The release of the Wolvic 1.3 web browser, designed for use in augmented and virtual reality systems, has been published. The project continues the development of the Firefox Reality browser, previously developed by Mozilla. After the Firefox Reality codebase stagnated under the Wolvic project, its development was continued by Igalia, known for its participation in the development of such free projects as GNOME, GTK, WebKitGTK, Epiphany, GStreamer, Wine, Mesa and freedesktop.org. The Wolvic code is written in Java and C++, and distributed under the MPLv2 license. Ready assemblies are generated for the Android platform. Work with 3D helmets Oculus, Huawei VR Glass, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Neo, Pico4, Pico4E, Meta Quest Pro and Lynx is supported (the browser is also being ported 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.
VR controllers are used for navigation, and a virtual or real keyboard is used to enter data into web forms. In addition, a voice input system is offered for user interaction, which makes it possible to fill out forms and send search queries using the speech recognition engine developed in 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.
In the new version:
- Added support for Pico3, Pico4E and Meta Quest Pro 4D helmets.
- Implemented a new file upload dialog.
- Improved display of thumbnails and long names in the download manager.
- A new context menu "Share with other apps" has been added to the Download Manager, with which you can make downloaded files visible to other Android applications and move them to the Downloads system directory.
- A new backend based on the implementation of the OpenXR standard has been proposed for Pico devices.
- All supported platforms have been switched by default to the OpenXR backend, which now supports cylindrical layers required for building multi-window systems.
- For Pico and Meta devices, the ability to track the position of hands is provided.
- Added initial support for drawing hands in a 3D environment and the ability to control gestures (eg pinch with thumb and forefinger to click, and pinch with thumb and middle finger to return).
- Provided auto-detection of web applications and added an interface for managing web applications.
Added dialog for installing standalone web applications (PWAs).
- Added the ability to install add-ons from local xpi files.
- Implemented the ability to play videos on sites using DelightXR.
- Hiding of the navigation bar during full-screen video playback is provided.
- Improved quality of textures in the default environment.
- Browser ID changed to "Mozilla/5.0 (Android 10; Mobile VR; rv:105.0) Gecko/105.0 Firefox/105.0 Wolvic/1.3" (Firefox Reality was mentioned earlier).
- The Mozilla browser components for Android have been updated to version 75 to support new APIs.
Source: opennet.ru