Category: Android O

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Daydream’s Chrome Browser Will Soon Let You Seamlessly Navigate From 2D to Web-based VR Content

Announced during the second day of Google’s annual I/O developer event, Daydream VR will soon have access to the Android Chrome web browser. Because of Chrome’s official support for WebVR, this means that users will be able to navigate their way to their next VR-optimised web experience without having to remove the headset.

Google has actively worked on bringing web-based content to VR for some time, having co-authored the WebVR specification (enabling rich VR content to be written with JavaScript and WebGL) three years ago, but the user experience has felt incomplete without proper browser support.

Soon, the Chrome browser will be available within Daydream, and it is the same application; sharing the same bookmarks, history, and login information as the ‘2D’ version you would normally use on your phone. The Daydream controller will enable easy navigation on any normal web page, and as soon as you hit WebVR content, it will launch into a more immersive mode. Eventually, the transition between 2D web pages and VR-optimised web content should become more seamless.

AR features are also expected to make their way into the landscape of web browsing, starting with an experimental build of Chromium launching on GitHub today, which has WebAR features enabled. Andrey Doronichev, Product Director of VR and AR apps at Google, explained how it should work similarly to WebVR, “being able to easily integrate AR features into your existing websites so that as a developer, you don’t have the friction of teaching the user new behaviours or making them download a new app”.

As an example, he showed a shopping experience running in WebGL and Javascript from a Wayfair website, which allows the user to mark out their room space and then place a virtual item (only the ones that fit), such as a coffee table, to see if it suits the room before they buy.

The post Daydream’s Chrome Browser Will Soon Let You Seamlessly Navigate From 2D to Web-based VR Content appeared first on Road to VR.

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VR Development Gets Easier With Vitals in Android O

During the Google I/O conference, Stephanie Saad Cuthbertson, Director of Product Management at Android spoke about the Android O developer preview, due for release later in summer. The new Android version focuses on two aspects; Fluid experiences for user interaction and creating the best user experience and Vitals for battery performance and reliability.

Several new tools are being introduced specifically for developers working with Android apps. Cuthbertson spoke about the three main fundamentals of the Android experience; battery life, start-up time and stability. As such Google are introducing tools that allow for things like security enhancements to protect your phone and tablets from harmful apps and disable them. Google Play Protect can scan apps to make sure they are all safe and don’t pose a threat. Boot time on O is twice as fast as in previous versions of Android for devices using Pixel and apps will also run faster.

It was also noted that apps themselves can have a large impact on the system. Some apps which run continuously in the background can consume lots of system resources and battery life so Android O will introduce limits to be placed upon apps so they don’t continue to drain battery if an app goes wrong.

A feedback suite for developers is also going to be introduced. Titled the Play Console Dashboard, the utility will show the issues that cause battery drain, crashes and slowdown in the UI. For each issue the app has, it will show how many users are affected and give guidance on how to fix the problem. A profiler is available to visualise the problems happening within the app. The unified visual profiler allows for activity of network, CPU and memory to be shown clearly, so devs can see everything on a unified timeline. For example if looking at the CPU it is possible to view the call stack and check how long every call is taking and jump to the exact line of code to fix a problem.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on Android O and VR apps as it becomes available.