly the developer website does not appear to be working.