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Mozilla Plans To Build Virtual Reality APIs Into Firefox By the End of 2015
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla's VR research team is hard at work making virtual reality native to the web. The group wants more than a few experimental VR-only websites, they want responsive VR websites that can adapt seamlessly between VR and non-VR, from mobile to desktop, built with HTML and CSS . Experimental work is already underway, and now the team says that they 'aim to have support for the WebVR API shipping with our release channel builds of Firefox Desktop by end of this year.' Those with the Oculus Rift developer kit can already try out a few native WebVR experiences using Firefox Nightly.
Reading the article, it looks very much like the promises of VRML back in 1994.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
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One would think that Mozilla would take a step back and think, what might we be doing wrong?.
But no. Mozilla, instead, accelerates the rate of bloating.
I know this.
Multiple operating system with different font rendering, with multiple browsers on each, then responsive to adapt to different screen sizes, then hi-dpi to support higher dpi displays, and now VR in 3D? And it's supposed to still degrade gracefully?
Sorry if I have serious doubts.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Dear Firefox,
Stop. Stop screwing around with it. You've made a browser. You've done it. Now you can stop.
>built with HTML and CSS
Like trying to hammer a nail with a rope.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
he's the human scum that is pushing Firefox down this road.
The recent release of firefox 38.0.5 on june 2 has been below the radar of many news sites, including Slashdot, because it was only a "patch" release.
However, 38.0.5 included real feature changes, meaning the inclusion of a proprietary web service. I not just hate that firefox added a proprietary web service prominently to its browser, also they smuggled this in in a patch release, avoiding press attention.
Firefox isn't a randy bitch dog that every dog inside the SV startup neighbourhood springs on, its a major web browser which respects its users. At least it was until 38.0.5.
I accepted that they added the social API, I understood their EME changes, I've thought firefox hello was a good addition. But for 38.0.5 pocket integration, I'm heavily disappointed by mozilla.
This is what extensions and forks are for. Stop adding this into the core browser. I just upgraded to FF 38.0.5 today and I spent the morning reading pop-ups arrows pointing to features I don't want. The most recent one, "Pocket", requires me to sign-up for some 3rd-party service. So basically, someone wanted to advertise their product and they probably paid the Mozilla Foundation to get it added in.
Oh look, there's a bug request to have it removed.
Don't forget the new fully undocumented reader mode that pops up in your face every time you try to do something, and if you use it it just randomly decides a few interesting paragraphs to display, strips out all the ads, applies some style sheet they stole from a hipster weblog, and expects you to be happy with the result.
Unless you have NoScript installed, then it does literally nothing.
Half the point to the original Phoenix browser was to allow shit like Reader Mode and Pocket to be offered as optional addons.
Firefox seems to have entirely forgotten this.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Yes of course focus on useless 3D crap instead of trying to fix the performance and memory bugs that are in the current browser!
I really don't want to move away from firefox but am unhappy with every single news I hear about what they are doing. I want to stay with the same firefox (or even revert back to a much earlier version) but get the security and bug fixes. Is this possible?
The worst part is that in the beta channel, Firefox 38 had a built-in native equivalent to Pocket early in the cycle called Reading List (it can be re-enabled in about:config using browser.readinglist.enabled), but from what I read it was disabled and development ceased when the instruction came down to integrate Pocket instead.
I'm still of the opinion that these features should be implemented as Extensions (and I assume Mozilla's Firefox would ship with a Mozilla-default set), but either way I prefer features like this to be integrated with Firefox Sync (for which I have the option to run my own server) than some proprietary company's server.
Just another poor management decision at Mozilla.
Mozilla's VR research team is hard at work making virtual reality native to the web. The group wants more than a few experimental VR-only websites, they want responsive VR websites that can adapt seamlessly between VR and non-VR, from mobile to desktop, built with HTML and CSS .
I'm not really concerned with what Mozilla's VR research team wants, I want to know why Mozilla doesn't care what their users want. I want to know why the slick, responsive, optionally extensible browser with a low memory footprint that millions of people switched to because it was a slick, responsive, optionally extensible browser with a low memory footprint has turned into a bloated behemoth that now includes such essentials as a built-in video chat client. The list of things I have to manually disable on a fresh Firefox install is bordering on inexcusable these days. Just filtering on about:config for enabled, there are 24 options I've changed from their defaults.
If I wanted Firefox to be my fucking operating system, I would buy a device that runs Firefox OS. I don't, and I haven't. I, as a user, want a browser.
Mozilla's continued race to become Chrome makes me question more and more with each Firefox update why I don't just give in and run Chrome itself. At this point I really have to wonder if the Firefox project isn't being intentionally torpedoed by some Google plants on Mozilla's payroll. There seem to be few explanations left.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Universality is a word that often comes back in the article, but this sort of thing is only going to work on a recent Windows PC, or perhaps some high end ($500+) Android cell phones.
Not only you're likely requiring a fast CPU, but you need/want a strong enough and recent GPU, with strong drivers. There's tremendous variability in what GPU hardware and drivers people are running, capabilities from Shaders 2.0 to Shaders 5.0 (and some earlier or limited stuff still), not much incentive to add a new $50 graphics card to an eight year old PC. Afterall, web browsing is where you don't really need a GPU, ditto for watching a movie (you don't need a movie to be 10GB 1080p) or listening to music.
Want your GPU to be adequately supported, you need it to be no earlier than about 2011 or 2010 (say Intel Sandy Bridge graphics, Radeon 5450/6450 and geforce GT 4xx/5xx/6xx as a basis)
If you use it all the time you might suffer heat/noise or premature death sometimes (old laptops are bad enough with only the CPU heating ; a couple generations and a half of nvidia GPUs suffer from industrial problems - G7x to G9x)
I know, no one will likely put a VR headset on an old PC but web devs who do make VR content for 0.1% of users will perhaps make the same 3D content available for what they'll perceive as the other 99.9%, and that will glitch.
In fact if you want to do 3D shit in the browser, why not try software rendering first. At least it can only peg one CPU at 100%, not crash the browser or whole computer. If you can get 90s level graphics running that way, even at 30fps and pixel doubled, then I'll know games or 3D in the browser can be somewhat viable.
I get very ill from 3-d movies and film ride like at epcot. Will this make me sick too?
love is just extroverted narcissism
Isn't v38 the current ESR major version? Does that mean they're going to shove brand new features into a minor point release in the ESR channel, which is exactly what they said they wouldn't do (because that's the very reason they created ESR in the first place)?
... they can never deliver anything meaningful, like the Electrolysis project.
Maybe now they can include about:kitchensink
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Perhaps Mozilla should consider putting some of the time, money, and effort they're spending on crap like this into fixing all the stuff they've broken in Firefox.
While I agree the end result is buggy at best, I've never gotten something that "pops up in [my] face every time I try to do something". It's simply a little icon on the right side of the awesomebar.
Sounds like what happened to technical news BYTE! is an early example from the computer era.
This is a required feature if they want to provide the user of the smart web with hyper-realistc, immersive, 3d "sponsored tiles" on their new tab page. Maybe we can all pitch in and help playboy buy some prime eyeballs?
This seems something that they plan to incorporate on the standards, just like webcam support already is. New tags and CSS rules to be able to see webpages better while wearing VR devices. This is not some kind of second life thing that mozilla is building, although you could probably build one using these new features, WebGL and Javascript. This is not some kind of non-standard bloatware like a built-in email client, just like support for mobile devices varying screen sizes did not break your website experience this will not either.
<input type="date"> still doesn't work. Basic html5 stuff.
Come. On.
Do you have ESP?
HTML, javascript, and CSS are already being stretched into doing rich internet applications, that they shouldn't be used for. javascript is a bad language for big programs. I wish people would stop trying push the acceptance of such things.
Different technology should be used for rich applications over the internet. Maybe Java applets should be brought back. Maybe a new VM should be built from scratch.
you forgot to switch off your Brain Computer Interface
Seriously, if I wanted your lousy add on, I would have asked for it.
Bad bad bad bad bad.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'll be happy if they can just get it to quit crashing my graphics driver every 2 minutes.
VR is the new sexy thing. Who wouldn't want to contribute the big chunk of VR code to firefox that potential millions of people will be using? The problem is that Firefox has over 40,000 other small, unsexy bugs, including some that are almost 15 years old. There's no corporate management who can say "this stuff is embarrassing, hey you, you gotta fix this before we can even consider a big new feature."
It's not a bad thing necessarily, just different priorities that can potentially result in bloated software. Hopefully "the next big sexy thing" will be streamlining Firefox to make it more efficient, and focus will be directed toward that.
They keep adding new features so that they have something to do at their job rather than just fix bugs.
I suspect this is why a lot of software just keeps growing and expanding: people want to keep their job developing it.
One would think that Mozilla would take a step back and think, what might we be doing wrong?.
Absolutely nothing! At least, if you're targeting the market segment consisting of people who think every program they use should be a full operating system. These people can be reliably identified by one or more characteristics, such as frequent use of the dangerous, addictive drugs IDE and EMACS. Other symptoms include falling ill with Fully Redundant Internet of Things Outsourcing Syndrome (FRITOS), excessive time spent in walled gardens, and withdrawal anxiety from smart phones or other mobile devices.
Netscape:Firefox
Firefox:Pale Moon
http://www.palemoon.org/
You're welcome.
I'm still waiting for u2f so I can use it with google account and yubikey
So:
-slow browser, e10s or rust-gecko nowhere to be seen
-gui experiments that already made users quit
-forced integration of services users dont want
-vr api soon
Everything a normal firefox user wants. Not.
We already face a point in time where firefox has deviated so much from what the users want that mozilla is doomed.
The recent release of firefox 38.0.5 on june 2 has been below the radar of many news sites, including Slashdot, because it was only a "patch" release.
However, 38.0.5 included real feature changes, meaning the inclusion of a proprietary web service. I not just hate that firefox added a proprietary web service prominently to its browser, also they smuggled this in in a patch release, avoiding press attention.
Firefox isn't a randy bitch dog that every dog inside the SV startup neighbourhood springs on, its a major web browser which respects its users. At least it was until 38.0.5.
I accepted that they added the social API, I understood their EME changes, I've thought firefox hello was a good addition. But for 38.0.5 pocket integration, I'm heavily disappointed by mozilla.
I tried hard to switch to Googles Chrome and Chromium (Linux), but every page presented by the latter were loaded with trackers. What I learned with using Privacy Badger from the EFF, was a good justification to return to FF. So, it takes a fraction of a second or two to render a page. Can I take the time that I would save using Google's product and extend by life by the few hundred milliseconds per day of time-savings?
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada