While it would appear that virtual reality has fallen off in popularity in recent years, companies are still putting a considerable amount of work into it. We’ve seen Google working on adding support for multiple controllers in a possible future hardware revision of the Google Daydream, and Qualcomm announced a chip earlier this year directly focusing on VR and AR. That’s not all either, as companies are coming out with more and more every day. Mozilla is one of those companies, as they’ve just released Firefox Reality for the Oculus, Viveport, and Daydream VR.
Firefox Reality is an entirely new browser built from the ground up by the Mixed Reality team at Mozilla. It has one purpose, and that’s to enable high-quality web browsing on a virtual reality headset. It supports both the immersive web and regular, 2D web browsing with the ability to switch between them at ease. You can search using your voice as well, which is great as obviously typing with a headset on will be difficult. You can then use an accompanying remote to control what’s on the screen, to click and to scroll.
We spent a lot of time talking to early VR headset owners. We asked questions like: “What is missing?” “Do you love your device?” And “If not, why?” The feedback we heard the most was that users were having a hard time finding new games and experiences. This is why we built a feed of amazing content into the home screen of Firefox Reality.
Firefox Reality also uses Mozilla’s Firefox Quantum, which is the company’s fastest page renderer yet. The company also promises that version 1.1 is right around the corner and that they are only just getting started. There are some missing features at present (there are no bookmarks, for example), but those will be added as time goes on. 360-video support is planned as well, for those who may be wondering where it is.
You can download Firefox Reality now, and it offers the same great privacy features as regular Firefox does as well. Mozilla has also put out an appeal for creators who may want to get involved in bringing virtual reality experiences to the market.