Firefox Virtual Reality Really

[FrgMstr]

Firefox is making a move that will have you in a Ready Player One mood before you know it. You will now be able to see you flat 2D web browser in an incredibly realistic 3D world that you can point at...with a virtual laser pointer. Be still my beating heart. Blame cageymaru.

Riveting video.

Today we are proud to announce Firefox Reality, a new web browser designed from the ground up for stand-alone virtual and augmented reality headsets. We took our existing Firefox web technology and enhanced it with Servo, our experimental web engine. From Firefox, we get decades of web compatibility as well as the performance benefits of Firefox Quantum. From the Servo team (who recently joined the Mixed Reality team) we will gain the ability to experiment with entirely new designs and technologies for seeing and interacting with the immersive web. This is the first step in our long-term plan to deliver a totally new experience on an exciting new platform.

 

[heatlesssun]

I have a number of virtual desktop apps and web browsing on it, very meh. I plan to check it out when I get the Vive Pro but I don't see this as much of VR use.

 

[[21CW]killerofall]

I think this was posted 2 days late (by Mozilla, not Kyle)

 

[FrgMstr]

I think this was posted 2 days late (by Mozilla, not Kyle)

Blame this guy. But yeah...

Firefox Reality: Bringing the Immersive Web to Mixed Reality Headsets

TREVOR F. SMITH - 3 APRIL 2018

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Netscape, and later Mozilla, have been trying to browserize VR for decades now.

The old Netscape browser had those clunky, slow-ass VRML plugins for a while until they realized that the interface was shit and nobody wanted to actually use it.

Honestly, not terribly sure that modern VR interfaces are actually any better. The ergonomics of VR aren't terribly more advanced than they were all that time ago.

 

[Big_Rig_Stig]

I mean, why? Why in the world "virtualize" a freaking web browser? Why plaster a headset on my face when I'm just fine and dandy with a plain old ordinary display?

Or are we just paving the way to Matrix-style "VR farms" where we plug in and live virtual lives instead of real life?

 

[RanceJustice]

Honestly, it is not a bad idea for Mozilla to start working on a "VR" browser. This is a very, very baseline starter version , but if I wanted a browser window in VR or other "virtual desktops" I prefer Free/libre and open source Firefox versus lots of proprietary apps (Iv'e seen a few of these basically wrap Chrome and charge for it etc..).

However, what we need is for Mozilla to take the starting point we have, but work on the next gen allowing a browser to not just be efficient in VR, but in fact to do things in VR that aren't otherwise possible. However, some of these are dependent on changes to VR hardware . For instance, eye tracking and FOViated rendering - it would be neat to have Firefox scroll the window based on where you were looking and/or move the entire window if necessary such as during multitasking etc. One of the biggest hold ups regarding existing VR is input - the existing "wands" like with the VIVE or Oculus are a place to start, but we really need to advance to better controllers (see the "knuckles" in dev for the VIVE Pro perhaps) but perhaps most of all outside-in hand tracking w/haptic gloves and/or "controller blanks" in certain forms. Being able to have full 3D multitouch control of a browser window could be neat, and that's to say nothing for future development of 3D/VR focused websites instead. Imagine playing a VR MMO of some sort and you want to look something up, so you gesture to pull down on an interactable point to grab the browser window out of thin air so to speak. If you want to focus on it primarily, you grab and stretch it, zooming in - which happens to show in the game as if you're reading a scroll or map, with the webpage superimposed on the other side. Eye tracking lets you scroll through the page, and you can point/tap to interface with the page. Need to type something? Assuming you can't use a voice assistant to do so instead, a keyboard can pop out of thin air and much like with clicking on links, the haptics in your gloves allow you to type with some feedback. But wait, a monster is coming up the road and is about to attack you, but you weren't finished researching! You can minimize the browser and have it occupy a tiny corner of your vision during the fight, but when you glance up to the top left where the browser icon/window sits, eye tracking increases its size to allow you to read without it being your main focus.

Compared to many others who could be in the scene, I like the idea of Mozilla pushing development forward. These are just a few ideas and Im sure that there will be better VR browsing, but it has to start somewhere in order to iterate as software and hardware improves.