1.2.1 Chromium

Quick bug fixing release after v1.2 solving some outstanding issues that were very important for our users. For a more detailed list of changes see the v1.8.1 announcement for the Gecko version.

Apart from those we've fixed a crash in web pages using the WebAuthn APIs.

1.8.1

Release Notes

Tabs

• Open tabs in background by default.
• Add an option in Settings / Display to open new tabs in the background or in the foreground.
• Preserve the order of tabs when reopening Wolvic.

Content

• Disable headlock when in VR videos.

Gecko

• Fix an endless redirection loop in sites protected by Cloudflare.
• Update our User Agent to reflect our current Firefox/Gecko version.

PICO

• Download environments in the PICO 4 Ultra.
• Use the correct input profile for the PICO 4 Ultra.
• Disable and hide the controller when positioning information is unavailable.

Huawei Vision Glass

• Keep the screen on while the glasses are connected.

1.8.0

Release Notes

Highlights

• A new move bar under the window allows it to be easily repositioned.
• The new tabs bar presents the list of open tabs either horizontally at the top of the window or vertically on the side.
• Multiple improvements to the Settings.
• Bookmarks and Downloads now have dedicated buttons in the tray for direct access.
• The browser engine has been updated to Gecko ESR 128.5.1.
• In general, a lot of effort has been devoted to polish the UI and improve the reliability of Wolvic.

Window management

• A new move bar under the window allows it to be easily repositioned.
• It is now possible to choose from four preset window sizes in Settings/Display.
• The window resizer has been redesigned for improved appearance and usability.

Tabs

• The new tabs bar presents the list open tabs either horizontally at the top of the window or vertically on the side.
• The location of tabs can be configured in Settings/Display.
• A new Sync button in the tabs bar allows to receive tabs from Firefox Sync.
• The options in the Display settings have been sorted by relevance for the user.

Content

• The browser engine has been updated to Gecko ESR 128.5.1.

Settings and Sync

• The Settings window now links to our regular feedback page and provides direct access to Add-ons management.
• The "What's New" button has been relocated near the version details, and the UI in the Language settings dialog has been adjusted.
• Sound feedback settings have been moved to the Controllers section.
• On Chromium-based builds, the Add-ons button has been removed until that functionality is available.

Other UI Changes

• Bookmarks and Downloads now have dedicated buttons in the tray for direct access.
• We have done quite a bit of work under the hood to ensure that the state of the UI always remains consistent.
• The size and spacing of the elements in the navigation bar have been adjusted for better usability.
• Built-in extensions are now hidden from the hamburger menu since they are not user-configurable.
• We have lowered the sensitivity required by the controller buttons to trigger a click.

Meta

• This release includes support for the new Meta Quest 3S (already released in the Meta store with the previous version).
• Unfortunately, Meta has removed support for the OpenXR extension that Wolvic uses to display external keyboards in the 3D environment.
• Allow installing add-ons from locally downloaded files.

PICO

• Hand tracking is more accurate.
• Restored pass-through support for PICO OS version 5.9 and above.
• Disabling hand tracking no longer disables controllers.

Huawei Vision Glass

• Improved the accuracy and flexibility of the UI.
• A new widget in the phone UI allows the user to change the window distance.
• Improved pointer accuracy, reducing shift.

Others

• Bugfixing and improvements to stability, performance, and build infrastructure.

1.2 Chromium

Introducing the second release in the 1.x series of Wolvic powered by Chromium. The new v1.2 comes with all the changes from the Gecko's v1.8 release and a few additional things:

• Added support for progressive web apps (PWAs)
• Remove Gecko specific options from the settings like the Enhanced Tracking Protection
• Do not show Addons icon in Settings as there is no support yet
• Other stability fixes

1.7.1

Release Notes

Highlights

• New device: Pico4 Ultra.
• Eye tracking support for Meta Quest Pro.
• Added support for accurate rendering of select BlueTooth keyboards in 3D.
• Added support for automatically entering WebXR experiences on application launch.
• Use the Khronos OpenXR loader when supported by the system.
• UI improvements and bugfixes: search in Library, bookmark multiple tabs, etc.

UI

• Added search functionality to Bookmarks, History, and Downloads, allowing users to filter items as they type.
• It is now possible to bookmark multiple tabs directly from the tabs dialog.
• Added a back button in the restart dialog, allowing users to cancel their selection and revert any changes made.

Input

• Enabled eye tracking scrolling with both hands or controllers. To prevent accidental scrolling, it is activated by making a pinching or clicking gesture with either hand or controller.
• Use the same thresholds to recognize a pinch event and to update the color of the pointer; previously these two were not always in sync.
• Improved system gesture detection with hand interaction profiles to properly detect pinches and squeezes when performing gestures like going back or exiting.
• Added support for accurate rendering of select BlueTooth keyboards in 3D via OpenXR's XR_FB_keyboard_tracking extension.
• Introduced a new controller setting to disable hand tracking.
• Restarting Wolvic is no longer required when external bluetooth keyboards are connected or disconnected.
• Remove the need to click on a window before interacting with it.

Content

• Added support for automatically entering WebXR experiences on application launch. The details are specified in the Intent parameters.
• Fixed an error when visiting YouTube for the first time, caused by consent.youtube.com
• Fixed inverted axis in recorridosvirtuales.com

Meta

• Eye tracking support for Meta Quest Pro.
• Added eye tracking support via the XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction extension on devices like the Meta Quest Pro (OS v71 beta).
• Fixed immersive environments on Meta devices by forcing them to load from PNG files instead of KTX. This was caused by a system bug affecting compressed textures on cubemap layers.
• Removed specific code for handling volume keys, as the previous issues have been resolved.

PICO

• Added support for a new device: Pico4 Ultra.
• Use compressed ETC2 textures to distribute the immersive environments on PICO devices.
• Added an OS version check for Pico. We now support Pico OS versions ≥ v5.7.1; this has allowed us to remove workarounds for bugs in older versions.
• Use the XR_BD_controller_interaction extension if available, which provides an updated interaction profile.
• Disable the XR_EXT_hand_interaction extension as it was causing issues with the controllers.

Huawei Vision Glass

• Fix controller orientation issues when the user turns around (gimbal lock).

Others

• Use the Khronos OpenXR loader from Maven when supported by the system, simplifying the build process.
• Performance improvements.

1.1 Chromium

Introducing the first release after 1.0, Wolvic v1.1 with the Chromium backend brings the long awaited support for the WebXR AR module. This module expands the WebXR core specification with specific features for AR use cases in the Web. Given the multi-platform and multi-device nature of Wolvic we have implemented it so it supports devices with opaque-only blend modes (like Meta Quest devices), headsets supporting alpha blend modes (like Pico4, Pico4U) and also devices using additive display technologies (like the MagicLeap2).

Apart from that big new thing, v1.1 comes with all the nice changes from the v1.7.1 release and a few additional changes:

• Added support to purge session history
• New private mode about page
• Disabled add-ons UI as they are not supported yet
• Added external environments support
• Added support for external bluetooth controllers in MagicLeap2 (already supported in other architectures/ports)

1.0 Chromium

We are thrilled to announce the release of Wolvic v1.0, marking a major milestone in the evolution of our browser, in this case, based on Chromium. This release represents a significant achievement, bringing us closer to the level of feature-completeness and stability seen in our earlier Gecko-based version. After extensive testing and optimization we consider this version production-ready, providing robust performance and a seamless experience for immersive browsing.

Highlights

• Eye tracking for navigation
• Fullscreen windows enhancements
• Title bar widget
• Stability fixes
• Support for newest Meta and Pico OS
• Added 18 new environments

What's Changed

UI

• Eye tracking support for navigation
• Support page zoom
• Improve fullscreen windows resizing
• Enhanced calculation of fullscreen initial size
• Bring back the title bar widget
• Enable password autocomplete in private browsing sessions
• Forward haptic feedback to the correct controller
• Fix crashes when voice recognizer could not be properly initialized
• Added 18 new environments

Chromium

• Fix text input fields not getting keyboard focus
• Prevent a crash when downloading files
• Disable Gecko-only features in the UI
• Added support for matterport.com

OpenXR

• Always use hand interaction profile if available
• Fix a regression when emulating a controller in WebXR
• Do not process button states when not ready
• Enable XR_EXT_view_configuration_depth_range to improve near/far clipping

Library/Infra upgrades

• Bump com.android.tools:r8 from 8.3.37 to 8.5.35
• Bump androidx.fragment:fragment from 1.7.1 to 1.8.2
• Bump gradle/actions from 3 to 4

Magic Leap 2

• Added a workaround for a hand interaction bug in OpenXR runtime

Vision Glass

• Drastically improve phone controller accuracy and precision
• Show legal terms in phone UI
• Voice button can now be used for search and text input

Meta Quest 2/3/Pro

• Support for the upcoming v69 OS version

Pico 4/4E

• Added support for PicoOS 5.11.1
• Use XR_BD_controller_interaction if available
• Use a different Android property to get the OS version
• Disable XR_EXT_hand_interaction extension as it’s buggy

New Contributors

• @abhijeetk made their first contribution in #1513

1.7.0

Highlights

• Bring back the title bar widget.
• Add the hand interaction input profile.
• Support eye-tracking navigation.
• Update the Gecko version to v128.
• Many bugfixes and stability improvements.

Notes

UI

• Bring back the title bar widget, a small element that provides information and quick media actions for windows that don't have the focus.
• Don't reduce the size of the window when we go to fullscreen, which used to happen in some cases.

Input

• Add the hand interaction input profile, via OpenXR's XR_EXT_hand_interaction extension. This allows us to use the OpenXR input model for hand tracking and gestures, instead of relying on vendor-specific extensions.
• Support eye-tracking navigation via OpenXR's XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction extension. Users are able to navigate with their gaze while using their hands or controllers for other input actions. Wolvic will ask for permission before enabling this feature.
• Clean up and polish a lot of our input-related code.

Content

• Update the Gecko version to v128. This required updating some GeckoView APIs, as well as Mozilla's Android Components to the new version.
• Support OpenXR's XR_EXT_view_configuration_depth_range extension, which provides additional graphical information which will help us improve Wolvic's performance.
• Fix layout errors when YouTube and other pages are displayed on a very large screen.

Huawei Vision Glass

• Voice input can be triggered from the phone UI. If the user is editing a text field, the spoken words will be added to it. Otherwise, the words will be used to launch a search.
• The phone UI can be used for seeking backward and forward in the currently playing media, even if it is not in fullscreen.
• Back button works as expected if used before we have entered immersive mode.
• Multiple improvements in stability and functionality.

Others

• Many bugfixes and stability improvements.

0.9.1 Chromium beta

This is the second and last release of 0.9.x series of Wolvic with the Chromium backend. The next one, v1.0, will be released in some stores so you wouldn't have to sideload it.

This v0.9.1 brings all the latest bug fixes and enhancements from the latest Gecko-based v1.6.1 plus some specifics related to the use of Chromium as the Web Engine. The main highlights are the upgrade from Chromium M121 to M124 and also the support for the OpenXR hand interaction profile for much better hand tracking in selected supported devices

Chromium improvements

• Upgraded Chromium version from M121 to M124
• Fixed a crash in media permissions
• Fixed an orientation issue when entering WebXR experiences
• Fixed a reference space reset happening on every frame

Wolvic improvements

• Everything mentioned in the v1.6.1 release notes
• Added support for OpenXR hand interaction profile for devices supporting the XR_EXT_hand_interaction extension

1.6.1

Highlights

• Immersive videos can be reoriented along the vertical axis.
• Clearer logic for resizing.
• The buttons B/Y can be used to go back to the previous page
• This version introduces support for the Huawei Vision Glass.
• Many, many bugfixes and stability improvements.

Notes

UI

• Immersive videos can be reoriented along the vertical axis. A long press on the controller's Home button will reorient the video in the direction of your gaze. Note that this works on pages that serve video content directly (e.g. YouTube) but not on those that use their own WebXr player.
• Clearer logic for resizing: we set a maximum and minimum size and allow for consistent size changes between those boundaries, preserving the current aspect ratio as much as possible.
• Preserve the suggested URL when you click the "go" button in the keyboard.
• Widgets like dialogs and the keyboard will be displayed on a flat surface and oriented towards the user, which makes them more visible in all cases.
• Fix some issues related to recentering and headlock.
• Display an explanation before requesting a permission (HVR in China)

Input

• The buttons B/Y can be used to go back to the previous page, when you are not inside an immersive WebXR application.
• Enable the full range of hand motion, which improves the accuracy of hand tracking.

Content

• Ensure that several websites work properly: Google Meet, Soundcloud, museodelprado.es, zingmp3.vn, nhaccuatui.com
• Restart Wolvic after the user signs out from their Mozilla account and clears the contents of the Library.

Huawei Vision Glass

• This version introduces support for the Huawei Vision Glass, a set of AR glasses which are tethered to the smartphone and can display immersive content. The phone itself can be used as a controller, with a new secondary UI that includes a touchpad and media controls.

Others

• The app version code will be autogenerated from now on, based on the date when a package was created.
• Refresh battery levels less frequently, which helps preserve battery, and improve how the current battery level is displayed.
• Remove the passthrough layer when entering immersive mode on Meta and other platforms, which improves performance and avoids glitches.
• Many, many bugfixes and stability improvements.