[1.0.0][Chrome m79] Gyro not working - device orientation not taken into account

[MK-LucidWeb]

Description:

Device orientation is not taken into account anymore in non-VR mode (aka magic window).

Works on Chrome m78, breaks in m79.

Tested on

• Pixel 2 (Android 10) with Chrome m78.0
• Pixel 2 (Android 10) with Chrome m79.0
• FRD-L09 (Android 7) with Chrome m78.0
• FRD-L09 (Android 7) with Chrome m79.0
• Samsung S7 (Android 8) with Chrome m78.0
• Samsung S7 (Android 8) with Chrome m79.0

Logging the deviceorientation event produces correct result.

document.addEventListener('deviceorientation', console.log);

• A-Frame Version: 1.0.0 (dc7d6174)
• Platform / Device: Chrome m79
• Reproducible Code Snippet or URL: https://aframe.io/aframe/examples/boilerplate/hello-world/

[dmarcos]

Any errors on console?

[MK-LucidWeb]

Any errors on console?

aframe.io-1576520442513.log

Unfortunately, nothing about that...

A quick search for deviceorientation in the repo yields nothing, is ThreeJS handling everything? Maybe it's worth a repro with ThreeJS.

Going back to previous commits doesn't solve the issue.

[MK-LucidWeb]

For comparison, https://threejs.org/examples/misc_controls_deviceorientation.html works in Chrome m79.

[MK-LucidWeb]

If anyone wants to take a shot at it before I do, here are some starting points:

1. https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/blob/master/examples/misc_controls_deviceorientation.html
2. https://cdn.rawgit.com/mrdoob/three.js/master/examples/js/controls/DeviceOrientationControls.js
3. https://github.com/aframevr/aframe/blob/master/src/components/camera.js#L44

[MK-LucidWeb]

Orientation used to be handled by webvr-polyfill but we don't use it anymore in Chrome m79? That's why it's not working in Chrome m79 but works fine in other browsers.

• Worth a look: line 2288 in the webvr-polyfill.js (built).
• See also line 212 in look-controls.js.

• Yes, the polyfill is responsible of head tracking using the sensors [...]

Fixing it on our side, already got a working build but we still need to do testing, PR will be submitted tomorrow.

[dmarcos]

Magic window tracking is also using the Polyfill and only enabled when WebXR is not available. After Chrome m79, ARCore devices come with WebXR enabled so we have to make sure the Polyfill also kicks in that case.

[manitito]

If you disable flag "WebXR Device API" m79 - then gyro is working

[MK-LucidWeb]

If you disable flag "WebXR Device API" m79 - then gyro is working

It works if you disable WebXR because then it uses the polyfill. It's not a proper fix though as you just can't ask all end users to disable the WebXR API. It's also counter productive as the goal is to support the actual WebXR spec.