title: Immersive Web Emulator description: Describes how to use the Immersive Web Emulator to run WebXR apps on a desktop browser without an XR device.. tags:
Immersive Web Emulator is a browser extension that assists WebXR content creation. It enables developers to responsively run WebXR apps on a desktop browser without the need of an XR device.
Inspired by the official WebXR Emulator Extension by Mozilla Reality and our previous efforts of extending it for better functionality, Immersive Web Emulator is designed and rebuilt from the ground up with an emphasis on full input emulation (including touch and analog input), better usability with a re-engineered UI, and more features, such as keyboard input mirroring and input session recording/playback, specifically for Meta Quest headsets.
This extension is built on WebExtensions API and implements Manifest V3. It works on Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers that support the API. The immersive Web Emulator can be installed from the following browser extension stores:
For other Chromium-based browsers, you can download our latest release, and try to manually install the extension by:
The process may vary for different browsers.
After successfully installing the emulator, do the following to use Immersive Web Emulator:
By clicking a device node in the emulator's 3D viewport, you can select gizmo mode of the device. By dragging a gizmo, you can rotate or translate the device. Alternatively, you can use the following keyboard shortcut to cycle through gizmo modes of the different device nodes:
Device Node | Keyboard Binding |
---|---|
Headset | Number Key 1 |
Left Controller | Number Key 2 |
Right Controller | Number Key 3 |
Button Action | Description |
---|---|
Touch | Toggle 'GamepadButton.touched'. |
Press | Set 'GamepadButton.pressed' to true and revert after 0.25 seconds. |
Lock | Toggle 'GamepadButton.pressed'. |
Joystick | Set values on 'Gamepad.axes'. |
Joystick-Sticky | Toggle the auto-return feature of the emulated joystick. |
Joystick-Reset | Recenter the emulated joystick. |
Slider | Emulate analog input for trigger and grip. |
You can enable/disable Stereo Effect which renders two views.
You can save an arbitrary combination of device nodes transform data as the default starting pose of the emulator.
There are keyboard mapping built in for some important controller emulated controls:
Button Action | Keyboard Binding |
---|---|
Left Joystick | W/A/S/D |
Left Joystick Click | C |
Button X | X |
Button Y | Z |
Left Trigger | E |
Left Grip | Q |
Right Joystick | Arrow Keys |
Right Joystick Click | . |
Button A | ' |
Button B | / |
Right Trigger | Enter |
Right Grip | Shift |
Keyboard events other than those reserved for controller emulation are passed through to the main WebXR experience, you may wish to utilize this feature to build in some shortcuts for debugging purposes.
See the CONTRIBUTING file for how to help out.
Immersive Web Emulator is MIT licensed, as found in the LICENSE file.