WebXR Device API

1. Introduction

1.1. Terminology

This document uses the acronym XR throughout to refer to the spectrum of hardware, applications, and techniques used for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and other related technologies. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Head-mounted displays, whether they are opaque, transparent, or utilize video passthrough

• Mobile devices with positional tracking

• Fixed displays with head tracking capabilities

The important commonality between them being that they offer some degree of spatial tracking with which to simulate a view of virtual content.

Terms like "XR device", "XR application", etc. are generally understood to apply to any of the above. Portions of this document that only apply to a subset of these devices will indicate so as appropriate.

The terms 3DoF and 6DoF are used throughout this document to describe the tracking capabilities of XR devices .

• A 3DoF device, short for "Three Degrees of Freedom", is one that can only track rotational movement. This is common in devices which rely exclusively on accelerometer and gyroscope readings to provide tracking. 3DoF devices do not respond to translational movements from the user, though they may employ algorithms to estimate translational changes based on modeling of the neck or arms.

• A 6DoF device, short for "Six Degrees of Freedom", is one that can track both rotation and translation, enabling precise 1:1 tracking in space. This typically requires some level of understanding of the user’s environment. That environmental understanding may be achieved via inside-out tracking, where sensors on the tracked device itself (such as cameras or depth sensors) are used to determine the device’s position, or outside-in tracking, where external devices placed in the user’s environment (like a camera or light emitting device) provides a stable point of reference against which the XR device can determine its position.

1.2. Application flow

2. Model

2.1. XR device

An XR device is a physical unit of hardware that can present immersive content to the user. Content is considered to be "immersive" if it produces visual, audio, haptic, or other sensory output that simulates or augments various aspects of the user’s environment. Most frequently this involves tracking the user’s motion in space and producing outputs that are synchronized to the user’s movement. On desktop clients, this is usually a headset peripheral. On mobile clients, it may represent the mobile device itself in conjunction with a viewer harness. It may also represent devices without stereo-presentation capabilities but with more advanced tracking.

An XR device has a list of supported modes (a list of strings ) that contains the enumeration values of XRSessionMode that the XR device supports.

Each XR device has a set of granted features for each XRSessionMode in its list of supported modes , which is a set of feature descriptors which MUST be initially an empty set .

The user agent has a list of immersive XR devices (a list of XR device ), which MUST be initially an empty list .

The user agent has an immersive XR device ( null or XR device ) which is initially null and represents the active XR device from the list of immersive XR devices . This object MAY live on a separate thread and be updated asynchronously.

The user agent MUST have a default inline XR device , which is an XR device that MUST contain "inline" in its list of supported modes . The default inline XR device MUST NOT report any pose information, and MUST NOT report XR input source s or events other than those created by pointer events.

Note: The default inline XR device exists purely as a convenience for developers, allowing them to use the same rendering and input logic for both inline and immersive content. The default inline XR device does not expose any information not already available to the developer through other mechanisms on the page (such as pointer events for input), it only surfaces those values in an XR-centric format.

The user agent MUST have a inline XR device , which is an XR device that MUST contain "inline" in its list of supported modes . The inline XR device MAY be the immersive XR device if the tracking it provides makes sense to expose to inline content or the default inline XR device otherwise.

Note: On phones, the inline XR device may report pose information derived from the phone’s internal sensors, such as the gyroscope and accelerometer. On desktops and laptops without similar sensors, the inline XR device will not be able to report a pose, and as such should fall back to the default inline XR device . In case the user agent is already running on an XR device , the inline XR device will be the same device, and may support multiple views . User consent must be given before any tracking or input features beyond what the default inline XR device exposes are provided.

The current values of list of immersive XR devices , inline XR device , and immersive XR device MAY live on a separate thread and be updated asynchronously. These objects SHOULD NOT be directly accessed in steps that are not running in parallel .

3. Initialization

3.1. navigator.xr

partial interface Navigator {
  [SecureContext, SameObject] readonly attribute XRSystem xr;
};

The xr attribute’s getter MUST return the XRSystem object that is associated with it.

3.2. XRSystem

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRSystem : EventTarget {
  // Methods
  Promise<boolean> isSessionSupported(XRSessionMode mode);
  [NewObject] Promise<XRSession> requestSession(XRSessionMode mode, optional XRSessionInit options = {});
  // Events
  attribute EventHandler ondevicechange;
};

The user agent MUST create an XRSystem object when a Navigator object is created and associate it with that object.

An XRSystem object is the entry point to the API, used to query for XR features available to the user agent and initiate communication with XR hardware via the creation of XRSession s.

The user agent MUST be able to enumerate immersive XR devices attached to the system, at which time each available device is placed in the list of immersive XR devices . Subsequent algorithms requesting enumeration MUST reuse the cached list of immersive XR devices . Enumerating the devices should not initialize device tracking . After the first enumeration the user agent MUST begin monitoring device connection and disconnection, adding connected devices to the list of immersive XR devices and removing disconnected devices.

Note: The user agent is allowed to use any criteria it wishes to select an immersive XR device when the list of immersive XR devices contains multiple devices. For example, the user agent may always select the first item in the list, or provide settings UI that allows users to manage device priority. Ideally the algorithm used to select the default device is stable and will result in the same device being selected across multiple browsing sessions.

The ondevicechange attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the devicechange event type.

Note: The purpose of isSessionSupported() is not to report with perfect accuracy the user agent’s ability to create an XRSession , but to inform the page whether or not advertising the ability to create sessions of the given mode is advised. A certain level of false-positives are expected, even when user agent checks for the presence of the necessary hardware/software prior to resolving the method. (For example, even if the appropriate hardware is present it may have given exclusive access to another application at the time a session is requested.)

It is expected that most pages with XR content will call isSessionSupported() early in the document lifecycle. As such, calling isSessionSupported() SHOULD avoid displaying any modal or otherwise intrusive UI. Calling isSessionSupported() MUST NOT trigger device-selection UI, MUST NOT interfere with any running XR applications on the system, and MUST NOT cause XR-related applications to launch such as system trays or storefronts.

const supported = await navigator.xr.isSessionSupported('immersive-vr');
if (supported) {
  // 'immersive-vr' sessions may be supported.
  // Page should advertise support to the user.
} else {
  // 'immersive-vr' sessions are not supported.
}

The XRSystem object has a pending immersive session boolean, which MUST be initially false , an active immersive session , which MUST be initially null , and a list of inline sessions , which MUST be initially empty.

const xrSession = await navigator.xr.requestSession("immersive-vr");

3.3. XRSessionMode

The XRSessionMode enum defines the modes that an XRSession can operate in.

enum XRSessionMode {
  "inline",
  "immersive-vr",
  "immersive-ar"
};

• A session mode of inline indicates that the session’s output will be shown as an element in the HTML document. inline session content MUST be displayed in mono (i.e., with a single view ). It MAY allow for viewer tracking. User agents MUST allow inline sessions to be created.

• A session mode of immersive-vr indicates that the session’s output will be given exclusive access to the immersive XR device display and that content is not intended to be integrated with the user’s environment.

• The behavior of the immersive-ar session mode is defined in the WebXR AR Module and MUST NOT be added to the immersive XR device 's list of supported modes unless the UA implements that module.

In this document, the term inline session is synonymous with an inline session and the term immersive session refers to either an immersive-vr or immersive-ar session.

Immersive sessions MUST provide some level of viewer tracking, and content MUST be shown at the proper scale relative to the user and/or the surrounding environment. Additionally, Immersive sessions MUST be given exclusive access to the immersive XR device , meaning that while the immersive session is "visible" the HTML document is not shown on the immersive XR device 's display, nor does content from any other source have exclusive access. Exclusive access does not prevent the user agent from overlaying its own UI, however this UI SHOULD be minimal.

Note: Future specifications or modules may expand the definition of immersive session to include additional session modes.

Note: Examples of ways exclusive access may be presented include stereo content displayed on a virtual reality headset.

Note: As an example of overlaid UI, the user agent or operating system in an immersive session may show notifications over the rendered content.

Note: While the HTML document is not shown on the immersive XR device 's display during an immersive session , it may still be shown on a separate display, e.g. when the user is entering the immersive session from a 2d browser on their computer tethered to their immersive XR device .

3.4. Feature Dependencies

Some features of an XRSession may not be universally available for a number of reasons, among which is the fact not all XR devices can support the full set of features. Another consideration is that some features expose sensitive information which may require a clear signal of user intent before functioning.

Since it is a poor user experience to initialize the underlying XR platform and create an XRSession only to immediately notify the user that the applications cannot function correctly, developers can indicate required features by passing an XRSessionInit dictionary to requestSession() . This will block the creation of the XRSession if any of the required features are unavailable due to device limitations or in the absence of a clear signal of user intent to expose sensitive information related to the feature.

Additionally, developers are encouraged to design experiences which progressively enhance their functionality when run on more capable devices. Optional features which the experience does not require but will take advantage of when available must also be indicated in an XRSessionInit dictionary to ensure that user intent can be determined before enabling the feature if necessary.

dictionary XRSessionInit {
  ;
  ;

  sequence<DOMString> requiredFeatures;
  sequence<DOMString> optionalFeatures;
};

The requiredFeatures array contains any Required features for the experience. If any value in the list is not a recognized feature descriptor the XRSession will not be created. If any feature listed in the requiredFeatures array is not supported by the XR device or, if necessary, has not received a clear signal of user intent the XRSession will not be created.

The optionalFeatures array contains any Optional features for the experience. If any value in the list is not a recognized feature descriptor it will be ignored. Features listed in the optionalFeatures array will be enabled if supported by the XR device and, if necessary, given a clear signal of user intent , but will not block creation of the XRSession if absent.

Values given in the feature lists are considered a valid feature descriptor if the value is one of the following:

• Any The string representation of any XRReferenceSpaceType enum value

Future iterations of this specification and additional modules may expand the list of accepted feature descriptors .

Note: Features are accepted as an array of If a feature needs additional initialization, any XRSessionInit values to ensure forwards compatibility. It allows unrecognized optional values to should be properly ignored as extended with a new feature descriptor types are added. Note: Features field for that can be stringified via ToString () will be converted. feature.

Depending on the XRSessionMode requested, certain feature descriptors are added to the requiredFeatures or optionalFeatures lists by default. The following table describes the default features associated with each session type and feature list:

The combined list of feature descriptors given by the requiredFeatures and optionalFeatures are collectively considered the requested features for an XRSession .

Some feature descriptors , when present in the requested features list, are subject to permissions policy and/or requirements that user intent to use the feature is well understood, via either explicit consent or implicit consent . The following table describes the feature requirements that must be satisfied prior to being enabled:

Note: "local" is always included in the requested features of immersive sessions as a default feature , and as such immersive sessions always need to obtain explicit consent or implicit consent .

Requested features can only be enabled for a session if the XR device is capable of supporting the feature, which means that the feature is known to be supported by the XR device in some configurations, even if the current configuration has not yet been verified as supporting the feature. The user agent MAY apply more rigorous constraints if desired in order to yield a more consistent user experience.

Note: For example, several VR devices support either configuring a safe boundary for the user to move around within or skipping boundary configuration and operating in a mode where the user is expected to stand in place. Such a device can be considered to be capable of supporting "bounded-floor" XRReferenceSpace s even if they are currently not configured with safety boundaries, because it’s expected that the user could configure the device appropriately if the experience required it. This is to allow user agents to avoid fully initializing the XR device or waiting for the user’s environment to be recognized prior to resolving the requested features if desired. If, however, the user agent knows the boundary state at the time the session is requested without additional initialization it may choose to reject the "bounded-floor" feature if the safety boundary is not already configured.

4. Session

4.1. XRSession

Any interaction with XR hardware is done via an XRSession object, which can only be retrieved by calling requestSession() on the XRSystem object. Once a session has been successfully acquired, it can be used to poll the viewer pose , query information about the user’s environment, and present imagery to the user.

The user agent, when possible, SHOULD NOT initialize device tracking or rendering capabilities until an XRSession has been acquired. This is to prevent unwanted side effects of engaging the XR systems when they’re not actively being used, such as increased battery usage or related utility applications from appearing when first navigating to a page that only wants to test for the presence of XR hardware in order to advertise XR features. Not all XR platforms offer ways to detect the hardware’s presence without initializing tracking, however, so this is only a strong recommendation.

enum XRVisibilityState {
  "visible",
  "visible-blurred",
  "hidden",
};
[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRSession : EventTarget {
  // Attributes
  readonly attribute XRVisibilityState visibilityState;
  readonly attribute float? frameRate;
  readonly attribute Float32Array? supportedFrameRates;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRRenderState renderState;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRInputSourceArray inputSources;
  readonly attribute FrozenArray<DOMString> enabledFeatures;
  // Methods
  undefined updateRenderState(optional XRRenderStateInit state = {});
  Promise<undefined> updateTargetFrameRate(float rate);
  [NewObject] Promise<XRReferenceSpace> requestReferenceSpace(XRReferenceSpaceType type);
  unsigned long requestAnimationFrame(XRFrameRequestCallback callback);
  undefined cancelAnimationFrame(unsigned long handle);
  Promise<undefined> end();
  // Events
  attribute EventHandler onend;
  attribute EventHandler oninputsourceschange;
  attribute EventHandler onselect;
  attribute EventHandler onselectstart;
  attribute EventHandler onselectend;
  attribute EventHandler onsqueeze;
  attribute EventHandler onsqueezestart;
  attribute EventHandler onsqueezeend;
  attribute EventHandler onvisibilitychange;
  attribute EventHandler onframeratechange;
};

Each XRSession has a mode , which is one of the values of XRSessionMode .

Each XRSession has an animation frame , which is an XRFrame initialized with active set to false , animationFrame set to true , and session set to the XRSession .

Each XRSession has a set of granted features , which is a set of DOMString s corresponding to the feature descriptors that have been granted to the XRSession .

The enabledFeatures attribute returns the features in the set of granted features as a new array of DOMString s.

A number of different circumstances may shut down the session , which is permanent and irreversible. Once a session has been shut down the only way to access the XR device 's tracking or rendering capabilities again is to request a new session. Each XRSession has an ended boolean, initially set to false , that indicates if it has been shut down.

Each XRSession has an active render state which is a new XRRenderState , and a pending render state , which is an XRRenderState which is initially null .

The renderState attribute returns the XRSession 's active render state .

Each XRSession has a minimum inline field of view and a maximum inline field of view , defined in radians. The values MUST be determined by the user agent and MUST fall in the range of 0 to PI .

Each XRSession has a minimum near clip plane and a maximum far clip plane , defined in meters. The values MUST be determined by the user agent and MUST be non-negative. The minimum near clip plane SHOULD be less than 0.1 . The maximum far clip plane SHOULD be greater than 1000.0 (and MAY be infinite).

If the XR Compositor changes the nominal frame rate for any reason (for example during a "visible-blurred" event), it SHOULD use the internal target framerate once the event that caused the frame rate change has ended.

Each XRSession has a list of active XR input sources (a list of XRInputSource ) which MUST be initially an empty list .

Each XRSession has an XR device , which is an XR device set at initialization.

The inputSources attribute returns the XRSession 's list of active XR input sources .

The user agent MUST monitor any XR input source s associated with the XR device , including detecting when XR input source s are added, removed, or changed.

Each XRSession has a promise resolved flag, initially false .

NOTE: The purpose of this flag is to ensure that the add input source , remove input source , and change input source algorithms do not run until the user code actually has had a chance to attach event listeners. Implementations may not need this flag if they simply choose to start listening for input source changes after the session resolves.

Each XRSession has a visibility state value, which is an enum. For inline sessions the visibility state MUST mirror the Document 's visibilityState . For immersive sessions the visibility state MUST be set to whichever of the following values best matches the state of session.

• A state of visible indicates that imagery rendered by the XRSession can be seen by the user and requestAnimationFrame() callbacks are processed at the XR device 's native refresh rate. Input is processed by the XRSession normally.

• A state of visible-blurred indicates that imagery rendered by the XRSession may be seen by the user, but is not the primary focus. requestAnimationFrame() callbacks MAY be throttled . Input is not processed by the XRSession .

• A state of hidden indicates that imagery rendered by the XRSession cannot be seen by the user. requestAnimationFrame() callbacks will not be processed until the visibility state changes. Input is not processed by the XRSession .

The visibilityState attribute returns the XRSession 's visibility state . The onvisibilitychange attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the visibilitychange event type.

The visibility state MAY be changed by the user agent at any time other than during the processing of an XR animation frame , and the user agent SHOULD monitor the XR platform when possible to observe when session visibility has been affected external to the user agent and update the visibility state accordingly.

Note: The XRSession 's visibility state does not necessarily imply the visibility of the HTML document. Depending on the system configuration the page may continue to be visible while an immersive session is active. (For example, a headset connected to a PC may continue to display the page on the monitor while the headset is viewing content from an immersive session .) Developers should continue to rely on the Page Visibility API to determine page visibility.

Note: The XRSession 's visibility state does not affect or restrict mouse behavior on tethered sessions where 2D content is still visible while an immersive session is active. Content should consider using the [pointerlock] API if it wishes to have stronger control over mouse behavior.

In an XRSystem , there are several definitions which can describe a frame rate:

• The nominal frame rate : the rate at which the XRSystem is asking the experience to render frames to maintain nominal performance. Experiences that miss frames may not end up actually getting calls to requestAnimationFrame() this many times per second, but that is what the XRSystem is aiming to achieve.

• The effective frame rate : a performance measurement of how many calls to requestAnimationFrame() the experience is actually managing to process each second. This will fluctuate based on the experience hitting or missing the XRSystem 's frame timing.

• The target frame rate : the experience’s hint to the XRSystem on what nominal frame rate it prefers to target.

• The display frame rate : the actual rate at which frames are drawn to the physical display, which MAY be derived from the experience’s nominal frame rate . This is a hardware implementation detail that is not exposed to the experience.

Each XRSession MAY have an internal target frameRate which is the target frame rate .

Each XRSession MAY have an internal nominal frameRate which is the nominal frame rate . If the effective frame rate is lower than the nominal frame rate , the XR Compositor MAY use reprojection or other techniques to improve the experience. It is optional and MUST NOT be present for inline sessions.

The frameRate attribute reflects the internal nominal framerate . If the XRSession has no internal nominal framerate , return null .

The onframeratechange attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the frameratechange event type. If XRSession 's nominal frame rate is changed for any reason, it MUST apply the nominal frame rate with the new nominal frame rate and the XRSession .

The supportedFrameRates attribute returns a list of supported target frame rate values. This attribute is optional and MUST NOT be present for inline sessions or for an XRSystem that doesn’t let the author control the frame rate. If the XRSession supports the supportedFrameRates attribute, it also MUST support frameRate .

Each XRSession has a viewer reference space , which is an XRReferenceSpace of type "viewer" with an identity transform origin offset .

Each XRSession has a list of views , which is a list of view s corresponding to the views provided by the XR device . If the XRSession 's renderState 's composition enabled boolean is set to false the list of views MUST contain a single view . The list of views is immutable during the XRSession and MUST contain any views that may be surfaced during the session, including secondary views that may not initially be active .

The onend attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the end event type.

The oninputsourceschange attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the inputsourceschange event type.

The onselectstart attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the selectstart event type.

The onselectend attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the selectend event type.

The onselect attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the select event type.

The onsqueezestart attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the squeezestart event type.

The onsqueezeend attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the squeezeend event type.

The onsqueeze attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the squeeze event type.

4.2. XRRenderState

An XRRenderState represents a set of configurable values which affect how an XRSession 's output is composited. The active render state for a given XRSession can only change between frame boundaries, and updates can be queued up via updateRenderState() .

dictionary XRRenderStateInit {
  double depthNear;
  double depthFar;
  double inlineVerticalFieldOfView;
  XRWebGLLayer? baseLayer;
  sequence<XRLayer>? layers;
};
[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRRenderState {
  readonly attribute double depthNear;
  readonly attribute double depthFar;
  readonly attribute double? inlineVerticalFieldOfView;
  readonly attribute XRWebGLLayer? baseLayer;
};

Each XRRenderState has a output canvas , which is an HTMLCanvasElement initially set to null . The output canvas is the DOM element that will display any content rendered for an "inline" XRSession .

Each XRRenderState also has a composition enabled boolean, which is initially true . The XRRenderState is considered to have composition enabled if rendering commands are performed against a surface provided by the API and displayed by the XR Compositor . If rendering is performed for an "inline" XRSession in such a way that it is directly displayed into an output canvas , the XRRenderState 's composition enabled flag MUST be false .

Note: At this point the XRRenderState will only have an output canvas if it has composition enabled set to false , but future versions of the specification are likely to introduce methods for setting output canvases that support more advanced uses like mirroring and layer compositing that will require composition.

The depthNear attribute defines the distance, in meters, of the near clip plane from the viewer . The depthFar attribute defines the distance, in meters, of the far clip plane from the viewer .

depthNear and depthFar are used in the computation of the projectionMatrix of XRView s. When the projectionMatrix is used during rendering, only geometry with a distance to the viewer that falls between depthNear and depthFar will be drawn. They also determine how the values of an XRWebGLLayer depth buffer are interpreted. depthNear MAY be greater than depthFar .

Note: Typically when constructing a perspective projection matrix for rendering the developer specifies the viewing frustum and the near and far clip planes. When displaying to an immersive XR device the correct viewing frustum is determined by some combination of the optics, displays, and cameras being used. The near and far clip planes, however, may be modified by the application since the appropriate values depend on the type of content being rendered.

The inlineVerticalFieldOfView attribute defines the default vertical field of view in radians used when computing projection matrices for "inline" XRSession s. The projection matrix calculation also takes into account the aspect ratio of the output canvas . This value MUST be null for immersive sessions .

The baseLayer attribute defines an XRWebGLLayer which the XR compositor will obtain images from.

4.3. Animation Frames

The primary way an XRSession provides information about the tracking state of the XR device is via callbacks scheduled by calling requestAnimationFrame() on the XRSession instance.

callback XRFrameRequestCallback = undefined (DOMHighResTimeStamp time, XRFrame frame);

Each XRFrameRequestCallback object has a cancelled boolean initially set to false .

Each XRSession has a list of animation frame callbacks , which is initially empty, a list of currently running animation frame callbacks , which is also initially empty, and an animation frame callback identifier , which is a number which is initially zero.

The behavior of the Window interface’s requestAnimationFrame() method is not changed by the presence of any active XRSession , nor does calling requestAnimationFrame() on any XRSession interact with Window 's requestAnimationFrame() in any way. An active immersive session MAY affect the rendering opportunity of a browsing context if it causes the page to be obscured. If the 2D browser view is visible during an active immersive session (i.e., when the sesson is running on a tethered headset), the timing of callbacks run with Window 's requestAnimationFrame() and requestIdleCallback() MAY NOT coincide with that of the session’s requestAnimationFrame() and should not be relied upon by the user for rendering XR content.

Note: User agents may wish to display a warning to the developer console if XRSession 's requestAnimationFrame() is called during callbacks scheduled via Window 's requestAnimationFrame() , as these callbacks are not guaranteed to occur if the active immersive session affects the rendering opportunity of the browsing context , and may not have the correct timing even if they run.

let xrSession = null;
function onWindowAnimationFrame(time) {
  window.requestAnimationFrame(onWindowAnimationFrame);
  // This may be called while an immersive session is running on some devices,
  // such as a desktop with a tethered headset. To prevent two loops from
  // rendering in parallel, skip drawing in this one until the session ends.
  if (!xrSession) {
    renderFrame(time, null);
  }
}
// The window animation loop can be started immediately upon the page loading.
window.requestAnimationFrame(onWindowAnimationFrame);
function onXRAnimationFrame(time, xrFrame) {
  xrSession.requestAnimationFrame(onXRAnimationFrame);
  renderFrame(xrFrame.predictedDisplayTime, xrFrame);
}
function renderFrame(time, xrFrame) {
  // Shared rendering logic.
}
// Assumed to be called by a user gesture event elsewhere in code.
async function startXRSession() {
  xrSession = await navigator.xr.requestSession('immersive-vr');
  xrSession.addEventListener('end', onXRSessionEnded);
  // Do necessary session setup here.
  // Begin the session’s animation loop.
  xrSession.requestAnimationFrame(onXRAnimationFrame);
}
function onXRSessionEnded() {
  xrSession = null;
}

4.4. The XR Compositor

The user agent MUST maintain an XR Compositor which handles presentation to the XR device and frame timing. The compositor MUST use an independent rendering context whose state is isolated from that of any graphics contexts created by the document. The compositor MUST prevent the page from corrupting the compositor state or reading back content from other pages or applications. The compositor MUST also run in separate thread or processes to decouple performance of the page from the ability to present new imagery to the user at the appropriate framerate. The compositor MAY composite additional device or user agent UI over rendered content, like device menus.

Note: Future extensions to this spec may utilize the compositor to composite multiple layers coming from the same page as well.

5. Frame Loop

5.1. XRFrame

An XRFrame represents a snapshot of the state of all of the tracked objects for an XRSession . Applications can acquire an XRFrame by calling requestAnimationFrame() on an XRSession with an XRFrameRequestCallback . When the callback is called it will be passed an XRFrame . Events which need to communicate tracking state, such as the select event, will also provide an XRFrame .

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRFrame {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRSession session;
  readonly attribute DOMHighResTimeStamp predictedDisplayTime;
  XRViewerPose? getViewerPose(XRReferenceSpace referenceSpace);
  XRPose? getPose(XRSpace space, XRSpace baseSpace);
};

Each XRFrame has an active boolean which is initially set to false , and an animationFrame boolean which is initially set to false .

The session attribute returns the XRSession that produced the XRFrame .

For an immersive session the predictedDisplayTime attribute MUST return the DOMHighResTimeStamp corresponding to the average point in time this XRFrame is expected to be displayed on the devices' display. For an "inline" XRSession , predictedDisplayTime MUST return the same value as the timestamp passed to the XRFrameRequestCallback .

Each XRFrame represents the state of all tracked objects for a given time , and either stores or is able to query concrete information about this state at the time .

A frame update is an algorithm that can be run given an XRFrame , which is intended to be run each XRFrame .

Every XRSession has a list of frame updates , which is a list of frame updates , initially the empty list .

NOTE: This spec does not define any frame updates , but other specifications may add some.

6. Spaces

A core feature of the WebXR Device API is the ability to provide spatial tracking. Spaces are the interface that enable applications to reason about how tracked entities are spatially related to the user’s physical environment and each other.

6.1. XRSpace

An XRSpace represents a virtual coordinate system with an origin that corresponds to a physical location. Spatial data that is requested from the API or given to the API is always expressed in relation to a specific XRSpace at the time of a specific XRFrame . Numeric values such as pose positions are coordinates in that space relative to its origin. The interface is intentionally opaque.

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRSpace : EventTarget {
};

Each XRSpace has a session which is set to the XRSession that created the XRSpace .

Each XRSpace has a native origin which is a position and orientation in space. The XRSpace 's native origin may be updated by the XR device 's underlying tracking system, and different XRSpace s may define different semantics as to how their native origins are tracked and updated.

Each XRSpace has an effective origin , which is the basis of the XRSpace 's coordinate system .

The transform from the effective space to the native origin 's space is defined by an origin offset , which is an XRRigidTransform initially set to an identity transform . In other words, the effective origin can be obtained by multiplying origin offset and the native origin .

The effective origin of an XRSpace can only be observed in the coordinate system of another XRSpace as an XRPose , returned by an XRFrame 's getPose() method. The spatial relationship between XRSpace s MAY change between XRFrame s.

6.2. XRReferenceSpace

An XRReferenceSpace is one of several common XRSpace s that applications can use to establish a spatial relationship with the user’s physical environment.

XRReferenceSpace s are generally expected to remain static for the duration of the XRSession , with the most common exception being mid-session reconfiguration by the user. The native origin for every XRReferenceSpace describes a coordinate system where +X is considered "Right", +Y is considered "Up", and -Z is considered "Forward".

enum XRReferenceSpaceType {
  "viewer",
  "local",
  "local-floor",
  "bounded-floor",
  "unbounded"
};
[SecureContext, Exposed=Window]
interface XRReferenceSpace : XRSpace {
  [NewObject] XRReferenceSpace getOffsetReferenceSpace(XRRigidTransform originOffset);
  attribute EventHandler onreset;
};

Each XRReferenceSpace has a type , which is an XRReferenceSpaceType .

An XRReferenceSpace is most frequently obtained by calling requestReferenceSpace() , which creates an instance of an XRReferenceSpace (or an interface extending it) if the XRReferenceSpaceType enum value passed into the call is supported . The type indicates the tracking behavior that the reference space will exhibit:

• Passing a type of viewer creates an XRReferenceSpace instance. It represents a tracking space with a native origin which tracks the position and orientation of the viewer . Every XRSession MUST support "viewer" XRReferenceSpace s.

• Passing a type of local creates an XRReferenceSpace instance. It represents a tracking space with a native origin near the viewer at the time of creation. The exact position and orientation will be initialized based on the conventions of the underlying platform. When using this reference space the user is not expected to move beyond their initial position much, if at all, and tracking is optimized for that purpose. For devices with 6DoF tracking, local reference spaces should emphasize keeping the origin stable relative to the user’s environment.

• Passing a type of local-floor creates an XRReferenceSpace instance. It represents a tracking space with a native origin at the floor in a safe position for the user to stand. The Y axis equals 0 at floor level, with the X and Z position and orientation initialized based on the conventions of the underlying platform. If the floor level isn’t known it MUST be estimated, with some estimated floor level . If the estimated floor level is determined with a non-default value, it MUST be rounded sufficiently to prevent fingerprinting. When using this reference space the user is not expected to move beyond their initial position much, if at all, and tracking is optimized for that purpose. For devices with 6DoF tracking, local-floor reference spaces should emphasize keeping the origin stable relative to the user’s environment.

  Note: If the floor level of a "local-floor" reference space is adjusted to prevent fingerprinting, rounded to the nearest 1cm is suggested.

• Passing a type of bounded-floor creates an XRBoundedReferenceSpace instance. It represents a tracking space with its native origin at the floor, where the user is expected to move within a pre-established boundary, given as the boundsGeometry . Tracking in a bounded-floor reference space is optimized for keeping the native origin and boundsGeometry stable relative to the user’s environment.

• Passing a type of unbounded creates an XRReferenceSpace instance. It represents a tracking space where the user is expected to move freely around their environment, potentially even long distances from their starting point. Tracking in an unbounded reference space is optimized for stability around the user’s current position, and as such the native origin may drift over time.

Note: It is assumed that the conventions of the underlying platform regarding Y axes of the reference spaces stay consistent across different types of XRReferenceSpace s. In other words, if an XR system supports multiple reference spaces, their Y axes will be parallel to each other and point in the same direction for the duration of the XRSession in which they were created. This does not apply to "viewer" , which does not rely on the conventions of the underlying platform for its orientation. "unbounded" reference spaces should align their Y axes with other reference spaces when their origins are nearby, but may deviate if the user moves over large distances.

Devices that support "local" reference spaces MUST support "local-floor" reference spaces, through emulation if necessary, and vice versa.

The onreset attribute is an Event handler IDL attribute for the reset event type.

Note: It’s expected that some applications will use getOffsetReferenceSpace() to implement scene navigation controls based on mouse, keyboard, touch, or gamepad input. This will result in getOffsetReferenceSpace() being called frequently, at least once per-frame during periods of active input. As a result UAs are strongly encouraged to make the creation of new XRReferenceSpace s with getOffsetReferenceSpace() a lightweight operation.

6.3. XRBoundedReferenceSpace

XRBoundedReferenceSpace extends XRReferenceSpace to include boundsGeometry , indicating the pre-configured boundaries of the user’s space.

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window]
interface XRBoundedReferenceSpace : XRReferenceSpace {
  ;

  readonly attribute FrozenArray<DOMPointReadOnly> boundsGeometry;
};

The origin of an XRBoundedReferenceSpace MUST be positioned at the floor, such that the Y axis equals 0 at floor level. The X and Z position and orientation are initialized based on the conventions of the underlying platform, typically expected to be near the center of the room facing in a logical forward direction.

Note: Other XR platforms sometimes refer to the type of tracking offered by a bounded-floor reference space as "room scale" tracking. An XRBoundedReferenceSpace is not intended to describe multi-room spaces, areas with uneven floor levels, or very large open areas. Content that needs to handle those scenarios should use an unbounded reference space.

Each XRBoundedReferenceSpace has a native bounds geometry describing the border around the XRBoundedReferenceSpace , which the user can expect to safely move within. The polygonal boundary is given as an array of DOMPointReadOnly s, which represents a loop of points at the edges of the safe space. The points describe offsets from the native origin in meters. Points MUST be given in a clockwise order as viewed from above, looking towards the negative end of the Y axis. The y value of each point MUST be 0 and the w value of each point MUST be 1 . The bounds can be considered to originate at the floor and extend infinitely high. The shape it describes MAY be convex or concave.

Each point in the native bounds geometry MUST be limited to a reasonable distance from the reference space’s native origin .

Note: It is suggested that points of the native bounds geometry be limited to 15 meters from the native origin in all directions.

Each point in the native bounds geometry MUST also be quantized sufficiently to prevent fingerprinting. For user’s safety, quantized points values MUST NOT fall outside the bounds reported by the platform.

Note: It is suggested that points of the native bounds geometry be quantized to the nearest 5cm.

The boundsGeometry attribute is an array of DOMPointReadOnly s such that each entry is equal to the entry in the XRBoundedReferenceSpace 's native bounds geometry premultiplied by the inverse of the origin offset . In other words, it provides the same border in XRBoundedReferenceSpace coordinates relative to the effective origin .

If the native bounds geometry is temporarily unavailable, which may occur for several reasons such as during XR device initialization, extended periods of tracking loss, or movement between pre-configured spaces, the boundsGeometry MUST report an empty array.

Note: Bounded reference spaces may be returned if the boundaries or floor height have not been resolved at the time of the reference space request, but the XR device is known to support them.

Note: Content should not require the user to move beyond the boundsGeometry . It is possible for the user to move beyond the bounds if their physical surroundings allow for it, resulting in position values outside of the polygon they describe. This is not an error condition and should be handled gracefully by page content.

Note: Content generally should not provide a visualization of the boundsGeometry , as it’s the user agent’s responsibility to ensure that safety critical information is provided to the user.

7. Views

7.1. XRView

An XRView describes a single view into an XR scene for a given frame.

A view corresponds to a display or portion of a display used by an XR device to present imagery to the user. They are used to retrieve all the information necessary to render content that is well aligned to the view 's physical output properties, including the field of view, eye offset, and other optical properties. Views may cover overlapping regions of the user’s vision. No guarantee is made about the number of views any XR device uses or their order, nor is the number of views required to be constant for the duration of an XRSession .

A view has an associated internal view offset , which is an XRRigidTransform describing the position and orientation of the view in the viewer reference space 's coordinate system .

NOTE: There are no constraints on what the view offset might be, and views are allowed to have differing orientations. This can crop up in head-mounted devices with eye displays centered at an angle, and it can also surface itself in more extreme cases like CAVE rendering. Techniques like z-sorting and culling may need to be done per-eye because of this.

A view has an associated projection matrix which is a matrix describing the projection to be used when rendering the view , provided by the underlying XR device. The projection matrix MAY include transformations such as shearing that prevent the projection from being accurately described by a simple frustum.

A view has an associated eye which is an XREye describing which eye this view is expected to be shown to. If the view does not have an intrinsically associated eye (the display is monoscopic, for example) this value MUST be set to "none" .

A view has an active flag that may change through the lifecycle of an XRSession . Primary views MUST always have the active flag set to true .

Note: Many HMDs will request that content render two views , one for the left eye and one for the right, while most magic window devices will only request one view , but applications should never assume a specific view configuration. For example: A magic window device may request two views if it is capable of stereo output, but may revert to requesting a single view for performance reasons if the stereo output mode is turned off. Similarly, HMDs may request more than two views to facilitate a wide field of view or displays of different pixel density.

A view has an internal viewport modifiable flag that indicates if the viewport scale can be changed by a requestViewportScale() call at this point in the session. It is set to true at the start of an animation frame, and set to false when getViewport() is called.

A view has an internal requested viewport scale value that represents the requested viewport scale for this view. It is initially set to 1.0, and can be modified by the requestViewportScale() method if the system supports dynamic viewport scaling.

A view has an internal current viewport scale value that represents the current viewport scale for this view as used internally by the system. It is initially set to 1.0. It is updated to match the requested viewport scale when the viewport change is successfully applied by a getViewport() call.

Note: Dynamic viewport scaling allows applications to render to a subset of the full-sized viewport using a scale factor that can be changed every animation frame. This is intended to be efficiently modifiable on a per-frame basis without reallocation. For correct rendering, it’s essential that the XR system and application agree on the active viewport. An application can call requestViewportScale() for an XRView multiple times within a single animation frame, but the requested scale does not take effect until the application calls getViewport() for that view. The first getViewport call in an animation frame applies the change (taking effect immediately for the current animation frame), locks in the view’s current scaled viewport for the remainder of this animation frame, and sets the scale as the new default for future animation frames. Optionally, the system can provide a suggested value through the recommendedViewportScale attribute based on internal performance heuristics and target framerates.

enum XREye {
  "none",
  "left",
  "right"
};
[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRView {
  readonly attribute XREye eye;
  readonly attribute Float32Array projectionMatrix;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRRigidTransform transform;
  readonly attribute double? recommendedViewportScale;
  undefined requestViewportScale(double? scale);
};

The eye attribute describes the eye of the underlying view . This attribute’s primary purpose is to ensure that pre-rendered stereo content can present the correct portion of the content to the correct eye.

The projectionMatrix attribute is the projection matrix of the underlying view . It is strongly recommended that applications use this matrix without modification or decomposition. Failure to use the provided projection matrices when rendering may cause the presented frame to be distorted or badly aligned, resulting in varying degrees of user discomfort. This attribute MUST be computed by obtaining the projection matrix for the XRView .

The transform attribute is the XRRigidTransform of the viewpoint. It represents the position and orientation of the viewpoint in the XRReferenceSpace provided in getViewerPose() .

The optional recommendedViewportScale attribute contains a UA-recommended viewport scale value that the application can use for a requestViewportScale() call to configure dynamic viewport scaling. It is null if the system does not implement a heuristic or method for determining a recommended scale. If not null, the value MUST be a numeric value greater than 0.0 and less than or equal to 1.0, and MUST be quantized to avoid providing detailed performance or GPU utilization data.

Note: It is suggested to quantize the recommended viewport scale by rounding it to the nearest value from a short list of possible scale values, and using hysteresis to avoid instant changes when close to a boundary value. (This also helps avoid rapidly oscillating scale values which can be visually distracting or uncomfortable.)

Each XRView has an associated session which is the XRSession that produced it.

Each XRView has an associated frame which is the XRFrame that produced it.

Each XRView has an associated underlying view which is the underlying view that it represents.

Each XRView has an associated internal projection matrix which stores the projection matrix of its underlying view . It is initially null .

Note: The transform can be used to position camera objects in many rendering libraries. If a more traditional view matrix is needed by the application one can be retrieved by calling view.transform.inverse.matrix .

7.2. Primary and Secondary Views

A view is a primary view when rendering to it is necessary for an immersive experience. Primary views MUST be active for the entire duration of the XRSession .

A view is a secondary view when it is possible for content to choose to not render to it and still produce a working immersive experience. When content chooses to not render to these views, the user agent MAY be able to reconstruct them via reprojection. Secondary views MUST NOT be active unless the " secondary-views " feature is enabled.

To provide for this, user agents that expose secondary views MUST support an " secondary-views " feature descriptor as a hint. Content enabling this feature is expected to:

• Handle any nonzero number of views in the views array.

• Handle the existence of multiple views that have the same eye .

• Handle the size of the views array changing from frame to frame. This can happen when video capture is enabled, for example

When " secondary-views " is enabled, the user agent MAY surface any secondary views the device supports to the XRSession , when necessary. The user agent MUST NOT use reprojection to reconstruct secondary views in such a case, and instead rely on whatever the content decides to render.

Note: We recommend content use optionalFeatures to enable " secondary-views " to ensure maximum compatibility.

If secondary views have lower underlying frame rates, the XRSession MAY choose to do one or more of the following:

• Lower the overall frame rate of the application while the secondary views are active.

• Surface secondary views in the views array only for some of the frames. Implementations doing this SHOULD NOT have frames where the primary views are not present.

• Silently discard rendered content for secondary views during some of the frames.

7.3. XRViewport

An XRViewport object describes a viewport, or rectangular region, of a graphics surface.

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window] interface XRViewport {
  readonly attribute long x;
  readonly attribute long y;
  readonly attribute long width;
  readonly attribute long height;
};

The x and y attributes define an offset from the surface origin and the width and height attributes define the rectangular dimensions of the viewport.

The exact interpretation of the viewport values depends on the conventions of the graphics API the viewport is associated with:

• When used with an XRWebGLLayer the x and y attributes specify the lower left corner of the viewport rectangle, in pixels, with the viewport rectangle extending width pixels to the right of x and height pixels above y . The values can be passed to the WebGL viewport function directly.

xrSession.requestAnimationFrame((time, xrFrame) => {
  const viewer = xrFrame.getViewerPose(xrReferenceSpace);
  gl.bindFramebuffer(xrWebGLLayer.framebuffer);
  for (xrView of viewer.views) {
    let xrViewport = xrWebGLLayer.getViewport(xrView);
    gl.viewport(xrViewport.x, xrViewport.y, xrViewport.width, xrViewport.height);
    // WebGL draw calls will now be rendered into the appropriate viewport.
  }
});

8. Geometric Primitives

8.1. Matrices

WebXR provides various transforms in the form of matrices . WebXR uses the WebGL conventions when communicating matrices, in which 4x4 matrices are given as 16 element Float32Array s with column major storage, and are applied to column vectors by premultiplying the matrix from the left. They may be passed directly to WebGL’s uniformMatrix4fv function, used to create an equivalent DOMMatrix , or used with a variety of third party math libraries.

[a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7, a8, a9, a10, a11, a12, a13, a14, a15]

{x:X,
y:Y,
z:Z,
w:1}

a0 a4 a8  a12  *  X  =  a0 * X + a4 * Y +  a8 * Z + a12
a1 a5 a9  a13     Y     a1 * X + a5 * Y +  a9 * Z + a13
a2 a6 a10 a14     Z     a2 * X + a6 * Y + a10 * Z + a14
a3 a7 a11 a15     1     a3 * X + a7 * Y + a11 * Z + a15

8.2. Normalization

There are several algorithms which call for a vector or quaternion to be normalized, which means to scale the components to have a collective magnitude of 1.0 .

8.3. XRRigidTransform

An XRRigidTransform is a transform described by a position and orientation . When interpreting an XRRigidTransform the orientation is always applied prior to the position .

An XRRigidTransform contains an internal matrix which is a matrix .

[SecureContext, Exposed=Window]
interface XRRigidTransform {
  constructor(optional DOMPointInit position = {}, optional DOMPointInit orientation = {});
  [SameObject] readonly attribute DOMPointReadOnly position;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute DOMPointReadOnly orientation;
  readonly attribute Float32Array matrix;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute XRRigidTransform inverse;
};

The position attribute is a 3-dimensional point, given in meters, describing the translation component of the transform. The position 's w attribute MUST be 1.0 .

The orientation attribute is a quaternion describing the rotational component of the transform. The orientation MUST be normalized to have a length of 1.0 .

The matrix attribute returns the transform described by the position and orientation attributes as a matrix . This attribute MUST be computed by obtaining the matrix for the XRRigidTransform .

Note: This matrix when premultiplied onto a column vector will rotate the vector by the 3D rotation described by orientation , and then translate it by position . Mathematically in column-vector notation, this is M = T * R , where T is a translation matrix corresponding to position and R is a rotation matrix corresponding to orientation .

The inverse attribute of a XRRigidTransform transform returns an XRRigidTransform in the relevant realm of transform which, if applied to an object that had previously been transformed by transform , would undo the transform and return the object to its initial pose. This attribute SHOULD be lazily evaluated. The XRRigidTransform returned by inverse MUST return transform as its inverse .

An XRRigidTransform with a position of { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0 w: 1 } and an orientation of { x: 0, y: 0, z: 0, w: 1 } is known as an identity transform .