Igalia, known for its involvement in open source projects such as GNOME, GTK, WebKitGTK, Epiphany, GStreamer and freedesktop.org, has unveiled a new open source web browser, Wolvic, designed for use in virtual reality systems. The project will continue the development of the Firefox Reality browser, previously developed by Mozilla, but has not been updated for about a year. The Wolvic code is written in Java and C++, and distributed under the MPLv2 license. Ready builds of the first pre-release of Wolvic are generated for the Android platform and support work with Oculus 3D helmets, Huawei VR Glass, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Interactive and Lynx. Work is underway to port the browser for Qualcomm and Lenovo devices.
The browser uses the GeckoView web engine, a variant of Mozilla's Gecko engine packaged as a separate library that can be updated independently. Management is carried out through a fundamentally different three-dimensional user interface, which allows you to navigate through sites within the virtual world or as part of augmented reality systems. In addition to a 3D helmet-driven interface that lets you view traditional 3D pages, web developers can use the WebXR, WebAR, and WebVR APIs to create custom 360D web applications that interact in virtual space. It also supports viewing spatial videos shot in XNUMX-degree mode in a XNUMXD helmet.
Management is done through VR controllers, and data entry into web forms through a virtual or real keyboard. Of the advanced user interaction mechanisms supported by the browser, the voice input system stands out, which allows you to fill out forms and send search queries using the speech recognition engine developed by Mozilla. As a home page, the browser provides an interface for accessing selected content and navigating through a collection of 3D-adapted games, web applications, 3D models, and XNUMXD videos.
Source: opennet.ru