Category: WebXR

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Oculus Browser Adds Experimental WebXR Hand Tracking Support For Oculus Quest

Oculus Browser has rolled out support for experimental hand-tracking API support with WebXR, and some demos are already available to try out.

In a tweet last week, Oculus Browser Product Manager Jacob Rossi announced that WebXR in Oculus Browser now supports the hand tracking API for Oculus Quest. This allows developers to create WebXR experiences where users only have to use their hands while in VR, and can forgo Touch controllers in a similar manner to select games and apps available on the Oculus Store.

Oculus Browser already supported hand tracking as an input method while browsing the web, however this update add support for developers who want to integrate hand tracking into a proper WebXR experience in the browser. Some developers have already created some proof of concept experiences as well, such as this demo developed by Marlon Lückert that is available to try online now if you have an Oculus Quest.

As you can see from the video, this implementation is pretty basic but is also just meant to show off that the support exists and works.

If you want to try the demo out for yourself, just head over to webxr-handtracking.vercel.app on your Quest browser. However, you are going to need to perform a few one-time setup steps, as outlined when you visit the address. It essentially boils down to going to chrome://flags/ on your Quest browser and enabling WebXR experiences with joints tracking and disabling WebXR experiences with hands tracking. You’ve also got to make sure that automatic switching between hands and controllers is enabled in your Quest settings.

This is just the beginning of hand tracking implementation in WebXR — we expect to see a lot more uses of the feature in the future.

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Oculus Browser Gets Experimental Hand-tracking Support on Quest

A newly released update for the Oculus Browser on Quest includes full-finger hand-tracking support for WebXR projects.

The feature was quietly released in the recent 10.2 build of Oculus Browser, which now comes with a hand-tracking API and timewarp layer support, both of which are considered ‘experimental’ at this time.

The 8.0 version of Oculus Browser released back in February was the first to include initial hand-tracking support for WebXR projects, although it was focused on controller emulation and not true five-finger tracking.

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Dev Tool Uses Quest Hand-tracking to Quickly Model Realistic Hand Poses for VR

Oculus Browser Product Manager Jacob Rossi announced the news via Twitter, providing some examples via a WebXR test page and layer page which demonstrates hand-tracking and timewarp layer support respectively.

Check out a demo in the familiar WebXR solar system scene featuring the new hand-tracking support:

Hand-tracking came to Oculus Quest as an experimental feature back in late 2019. The intuitive control scheme has since come out of beta and is now available for all Quest owners to use system-wide, letting you control the basic functions of Quest without the need of Touch controllers.

Moreover, there are an increasing number of games and cool experimentations that make use of Quest’s native hand-tracking abilities. We’re hoping to see more soon using the full five-fingered hand-tracking support on Quest.

As for timewarp support, just like on non-WebXR-based apps timewarp support allows the headset to reproject past frames when the scene can’t maintain its native refresh rate, which in Quest’s case is 72Hz.

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Mozilla Releases Firefox-based ‘WebXR Viewer’ App for Browser-based AR on iOS

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.

Fast forward a few years—during which time the WebXR standard has been rapidly maturing and Apple hasn’t shown any interest in a Safari implementation—and Mozilla is forging ahead with a more robust version of the app which it calls WebXR Viewer 2.0.

Image courtesy Mozilla

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.

[…]

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.

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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.

On the other hand, Mozilla has been focused on bringing open and secure AR and VR capabilities and platforms to as many devices and browsers as possible.

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Nreal Light Gets Multi-User Shared AR And WebXR Support

As excitement builds for the consumer release of Nreal’s Light augmented reality glasses this fall, the company is continuing to entice developers to support the affordable, Android-based wearable. Today, Nreal announced two important upgrades to its Light software development kit — multi-user environments and WebXR support — as well as a couple of deals that will likely bring new developers into the stable.

If you’re not yet familiar with Nreal Light, here’s a quick recap: Unlike Microsoft and Magic Leap, which developed $2,300 to $3,500 enterprise AR headsets with their own computing platforms, Nreal created lightweight $500 glasses that use Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 855, or 865 smartphones for processing, storage, and wireless network connectivity. Currently available as an $1,119 Development Kit, Light has already been embraced by multiple cellular carriers and XR collaborative workspace developer Spatial, thanks to the headset’s ability to facilitate next-generation remote work, remote assistance, and entertainment. An all-in-one enterprise model is planned for release in the last quarter of this year, directly challenging Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and the troubled Magic Leap One.

Starting today, users of the Light Development Kit will be able to access “multiplayer” mode, a feature that lets multiple headset wearers see and interact with one another inside a shared mixed reality environment. Business users will be able to share digital collaborative workspaces and meeting rooms using the feature, while developers will also be able to develop multi-person cooperative or competitive games. To facilitate multiplayer mode testing, Nreal is offering a bundle with two Light headsets and a $500 magnetic prescription lens set for $2,559, a 14% discount off their separately purchased prices.

On May 28, Nreal and Deutsche Telekom’s tech incubator Hubraum will globally launch a Mixed Reality Program partnership to find, accelerate, and release new mixed reality apps for Nreal Light. The partners will focus on productivity and entertainment apps, with plans to either include or feature the apps during Light’s consumer launch. Additionally, developers interested in learning how to create Nreal-compatible apps will get access to Nreal Tower, a tower defense-style sample game, as well as a Slack channel to co-build the game with the Nreal team. A finished version of Tower will become generally available along with the Light Consumer Kit.

Last, but not least, Nreal says it’s adding WebXR support to the Light platform, enabling web applications to properly display content through the stereoscopic 3D glasses. WebXR apps effectively allow developers to offer their mixed reality content over the web in a platform-agnostic format that doesn’t require Google, Apple, Microsoft, or another company to serve as a gatekeeper. These apps will apparently be accessible through the Nebula 3D launcher Nreal developed for Android phones, following an SDK update coming “later this year.”

The written content of this post by Jeremy Horowitz originally appeared on VentureBeat.

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Firefox Reality 10 Brings Enhanced Web Browsing With WebXR, Gaze Navigation & Security

Firefox Reality

The internet is an intrinsic part of our everyday lives and championing this is the virtual reality (VR) space is Mozilla with Firefox Reality. This week the company has released Firefox Reality 10, adding new features to expand and improve the experience for users.

Firefox Reality

The big update for Firefox Reality 10 is support for WebXR. Originally planned for 2019, the rollout this week aids improvements in cross-device functionality so that websites can work with a variety of controllers without the need to write individual support. The browser will still work with WebVR – the previous version – as most web content which is VR compatible is WebVR content.

“This will help our partners and developer community gracefully transition to WebXR without worrying that their audiences will lose functionality immediately. We will eventually deprecate WebVR. We’re currently working on a timeline for removing WebVR support,” notes the Mozilla Blog.

A useful feature the general public will notice is the addition of gaze navigation support in Firefox Reality 10. This allows you to control various browser functions without the need of a controller, useful for those who can’t use a controller. Scrolling, selecting and typing are all possible if your controller suddenly stops working.

Firefox Reality

Smaller improvements include dual-controller typing for those you prefer to use both hands, download management options; better privacy and security when online and DRM video playback.

For the launch of Firefox Reality 10 Mozilla has also announced a partnership with Pico Interactive. The browser will come supplied with all Pico headsets including its new Pico Neo 2 standalone headset. Firefox Reality already supports headsets such as Oculus Quest, Oculus Go and HTC Vive, with Pico now added to that list. The Neo 2 and Neo 2 Eye are Pico’s latest enterprise-focused headsets with 4K resolutions, inside-out tracking and 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) controllers.

Last month saw the company release Hubs Cloud for Amazon Web Services (AWS). Currently, in Early Access, organisations can build private or public social spaces for a range of use cases such as connecting with clients or teamwork, all through their AWS account.

As Mozilla continues to update Firefox Reality, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Nreal Dev Multiplayer Bundle on Sale, WebXR Support & MR Tower Defence Game in Development

Nreal

Mixed reality (MR) headset maker Nreal is currently in the process of attracting developers to its platform as it continues to edge towards a consumer launch. This week the company has revealed its latest efforts which include a new multiplayer bundle, work on its first in-house videogame, new partnerships and WebXR support.

Nreal Tower

The Nreal Light Developer Kit has been available for a little while now, retailing for $1,199 USD. Expanding upon this initial kit is the new Nreal Hand in Hand bundle which comes supplied with two Nreal Light dev-kits and the Lens Box (normally $499) with 15 pairs of prescription lenses for $2,559. Saving developers 14 percent off the normal price.

Nreal has created this bundle as its software development kit (NRSDK) now includes a multiplayer mode. With this enabled developers can allow multiple Nreal Light users to see and interact with each other in the same MR environment, whether that’s for meetings or co-op videogames.

On the subject of videogames, Nreal has teased the first details for a tower defence-style MR title called Nreal Tower. Accessed in the default developer environment it will be used as an example for those new to the platform. Plus developers can also contribute and collaborate on Nreal Tower‘s creation.

Nreal

Additionally, Nreal is collaborating with Deutsche Telekom’s tech incubator, hubraum, to find, incubate and publish new MR apps. These will be part of a new Mixed Reality Program that will launch globally on 28th May. Apps will have a chance to be among the first to arrive for the consumer version of Nreal Light.

Another feature in the works is WebXR support. The ability to display web applications is an important step to wider adoption. Support is expected to arrive for the NRSDK later this year.

There’s still no word on the consumer launch date when that happens VRFocus will let you know.

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XR Swim is a Much Needed Centralized Portal for Discovering WebXR Experiences

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.

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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.

For now, WebXR developers who would like to get their content onto XR Swim can submit information through the site’s Contribute page.

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Google Brings Web-based AR to Chrome in Latest Beta

Last week Google released a beta of Chrome 81 for Android, Chrome OS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, which means a stable version is just around the corner. One of the most important updates to arrive in Chrome 81 is the ability to use web-based AR apps.

Google first included WebVR, the VR-focused predecessor to the WebXR API, in Chrome 66 back in April 2018. Debuted in Chrome 79 at the end of 2019, WebXR Device API came to devices without AR support.

Now, the stable version of Chrome 81 is expected to release sometime next month, which will carry with it the ability to display web-based AR content.

According to Google’s Chromium blog, the upcoming stable version of Chrome will also include support for the WebXR Hit Test API, an API for placing digital objects in a physical world view. Google says the new API captures both the location of a ‘hit test’, or where the user taps on the screen, and the orientation of the point that was detected.

Image courtesy Google

Appealing to developers, Google says that if you’ve already used the new API to create virtual reality apps, there’s very little new to learn to use AR.

“This is because the spec was designed with the spectrum of immersive experiences in mind. Regardless of the degree of augmentation or virtualization, the application flow is the same. The differences are merely a matter of setting and requesting different properties during object creation, ” the company says.

Chrome 81 is also slated to include web-based NFC (Near Field Communications), which allows a web app to read and write to NFC tags.

If you want to try out the beta, simply download the Chrome Beta app on your preferred device. When you do, make sure to play around with a few examples first..

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Oculus Browser Adds Experimental Hand Tracking Support For WebXR Apps

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.

Oculus Browser Product Manager Jacob Rossi made clear that this “isn’t meant to be how we see hands [in Oculus Browser] working long term” and that they are looking for feedback, with no immediate plans to turn this iteration of WebXR hand tracking support on by default.

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Easily Find Web-based VR Content With SideQuest’s New Online List

The unofficial third-party Oculus Quest content platform SideQuest launched a beta version of a web page that aims to collect and list Web-based VR experiences in a similar manner to their SideQuest library for Quest. However, this new online site will work on any headset that supports Web-based VR content and allow in-VR users to easily find, explore and launch content they might not have otherwise seen before.

Web-based VR content provided by the WebXR specification (an evolution of the earlier WebVR implementation) provides headset owners with fully immersive content that launches from a VR-compatible version of a Web browser, without a requirement for prior installation of the experiences. Browsers compatible with the standard include Google Chrome for PC VR or the Oculus Browser or Firefox Reality on the Oculus Quest. When users navigate to a compatible address in their headset browser, they can instantly launch a full VR experience.

sidequest webvr list

With the new online tool, SideQuest is looking to make it easier to find and experience this type of VR content. Users only need to navigate to http://sdq.st/webxr in their headset’s browser to find a long and expansive list of compatible experiences, curated and provided by SideQuest, as pictured above.

Clicking on an experience takes you straight to the correct URL and allows you to launch straight into the VR experience. It is a seamless and accessible way for users to find Web-based VR content without having to memorize or bookmark lots of different URLs.

The SideQuest Web-based VR content list features some notable experiences we’ve covered previously, such as the Spider-Man web swinging experience on Quest. The list is still in beta and while SideQuest as a whole is aimed at Oculus Quest users, the list will work in any VR browser that supports the standard.

Web-based VR experiences have a lot of potential. We recently tried Mozilla’s new ‘Hello WebXR’ application, which was impressive and also promising with regards to the potential that future web-based VR experiences might hold.

You can try out the SideQuest list yourself by navigating to http://sdq.st/webxr on your supported headset browser.

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