Documentation

Configuration Reference

Everything about a DiscoVR experience is configured through the attributes of a single <discovr> tag — see Getting Started if you haven't added one yet.

#Value format

Every attribute value is read as plain text, including booleans and numbers: write "true" / "false" literally, and numbers as plain digits (e.g. posX:2). There is no type coercion on DiscoVR's side beyond what each feature does internally.

Attributes come in two shapes:

• Simple attributes map directly to one setting, e.g. <discovr debug="true">.
• Grouped attributes pack several related settings into one attribute, as a ;-separated list of key:value pairs, e.g. <discovr network="enable:true;showChat:true">.

#Simple attributes

#Grouped attributes

#presets

Scene-level setup: the base <a-scene> attributes (background, renderer, shadows, raycaster/cursor, fog, reflection), plus optional demo content.

Whenever defaultScene is not true (the normal case for a real experience), the scene's attributes are instead built from these keys — so you always get a fully configured scene, without needing defaultScene:true:

<discovr presets="sceneBackground:#87CEEB;sceneFog:true;sceneFogType:linear;sceneFogColor:#87CEEB;sceneFogNear:10;sceneFogFar:80"></discovr>

Changing presets after the page has already loaded: call window.reapplyPresets({ ...changedKeys }) with just the keys you're changing (or mutate window.config.presets directly and call window.reapplyPresets() with no argument) to apply new values immediately, without reloading the page. This works because every presets key maps to a real, live-reactive A-Frame attribute on the scene itself — no other <discovr> attribute group supports this (they involve adding/removing whole entities or loading external resources, which still need a full reload). One exception: sceneRendererAntialias can't be changed after the page loads — it configures the WebGL canvas itself, which A-Frame doesn't recreate on the fly.

// e.g. from your own page's script, after DiscoVR has booted
window.reapplyPresets({ sceneBackground: "#222222", sceneFog: "false" });

#interface

UI chrome around the scene.

#network

Multiplayer, powered by DiscoVR NET.

#playerRig

The player's camera/movement rig. When disabled, a minimal fallback camera is used instead (with mouse-look and WASD movement, no VR controllers or teleport).

As an entity instead of config. playerRig is shorthand for this: loadScene() turns it into an i-player-rig entity. The same rig can be placed in the scene as an ordinary entity, with the i-player-rig component - where the player starts is then simply that entity's position and rotation:

<a-entity i-player-rig position="0 0 4" rotation="0 30 0"></a-entity>

It builds exactly the rig playerRig:enable does (same #cameraRig, #head and hand controllers, same teleport and navmesh behavior). A scene has one player rig: the entity's id is forced to cameraRig, and if the page has both an i-player-rig entity and playerRig:enable:true, the entity wins. Optional properties, each defaulting to auto (follow the <discovr> tag): embedded (true/false), teleport (true/false), collisionEntities (selector for the surfaces visitors can teleport onto, none to skip collision testing) and ignoreEntities (selector for entities the teleport raycaster ignores) - so a rig can have its own teleport setup without touching the shared teleport group below, which stays the default for every rig that doesn't say otherwise.

#teleport

Only relevant when a player rig exists (playerRig:enable, or an i-player-rig entity - which can override enable, collisionEntities and ignoreEntities per rig).

#environment

Passed through to the aframe-environment-component.

#audio

Background music and the advanced (Tone.js-based) audio engine.

#Example

<discovr
    presets="defaultScene:true;defaultLights:true"
    environment="preset:forest;groundColor:#2d4a1f"
    playerRig="enable:true"
    network="enable:true;roomName:my-fixed-room;showChat:true;showAvatarName:true"
    interface="userClick:true;title:My Experience"
    audio="bgMusic:true;bgMusicSrc:audio/theme.mp3;bgMusicVolume:0.3"
></discovr>

#What's next

• Programmatic scene building — the DiscoVR class, for building (part of) a scene in JavaScript instead of tag attributes.
• Examples — complete pages putting these attributes to use.