Mozilla is shutting down its made-for-VR web browser, Firefox Reality, and handing off the project to third-party team Igalia.
Mozilla launched Firefox Reality back in 2018 on a host of early standalones, including Oculus Go, Lenovo Mirage Solo, and Vive Focus. In the following years, Mozilla also brought it to Quest and PC VR headsets.
Firefox Reality is set to be removed from app stores within the coming weeks, Mozilla says in a blog post, with the newly announced Igalia Wolvic taking its place starting as soon as next week.
Wolvic is based on Firefox Reality’s source code, which includes the same native support for WebXR content and privacy/security that Mozilla has touted in the past with Firefox on other platforms.
Igalia says in a blog post that its first focus is on serving Android-based, standalone XR systems and HarmonyOS tethered systems, which includes Meta Quest, Huawei VR Glass, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Interactive, and Lynx. The company says its also hoping to support Qualcomm and Lenovo XR devices in the future.
“The Firefox Reality project was created […] to give users some choice and ensure that open and unlimited access to the web remains strong on these devices,” said Brian Kardell, Developer Advocate at Igalia. “These ideas are core to what we do at Igalia, so we’re thrilled to be able to carry the torch forward in leveraging that work to create a new browser, Wolvic. Together, we will help to ensure that the web ecosystem remains healthy.”
Igalia is consultancy studio based in Spain that’s focused on maintaining and promoting Free Software. The team says its developing via this GitHub repository, asking for help from the community to file any issues there that may arise.
A new app called Brushwork VR offers a way for users to simulate painting on a canvas in VR with any headset that supports immersive WebXR browser experiences.
The experience can be launched from your headset at BrushworkVR.com and should work on any WebXR-support headset browser, including Quest 2 and many PC VR headsets. It’s entirely free to use, quite comprehensive and offers a fair amount of customization and options.
In terms of canvases and paint brushes, there’s a variety of sizes of both to choose from. As you would hope, the paint from the brush seems to react fairly realistically when dragged along the canvas. You can pick up and hold brushes at any angle, and put them into two modes — one adds a new layer of paint on top and another allows you to mix between colors. You’re equipped with a palette to your left, which you can use to mix colors together and find the exact right shade to go onto the canvas.
Your paintings can be saved and resumed later on, as well as shared with others via a code that can be entered into the Brushwork VR website. You can also upload a reference image via the website when on the same network as your headset, which will be loaded into the app for you take work alongside.
The developers at Sunset Division say that more than 25,000 paintings have been completed using the app since launch 2 months ago. More recently, the developers say that they’re seeing people working on more than 1,000 paintings a day.
Firefox Reality, Mozilla’s made-for-VR web browser, has been available on standalone devices for some time now, featuring support for Oculus Quest, Oculus Go, HTC Vive Focus, and Pico standalones. Now Mozilla has brought its WebXR-capable browser to PC VR headsets with its new PC Preview version.
Like with its standalone headset variant, Firefox Reality PC Preview supports standard 2D web browsing, 360 video, and immersive content.
Alongside native support for WebXR and WebVR content, Mozilla says the browser also contains “the same privacy and security that underpin regular Firefox on the desktop.”
If you’re viewing this article using Firefox Reality (download link below), you’ll be able to do some pretty cool stuff like chat with people in social VR through Mozilla Hubs, explore the nearly endless 3D objects hosted on Sketchfab, and take a tour of a host of immersive content through the Hello WebXR! app. Just click the links, pop on your VR headset (if you’re not already using it) and jump in.
Firefox Reality PC Preview is available for download via Viveport, which includes support for SteamVR headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Cosmos, and Valve Index. Last year Mozilla mentioned it was working with Valve to bring a version to Steam.
The company says in a blog post that it has plans to both expand to other VR platforms as well as deliver updates that add more functionality and stability.
Mozilla has released a major revamp of its WebXR Viewer app on iOS, bringing support for the latest version of the WebXR standard, which allows AR and VR experiences to run from the web on the iPhone and iPad.
Mozilla released its initial WebXR Viewer app on iOS back in 2017. It was a simple developer-focused tool that implemented Apple’s ARKit tracking alongside an early version of the WebXR standard to support web-based AR and VR experiences that can run directly within a browser. The app was essentially a stopgap for developers to be able to test WebXR experiences on iOS devices in lieu of the default iOS browser, Safari, which hadn’t implemented WebXR support.
While the original app was a very simple single-page browser where you could paste a URL to load and test a WebXR experience, the latest version is a complete rewrite of the application which is now based on the Firefox iOS app. This means the browser looks, feels, and behaves pretty much like Firefox on iOS—including tabbed browsing, history, private browsing, etc—making it much more like a regular brownser than the original.
Image courtesy Mozilla
The WebXR Viewer 2.0 also implements the latest version of the WebXR standard, which means developers can work with the latest capabilities, including some cutting edge experimental features which are still being fleshed out among those guiding the standard’s development.
While the app is still experimental, and mostly designed as a testbed for developers, Blair MacIntyre, Principal Research Scientist at Mozilla’s XR team, makes it clear that one key reason for rebuilding the app with the Firefox iOS codebase is to test the WebXR implementation for potential future inclusion in the actual Firefox iOS browser.
In the near future, we’re interested in continuing to experiment with more advanced AR capabilities for WebXR, and seeing what kinds of experimentation developers do with those capabilities. Most AR use cases need to integrate virtual content with meaningful things in the world; putting cute dinosaurs or superheros on flat surfaces in the world makes for fun demos that run anywhere, but genuinely useful consumer and business applications need to sense, track, and augment “people, places, and things” and have content that persists over time. Enhancing the Immersive Web with these abilities, especially in a “webby” manner that offers privacy and security to users, is a key area Mozilla will be working on next. We need to ensure that there is a standards-based solution that is secure and private, unlike the proprietary solutions currently in the market that are siloed to create new, closed markets controlled by single companies.
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Toward this end, we moved this implementation into the Firefox for iOS code-base to see how this approach to implementing WebXR would behave inside Firefox, with an eye towards (possibly) integrating these features into Firefox for iOS in the future. Would the WebXR implmentation work at all? (Yes.) Would it perform better or worse than in the old app? (Better, it turns out!) What UI and usability issues would arise? (Plenty.) While there is still plenty of UI work to do before moving this to a mainstream browser, we’re quite happy with the performance; WebXR demos run better in this version of the app than they did in the previous one, and the impact on non-WebXR web pages seems minimal.
Mozilla, it seems, has picked up the mantle of bringing a fully-featured browser with WebXR support to iOS.
While Apple had shown some support for the older WebVR standard in the past, in recent years the company has been moving in its own direction for web-based AR content. So far this is largely limited to the ‘AR Quick Look‘ functionality which allows Safari to pull 3D models from a webpage and place them into an AR view with minimal interactive capabilities.
It’s a smoothly implemented feature, but highly limited in potential use-cases compared to WebXR, especially because it isn’t device or browser-agnostic; it only works on iOS devices.
Mozilla today announced the launch of Hubs Cloud, an AWS-hosted service that allows organizations to run their own private virtual spaces that can be customized to their needs.
You may have heard of Hubs already; it’s Mozilla’s web-based social VR platform which makes it easy for participants across mobile, desktop, and VR to join together in virtual spaces directly through the web browser.
While anyone can make and join rooms for free in Hubs, Mozilla is now giving away the foundation of the platform so that organizations can use it as a basis for their own, self-hosted virtual spaces that can be customized and extended to their needs.
Hubs Cloud, available as of today in ‘Early Access’, can be spun up on an AWS server so that organizations can operate their own virtual spaces on their own domain and their own terms. It’s sort of like WordPress—a popular content management system that’s the foundation for many websites, from travel blogs to ecommerce stores—but instead of creating a flat website, Hubs Cloud creates virtual spaces which are fully owned and controlled by the host.
Mozilla says that Hubs Cloud allows for high-level customizations, like enabling organizations to run instances on their own domains and customize branding, avatars, and environments. For those looking to do even more, Hubs Cloud also opens the door for organizations to write their own expanded features and functionality, which is where things really get interesting.
For instance, an e-commerce company could adapt their payment system to their version of the platform to allow users to purchase goods directly from the company’s virtual showroom. Or maybe another company wants to use Hubs Cloud as their own private corporate meeting rooms—they could tie into their enterprise account system to require company credentials to access the rooms. Given that the Hubs code is open-source, the sky is the limit for organizations that want to extend the platform any way they see fit. And there’s also the opportunity for organizations to contribute code back to the project to make Hubs Cloud an even better starting point for others.
Hubs environments can be modified or created from scratch | Photo by Road to VR
Mozilla is making Hubs Cloud available on AWS in both Personal and Enterprise versions; while they have the same features, the company says that Personal is designed to run smaller instances to keep costs low, and has limits on system-wide scalability. While AWS is the first cloud provider to run Hubs Cloud, Mozilla says it’s working to bring the platform to DigitalOcean next.
It’s a powerful move on Mozilla’s part because the company is acting as an enabler for virtual spaces on the web rather than trying to ‘own’ such spaces as part of its own closed ecosystem. Hell… you could even use Hubs Cloud as a basis for your own closed social VR ecosystem.
And that’s the point, actually. Mozilla’s goal with Hubs Cloud is to decentralize social virtual spaces by giving people the foundation to easily build and host their own, just like it’s easy to build and host your own website. The company explained as much in the Hubs “master plan” which we wrote about last week when it was first revealed that Hubs Cloud was soon to launch.
Mozilla Hubs is the company’s impressive WebXR social app which allows users from almost any device (VR or not) to jump into a virtual room with the click of a link. But the company’s ambitions go much further; soon Mozilla will take a major step toward achieving its “master plan” by launching Hubs Cloud.
Hubs is perhaps the most ambitious WebXR project to date—an entirely web-based, device agnostic virtual space that can be joined and shared with a plain old URL through a Web browser. By that virtue, Hubs is part of the Web itself—the vast network of sites accessible and navigable between one another. Most other social VR apps are built atop the Internet—the infrastructure underlying the Web—but do not interconnect with the Web itself.
Hubs developer Greg Fodor reasons in a recently published post that a global metaverse is most likely to succeed if it’s a genuine part of the Web; it’s that principle which has been guiding the strategy and development of Hubs.
In the post, Fodor explains Mozilla’s “master plan” behind Hubs, which includes the eventual launch of Hubs Cloud (coming “soon”), an open-source version of Hubs which can be hosted on any Web server, by anyone.
Much like how a website is hosted on a server, Hubs Cloud would thus be decentralized and could be tailored to the needs of each entity using it, while continuing to be part of the Web. The “master plan” for Hubs is as follows, according to Fodor:
Create an easy-to-use avatar communication tool for mixed media, globally addressable spaces
Create easy-to-use tools for creating 3D environments and avatars
Build it to run in the browser, and embrace the culture of the web
Open source all the code
Make it cheap and easy for anyone to run their own decentralized server
This is a wholly different approach to other metaverse projects, most of which aren’t part of the Web (even though they use the Internet to connect users). Mozilla believes that a global metaverse won’t be a closed platform designed with top-down use-cases in mind; rather it will be a network of decentralized servers hosting virtual spaces which are customized to the needs of each host. By that virtue, Fodor says that Mozilla has specifically avoided building certain features into Hubs, expecting that such features are best built from the ground-up based on user needs and by leveraging existing Web-based tools and capabilities.
We have deliberately not included [in Hubs]:
Dynamic scripting and rich applications
Large, continuous open world ‘land’
Collaborative editing tools or world building
Transactions or e-commerce
Though we fully expect these additional things to emerge, they seem unnecessary to deliver remote social presence and shared spatial awareness in mixed media environments.
Fodor does make a compelling argument for why a metaverse built as part of the Web is more likely to succeed than one that’s not, and Mozilla’s approach to the metaverse is definitely forward-thinking.
My take? Although I agree with most of Fodor’s points, the Web emerged in an era before anyone truly understood its world-altering implications; had governments and corporations of the era known just how important the Web would become, they would have fought tooth-and-nail to ‘own’ it and have centralized control. Today the global influence of the Web is known, and it’s more obvious now that owning the metaverse of the future will bestow the owner with incredible, global influence.
Similar to the social networks of today, the first metaverse that reaches scale—whether open or closed—seems likely to win and continue to hold its ground thanks to the network effect. While I think an open and decentralized metaverse is vastly preferable to one owned by one or a handful of corporations or governments, companies like Facebook (which is already building its own metaverse project, Facebook Horizon) are able to focus far more resources on ‘capturing’ the metaverse than any ground-up decentralized approach can muster.
That said, I hope I’m wrong. The decentralized nature of the Web is a critically important feature that should extend to the metaverse to ensure that no single entity gets to make the rules for the entire metaverse.
While we’ve talked plenty about the power of WebXR—a standard which makes it possible to deliver VR experiences directly from web browsers—there hasn’t been a centralized destination to discover WebXR apps as users would expect from other content platforms. XR Swim is a new portal that aims to deliver just that.
Though one major point of WebXR is expressly to offer a way for developers to distribute VR apps easily without being stuck inside a walled platform, such platform storefronts have emerged as a key meeting point for developers making apps and customers who want them. Storefronts like those from Oculus and Steam serve to organize content so that consumers can browse heaps of content from a single, centralized location.
While some truly impressive WebXR apps already exist today, they can be extremely difficult to discover because they are literally a webpage among billions connected to the internet. If you don’t already know the name of what you’re looking for, there’s hardly a way to Google search for WebXR applications specifically.
That’s where XR Swim comes in. Smartly based in the browser itself (and with an easy to memorize URL, xrswim.com) the site is a centralized portal for finding WebXR experiences—it even has its own WebXR component which means you can browse and launch WebXR experiences in or out of VR.
XR Swim looks very similar to the kind of storefront you’d expect for finding apps from the VR platforms like Oculus and Steam, though it’s missing some expected features at the moment like the ability to leave reviews for content and a way for developers to accept payment.
More features are in the works though. As our friends at VRScout report, Chicken Waffle, the studio behind XR Swim, is planning to create a full-blown marketplace which will allow developers to charge for content. Granted, a method for paid access to WebXR apps (which are simply hosted as normal web pages accessible through a URL) will require thoughtful implementation.
WebXR is an open standard which allows VR apps to run directly from web browsers. While the tools for building WebXR apps are designed to be familiar to web developers, many VR developers use game engine tools like Unity to build their apps. With the Unity WebXR Exporter, developers now have the option of targeting browsers as their publishing platform, making their app easily accessible on the web.
WebXR is pretty magical. It makes it possible to create headset-agnostic VR experiences that can be accessed as easily as clicking a link. Take Moon Rider, for instance, a web-based VR rhythm game. Or how about Mozilla Hubs, a social VR chatroom that allows people with and without headsets to chat, draw, and share.
As neat as WebXR is, the tools to build this kind of content are still evolving. While a frameworks A-frame is a great starting point, it appeals more to web developers (being based on HTML) than game developers (who are used to working in game engines).
Unity is one of the most popular game engines for building VR content, including some of the biggest VR games out there like Beat Saber.
Luckily, the Mozilla’s free Unity WebXR Exporter makes it easy for game developers already using the engine to build WebXR apps. The tool has actually been around for some time, but hadn’t been updated since 2018 as the earlier ‘WebVR’ standard evolved into the newer ‘WebXR’ standard. Now Mozilla has released a revamped version of the tool that’s ripe and ready for WebXR.
The company says that the Unity WebXR Exporter supports Unity 2018.4 (LTS) and all versions of Unity 2019. Support for Unity 2020 is “planned once the new Unity APIs settle down.”
Because WebXR apps can be visited from virtually any device, Mozilla recommends developers build WebXR apps in Unity using the Universal Render Pipeline (previously known as the Lightweight Render Pipeline) to maintain high performance.
Coronavirus, otherwise known as the 2019 novel coronavirus, is primarily affecting China. While it’s mostly been relegated to that country due to stringent quarantines and travel restrictions mandated by the Chinese government, you’ve probably heard that it’s also landed in several other countries too, albeit in fewer numbers. If you’ve having trouble wrapping your head around the virus’ spread, this WebXR app may bring some much-needed insight.
Created by MIT graduate and XR strategist Michael DiBenigno, the so-called ‘nCoV-2019 Tracker’ takes you through some basic information on the virus’ outbreak, and where it’s traveled day by day up until February 4th.
It’s essentially the same information provided by the 2D graphic recently released byWall Street Times, which uses data gathered from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the Lancet, and the Associated Press.
Like WSJ’s graphic, the app provides an interactive timeline of the outbreak, including the number of reported infections by each country represented, however it includes a 3D globe that you can walk around and also a supporting 2D graph. Although you might get the intended effect by viewing it on you smartphone or desktop, the app shows just how powerful data visualization can be in an AR/VR headset. Not only that, it gives you a good idea of how rapidly the virus is spreading in Wuhan, ground zero of the outbreak, and how its growing on the periphery.
The tracker was built using FlowImmersive, a data visualization platform to help people understand data-driven insights using AR/VR devices. WebXR is an API that allows developers to create XR experiences, which includes AR and VR headsets, and then let users navigate to lightweight experience via a hyperlink; the XR experience starts up without needing to download anything.
You can check out the coronavirus tracker here on a variety of platforms, including desktop, mobile, but more importantly on immersive headsets including most VR headsets as well as AR headsets such as Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap 1. Just open up a WebXR-supported browser in your headset and click on the link above.
The latest 8.0 update to Oculus Browser adds experimental support for the Oculus Quest’s hand tracking feature. That means you can use your hands in WebXR apps, which are VR experiences that run natively on a browser page, without the need to download anything.
The feature won’t work in all WebXR apps natively and is not true hand tracking support just yet — it only enables hand tracking to work as an emulated controller. The update arrives just as Facebook adds enhanced support for hand tracking on Quest.
While the experimental feature is not listed in the Oculus Browser 8.0 release notes, a member of the Oculus WebVR/XR team, Artem Bolgar, tweeted about the addition earlier today. As noted by Artem, the support works by emulating controllers and doesn’t yet support tracking a full hand model like you would use in Oculus Home yet.
In the example app linked by Bolgar, the feature tracks your hands to move the in-game controller models in 6DoF. You can then point at objects using the cursor and pinch to make a selection, which will change the color of the cubes. Although you can see this displayed in the video below, it doesn’t show the pinching motion of my fingers, as there’s no in-game representation of the action (as the hand tracking is simply emulating controllers).
The new feature is not enabled by default and needs to be enabled first. You can enable it by navigating to chrome://flags in Oculus Browser and turning on the WebVR hand tracking option. There are a couple of different input methods, but the one we used in the video and the one that worked best is “hands and pointers.”
While the feature is only very experimental for now, and clearly not a proper implementation of full controller-free hand tracking in WebXR applications, it is the first step towards full support. This would open up a wealth of possibility, such as using your own hands to shoot webs as Spider-Man in a WebXR app that runs entirely through the Oculus Browser.
