The release of the Wolvic 1.3 web browser has been published, intended 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 the stagnation of the Firefox Reality codebase, Igalia, known for its involvement in the development of free projects like GNOME, GTK, WebKitGTK, Epiphany, GStreamer, Wine, Mesa, and freedesktop.org, took over its development within the Wolvic project. The Wolvic code is written in Java and C++ and is distributed under the MPLv2 license. Ready builds have been created for the Android platform. Support is provided for 3D headsets including Oculus, Huawei VR Glass, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Neo, Pico4, Pico4E, Meta Quest Pro, and Lynx (a port for Qualcomm and Lenovo devices is also underway).
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 has been added for Pico4, Pico4E, and Meta Quest Pro headsets.
- A new file upload dialog has been implemented.
- The download manager now has improved thumbnail displays and long names.
- A new context menu 'Share with other apps' has been added in the download manager, allowing downloaded files to be made visible to other Android applications and moved to the system Downloads directory.
- A new backend has been proposed for Pico devices, based on the implementation of the OpenXR standard.
- All supported platforms have been switched by default to the OpenXR backend, which now includes support for cylindrical layers necessary for building multi-window systems.
- Tracking of hand positions has been enabled for Pico and Meta devices.
- Initial support for rendering hands in 3D environments has been added along with gesture control (for example, a pinch with the thumb and index finger for a click, and a pinch with the thumb and middle finger for back navigation).
- Auto-detection of web applications has been ensured, and an interface for managing web applications has been added.
A dialog for installing standalone web applications (PWA) has been added.
- The ability to install extensions from local xpi files has been provided.
- The capability to play videos on websites using DelightXR has been implemented.
- The navigation bar is now hidden in full-screen video playback.
- Texture quality in the default environment has been enhanced.
- The browser identifier has been changed to 'Mozilla/5.0 (Android 10; Mobile VR; rv:105.0) Gecko/105.0 Firefox/105.0 Wolvic/1.3' (previously included mentions of Firefox Reality).
- Mozilla's browser components for Android have been updated to version 75 with support for new APIs.
Source: opennet.ru
