And once again the open source tortoise reaches hype-town, before the last building is a total hare-down.
Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
11–20 of 63 posts
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#12I don't have a clue about VR stuff, and this is the first time I'm hearing about "Firefox Reality". Why do you need a special browser? What's different about this one?
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#13I don't have a clue about VR stuff, and this is the first time I'm hearing about "Firefox Reality". Why do you need a special browser? What's different about this one?
A parallelizable layout engine should make it a lot easier to get the kind of framerate needed for vr. Mozilla have used this as a test-case for Servo. I’ve previously criticized them for it as an extreme niche market and a diversion from mainstream use cases, but happy to swallow my words if it goes well.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. It will be the pre-installed default browser on Vive devices.
I still don't understand what this means. It's like saying Firefox will be the default browser of Dell monitors. The HTC Vive is a display. Unless they're referring to HTC's software suite (Viveport I think it's called), which very few people use because it's some of the worst software I've ever seen. For example, it somehow managed to jam the entire 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands in my apartment while it was running. Not eve…
On desktop, it means that if the user chooses to install the Viveport suite, that home experience and the suite will provide Firefox Reality as the default browser.
For all-in-one devices, Firefox Reality will be preinstalled and the default browser.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#15(this announcement is most likely about mobile vr headsets, not the PC side) I'm pleased about this because - 1- Firefox Reality is actually "Servo" ie the Rust based browser Mozilla has been developing for years. edit - UGGGH this may not ship with Servo enabled :( 2- This is a stamp of approval from both Firefox and HTC that Servo is ready for consumers at least for this use case (which is very demanding low latenc…
Firefox Reality is the brand we're using for the suite of browser products across VR and AR devices.
Today, Firefox Reality is available for standalone VR devices (like the HTC Vive Focus) and is a native Java application that talks to the GeckoView library, which is made up of components from the mobile version of Gecko, the Firefox web engine.
Firefox Reality for desktop will similarly be based off of the Firefox Desktop product pieces.
Note that there's a bunch of "Servo inside" - from small Rust components to the Quantum work including the new CSS style system to the forthcoming WebRender component.
I don't have anything to announce today about a Firefox Reality-branded browser based on top of Servo.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#16Why would they deal with HTC and not just Steam in general. I have had Vive since day 1. I am never touching anything HTC again. I'm happy enough with the device and technology I have- but the HTC software is horrendous and there's no place for it. I've heard just horror story after horror story of HTC customer service / repair, wanting $200 for a new controller etc. Vive Pro is a complete joke, in price. HTC hasn't…
You might notice HTC Vive seems to be distancing themselves from Steam, including focusing pretty much entirely on their own Viveport platform. Though I'm not sure why, that seems to be the mentality behind their current direction.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#17Expect to get ads about HTC devices on your Firefox home page soon.
Along with a deal to embed a proprietary eye-tracking service that will then be bought out by Mozilla once they realize that they've done it again.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#18(this announcement is most likely about mobile vr headsets, not the PC side) I'm pleased about this because - 1- Firefox Reality is actually "Servo" ie the Rust based browser Mozilla has been developing for years. edit - UGGGH this may not ship with Servo enabled :( 2- This is a stamp of approval from both Firefox and HTC that Servo is ready for consumers at least for this use case (which is very demanding low latenc…
Firefox Reality is the brand we're using for the suite of browser products across VR and AR devices. Today, Firefox Reality is available for standalone VR devices (like the HTC Vive Focus) and is a native Java application that talks to the GeckoView library, which is made up of components from the mobile version of Gecko, the Firefox web engine. Firefox Reality for desktop will similarly be based off of the Firefox D…
Probably worth mentioning, Firefox VR is also going targeting Magic Leap: https://blog.mozvr.com/a-new-browser-for-magic-leap/
IMHO the strategy of unlocking a lot of VR and AR content via a browser makes a lot of sense. The ongoing Rustification of Firefox, things like Web GL, WASM, etc. It all makes sense for VR/AR applications to build on that. Solving the empty room problem where there is no meaningful content or where all the interesting content is in somebody else's walled garden is a key challenge.
VR requires a dedicated UX and I can imagine independent hardware vendors are maybe not so eager to e.g. rely on Google for providing them with that UX. Also, Firefox seems to be leading here rather than following.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#19Expect to get ads about HTC devices on your Firefox home page soon.
Along with a deal to embed a proprietary eye-tracking service that will then be bought out by Mozilla once they realize that they've done it again.
They will publicly pretend they bought the eye-tracking service, but they will actually just hold some minority investment, like they did with Cliqz.
Re: Mozilla Announces Deal to Bring Firefox Reality to HTC VIVE Devices
#20I don't have a clue about VR stuff, and this is the first time I'm hearing about "Firefox Reality". Why do you need a special browser? What's different about this one?
A parallelizable layout engine should make it a lot easier to get the kind of framerate needed for vr. Mozilla have used this as a test-case for Servo. I’ve previously criticized them for it as an extreme niche market and a diversion from mainstream use cases, but happy to swallow my words if it goes well.
I was indeed wondering about how niche this was. Are there any reliable usage statistics for, say, how many people currently use a VR browser daily?
(And to forestall the inevitable comment, I understand the potential of VR, and have since the 1990s VR wave. What I'm wondering about is actual sustained (that is, non-novelty) use.)