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@svillar svillar released this 09 Feb 15:54
· 954 commits to main since this release
v1.3
dc05067

This is very likely the greatest release of Wolvic so far. It brings more features than ever, more fixes than ever and also more new devices than ever.

First of all we'd like to highlight that starting in this release, we're switching all our supported platforms to OpenXR. This migration brings massive benefits in terms of maintenance, compatibility and parity of features between different devices. Also Wolvic will make use of XR layers in all the platforms supporting them. They drastically improve render quality, performance and battery usage.

Secondly we're officially adding support to new devices. Among others the Pico customer&enterprise flagships, the Pico4 and the Pico4E. Apart from that, the brand new Meta Quest Pro is also supported.

The list of new features is quite impressive as it can be seen in the raw notes, but we'd highlight some:

  • Hand Tracking. Working in Meta and Pico devices. Allow users to control Wolvic without controllers. It's an early prototype, so do expect updates in the coming future (like better 3D models for the hands or additional gestures)
  • File uploads. It uses a new dialog with thumbnail support
  • PWAs. Wolvic is now able to detect the presence of a WebApp manifest, and allows users to install them. For now they're just another category in the Library (like addons, bookmarks, or downloads) but we'll improve the integration of them with the system environment.
  • Local addons. It's now possible to install addons via local *.xpi files. In order to do that a switch in the Developer settings must be enabled first. We find this specially useful for addon developers

Apart from features there are several remarkable bug fixes:

  • Video playing with DelightVR. Their video player module is used in hundreds (if not thousands) of sites. Wolvic used to play only audio, but know thanks to a pair of fixes in Gecko and Wolvic itself, we're able to bring back that experience again.
  • Improved downloads. Several fixes affecting how to display filenames, blob:URL support, thumbnails and also the possibility of sharing the downloaded files with the rest of the applications.

Last but not least, we've changed our user agent (UA) in order to make us more visible. We're appending Wolvic/1.3 to our current UA. Note that this means that we'll still claim to be Firefox, but that's an ephemeral situation. We're basically giving some time to the server side to adapt while being as much as compatible with the existing content as possible (we are aware of content that breaks if we remove the Firefox part).

New supported devices

  • Pico4
  • Pico4E
  • Meta Quest Pro

Added support for Pico devices (using OpenXR)

  • Supports Pico4 and Pico4E
  • Hand tracking
  • OpenXR layers: better visuals, better performance, lower battery usage...
  • Initial build and non-layers version contributed by Dirk Steinmetz (@rsjtdrjgfuzkfg)

Switched all supported platforms to OpenXR backend by default

  • Added support for cylinder layers (required for multiwindow)
  • Added support to limit the number of layers sent to the compositor
  • Added support to limit the number of widgets that create layers (required for platforms that limit the number of layers that can be created like Pico)
  • Fixed a huge leak in swapchains when resizing widgets (entering/leaving WebXR and/or immersive videos)

Hand tracking support

  • Pico and Meta
  • OpenXR based, using XR_EXT_hand_tracking and XR_FB_hand_tracking_aim whenever available
  • Early prototype, basic hand rendering
  • Gestures
    • pinch thumb&index for click action
    • pinch thumb&middle for go back action

WebApps support

  • Autodetect webpages with webapp manifest support
  • Added UI to install Webapps
  • New UI for managing Webapps

Local addons

Enabled video playing for DelightXR-based sites

  • Required a patch in Gecko and UA changes

File uploads & downloads

  • Added support for file uploads via custom widget
  • Display thumbnails in the Downloads tab
  • Improved algorithm to detect the correct filename for downloads
  • Added "Share with other apps" context menu for downloads. Allows Wolvic to share downloads with the rest of the apps by adding them to Android's meta database and copying the file to the system Downloads folder
  • Improved download dialog to handle long filenames
  • Added support for blob:http// URI downloads

Stability

  • Fixed a crash in Addons view
  • Fixed a crash when trying to show unsupported <input> widgets (color picker, date/time picker...)
  • Fixed a crash when entering private mode

Visuals

  • Switched to higher quality textures for the default cyberpunk environment
  • Vertically flip OpenXR layers in Meta. They were shown upside down previously
  • Hide navigation bar when watching fullscreen videos
  • Display favicons in navigation suggestions and tabs
  • Show translated version of descriptions in Addons tab

Miscellaneous changes

  • New user agent string
    • Mozilla/5.0 (Android 10; Mobile VR; rv:105.0) Gecko/105.0 Firefox/105.0 Wolvic/1.3
  • Replaced leftover references to Firefox Reality with Wolvic
  • Upgraded Mozilla Android Components to v75: improved stability, new APIs
  • Do not unconditionally load the agconnect plugin, do it only for HVR flavours
  • Use the right JVM target for kotlin

Regressions

  • No background dimming when watching fullscreen videos (also the menu widget does not do anything)
  • No battery levels for controllers (no current support on OpenXR)
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