The release of the Wolvic 1.6 web browser is now available, designed for use in augmented and virtual reality systems. The project continues the development of the Firefox Reality browser, which was previously developed by Mozilla. After a stagnation of the Firefox Reality codebase, the development was taken over by Igalia, a company known for its involvement in free projects such as GNOME, GTK, WebKitGTK, Epiphany, GStreamer, Wine, Mesa, and freedesktop.org. The code for Wolvic is written in Java and C++, and is distributed under the MPLv2 license. Ready-made builds are available for the Android platform. It supports functionality with 3D headsets including Oculus, Huawei VR Glass, Lenovo VRX, Lenovo A3, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Neo, Pico4, Pico4E, Meta Quest Pro, Pico Neo3, and Lynx (porting of the browser for Qualcomm devices is also in progress).
The browser uses the GeckoView web engine—a version of the Mozilla Gecko engine packaged as a separate library that can be updated independently. Control is achieved through a fundamentally different three-dimensional user interface that allows navigation of websites within the virtual world or in augmented reality systems. In addition to the interface designed for control via a 3D headset that permits viewing traditional two-dimensional pages, web developers can utilize the WebXR, WebAR, and WebVR APIs to create specialized three-dimensional web applications, with interactions taking place in virtual space. It also supports viewing spatial videos shot in 360 degrees in a 3D headset.
VR controllers are used for navigation, while data entry in web forms can be done using a virtual or physical keyboard. Additionally, a voice input system is offered for user interaction, enabling form filling and search queries using the speech recognition engine developed by Mozilla. The browser's start page provides an interface for accessing favorite content and navigating through a collection of games, web applications, 3D models, and spatial videos adapted for 3D headsets.
In the new version:
- Support for Pico Neo3 virtual reality headsets has been added.
- Fullscreen viewing of vertical videos (videos filmed in vertical orientation, where the height exceeds the width) is now available.
- The virtual keyboard now supports input auto-complete for Latin-based layouts. Auto-complete can be enabled in the settings under 'Settings > Display > Latin Keyboard Input Auto-complete', with dictionaries loading as needed. Stability has been improved and input delays have been reduced.
- New 3D environments have been added: 'rural meadow', 'above the clouds', and 'Milky Way'.
- The option to manage telemetry collection has been removed for devices not manufactured by Huawei, as the Mozilla service used for sending telemetry has been disabled. The option remains for Huawei devices, as their platforms have their own telemetry collection system.
- Information display in fullscreen mode has been improved.
- Support for buttons to quickly change the window size (doubling it, returning to the original size) has been added, considering the current aspect ratio.
- The Gecko browser engine and Mozilla components for Android have been updated to version 121, which corresponds to Firefox 121 (previous releases used Mozilla Android Components 116 and Gecko 116).
Source: opennet.ru
