Firefox Reality 10

Our team has been hard at work on the latest version of Firefox Reality. In our last two versions, we had a heightened focus on performance and stability. With this release, fans of our browser on standalone VR headsets can enjoy the best of both worlds—a main course of in-demand features, with sides of performance and UI improvements. Firefox Reality 10 is a feature-packed release with something for every VR enthusiast.

But perhaps the most exciting news of this release is we’re releasing in conjunction with our new partner, Pico Interactive! We’re teaming up to bring the latest and greatest in VR browsing to Pico’s headsets, including the Neo 2 – an all-in-one (AIO) device with 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) head and controller tracking. Firefox Reality will be released and shipped with all Pico headsets. Learn more about what this partnership means here. And check out Firefox Reality in the Pico store.

What's New?

But what about all the exciting features we served up in this release, you might ask? Let’s dig in!

You Are Now Entering WebXR

Firefox Reality now supports WebXR! WebXR is the successor to the WebVR spec. It provides a host of improvements in cross-device functionality and tooling for both VR and AR applications. With WebXR, a site can support a wide variety of controller devices without writing support for each one individually.  WebXR takes care of choosing the right controls for actions such as selecting and grabbing objects.

You can get started right now using WebXR applications in Firefox Reality 10. If you’re looking for ways to get started building your own WebXR applications, take a look at the MDN Docs for the WebXR API.  And if you’re already working with Unity and want to explore developing WebXR  applications, check out our Unity WebXR Exporter.

Making the transition from WebVR to WebXR

We understand WebXR support among the most widely used browsers is fairly new and the community has largely been developing for WebVR until very recently. We want to help people to get to WebXR, but the vast majority of web content that is VR-enabled is WebVR content—twenty-five percent (25%) of our users consume WebVR content. Not to worry, we've got you covered.

This release also continues our support for WebVR, making Firefox Reality 10 the only standalone browser that supports both WebVR and WebXR experiences.

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,  but we’ll share that timeline with our community well in advance of any action.

Gaze Support

Another useful feature included in this release is gaze navigation support. This allows viewers to navigate within the browser without controllers, using only head movement and headset buttons. This is great for users who may not be able to use controllers, or  for use with headsets that don’t include controllers or allow you unbind controllers. See a quick demo of this feature on the Pico Neo 2 below. Here we’re able to scroll, select and type, all without the use of a physical controller.

Dual-controller typing

Many of us know how tedious it can be to type on a virtual keyboard with one controller. Additionally, one-hand typing may be counter-intuitive for those who are used to typing with two hands in most environments. With this version we’re introducing dual-controller typing to create a more natural keyboard experience.

Download Management

This version allows users to download files and manage previously downloaded files. Users can now view, sort and delete downloads without leaving the browser.

Enhanced Tracking Protection

At Mozilla, we always want to enable our users to take their privacy and security into their own hands. Our enhanced tracking protection makes users aware of potential privacy issues and allows users to fully control their privacy settings--from notifications of user activity tracking to our updated "Privacy and Security" UI.

These highlighted features, along with the many performance, DRM video playback and user experience improvements we’ve included make this a must-try release. Download it today in the Pico, HTC and Oculus app stores.

Contribute to Firefox Reality!

Firefox Reality is an open source project. We love hearing from and collaborating with our developer community. Check out Firefox Reality on GitHub and help build the open immersive web.