Wolvic 1.7.1 Released

Hello, and welcome to Wolvic 1.7.1! This latest release of the Gecko-based version of Wolvic brings a long list of updates, additions, and changes. Some of the highlights include eye tracking support in the Meta Quest Pro, support for the Pico4 Ultra, going straight into WebXR experiences at launch, rendering of select Bluetooth keyboards in XR, UI improvements, and more. Let’s get into the details!

First up, the Meta Quest Pro joins the Pico4E and MagicLeap 2 in supporting eye-tracked navigation, so all you Pro users, check our v1.7 release notes for information on where to go to enable eye-tracking in Wolvic. We’ve also added a new supported device: the Pico4 Ultra.

What other devices do we support? Some selected Bluetooth keyboards, which are rendered in-scene as reasonable analogues of their physical selves. You’ll get the keys present on the keyboard, be able to type physically and see your virtual hands on the virtual keyboard, and even pick it up!

For home apps that launch XR sites that feature immersive experiences, Wolvic can now launch directly into the immersive mode, freeing you from having to hunt down the “Open in XR” button (or nearest equivalent thereof) in order to be immersed.

We’ve been hard at work on the user interface of Wolvic itself, adding capabilites like batch bookmarking and the ability to search your browsing history.

And on the OpenXR front, we’ve added support for the Khronos OpenXR loader for all systems that support it. Previously, we were relying on propietary pieces of software distributed by vendors that we had to include in our third_parties private repo. By adding support for the Khronos loader, we’ve been to shed that dependency for most devices (Pico still pending).

Finally, in keeping with tradition, we’ve added four new VR environments in this release, all of which are now available through Wolvic’s Settings > Environment dialog, where any new additions to the Wolvic 3D Environments GitHub repository will appear and be available for download. Our thanks to Giimann, Simon Waldherr, and Duncan Rawlinson for releasing their works under the CC BY 2.0 or CC BY-NC 2.0 licenses.

Those are the big changes in 1.7.1, but as always, there are still more updates listed in the notes below. If you’ve found a new problem or have another issue, please send us your feedback or, if you prefer, file an issue on GitHub. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy Wolvic 1.7.1!

Highlights

• Added support for automatically entering WebXR experiences on application launch
• Eye tracking support for Meta Quest Pro
• New device: Pico4 Ultra
• Added support for rendering selected bluetooth keyboards in VR
• UI improvements: library search, batch bookmarking, experimental tabs bar widget
• Use Khronos OpenXR loader whenever provided by the system

Notes

UI

• Added a search bar for Bookmarks, History, and Downloads, allowing users to filter items as they type. Additional improvements and polishing of these sections of the app.
• 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/controllers.
• 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.
• Introduced a new controller setting to disable hand tracking.
• Added support for rendering in VR Bluetooth keyboards via OpenXR’s XR_FB_keyboard_tracking extension.
• Restarting Wolvic is no longer required when external bluetooth keyboards are connected/disconnected.
• Remove the need to click on a window before interacting with it.

Content

• Wolvic can now launch directly into an inmersive experience. The details are specified in the Intent parameters.
• Private mode “about” page in the Chromium backend.
• Fixed an error when visiting YouTube for the first time, caused by consent.youtube.com

Meta

• 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 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).

Magic Leap

• Added support for external Bluetooth keyboards.

Others

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