spatial-webview

A small Unity XR package that renders readable web pages and YouTube / HTML5 video onto a floating spatial panel across Meta Quest (2, Pro, 3, 3S), OpenXR headsets (Pico, Android XR, Vive), and AR/VR smart glasses - without bundling a browser engine or a C++ native plugin.

v0.1.0 - Android Java bridge and C# package are built and compile-checked against Unity 6 + Android SDK. Spring feel constants and headset layout are awaiting their first on-device tuning pass.

How it renders (SurfaceBackendMode.Auto)

spatial-webview picks the best Android rendering path available at runtime, all with 0 KB of bundled native .so libraries:

1. Meta Horizon OS (OVROverlay.isExternalSurface) - used on Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3 and Quest 3S when com.meta.xr.sdk.core is installed. Android's built-in Chromium WebView draws straight to a TimeWarp compositor Surface via Surface.lockHardwareCanvas(), with bicubic filtering and Vulkan-only build support
2. OpenXR Composition Layers (XR_KHR_android_surface_swapchain) - used on Pico, Android XR (Samsung / Google), Vive Focus and Snapdragon Spaces headsets when com.unity.xr.compositionlayers + com.unity.xr.openxr are installed
3. Universal Direct-Buffer Texture2D fallback - used automatically on AR/VR smart glasses (XREAL, Viture, RayNeo) or OpenXR runtimes without external surface support. Double-buffers a direct ByteBuffer from Java into AndroidJNI.GetDirectByteBuffer with zero per-frame C# heap allocations

Features

• Underlay punch-through - sits behind Unity's eye buffer (in front of Passthrough) and punches an RGBA = (0,0,0,0) window into the viewport mesh, so hands, avatars, 3D models and rays closer to you still appear in front of the page
• Built-in Reader mode - strips cookie banners, navbars and sidebars into clean VR typography (Dark, Sepia, Light themes), or renders pre-cleaned HTML directly
• YouTube Error 153 handled - wraps youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, shorts, Vimeo and direct .mp4 / .m3u8 URLs in an HTTPS-origin loadDataWithBaseURL player with strict-origin-when-cross-origin referrer headers
• Quiet spatial UI - no desktop browser toolbar across the top. Just the content surface, a thin perimeter border that lights up as your hand or ray nears, and a small pill handle underneath that reveals context controls (←, Reader, zoom, ×) only when approached. Springs follow Oleg Frolov's xr-prototypes timings and stay completely still while you aim inside the page
• Cross-vendor input - works with any Unity EventSystem / XRI raycaster, plus built-in support for Meta OVRHand / OVRInput, OpenXR Unity.XR.Hands pinch rays, UnityEngine.XR controllers (with 1-in-3 pulsed haptics), and head-gaze + tap / Bluetooth clicker fallback for smart glasses
• Editor preview - shows active state, YouTube thumbnails and an Open in Browser button in Mac and Windows Play Mode so scenes run without an APK build

Requirements

• Unity 6 (6000.0+) and com.unity.ugui (TextMeshPro)
• Optional packages (detected automatically via versionDefines):
  • com.meta.xr.sdk.core for Meta OVROverlay, OVRHand and OVRInput
  • com.unity.xr.openxr + com.unity.xr.compositionlayers for vendor-neutral OpenXR hardware surfaces
  • com.unity.xr.hands for vendor-neutral OpenXR hand pinch rays

Install

In Unity, open Window > Package Manager, click + > Add package from git URL..., and paste:

https://github.com/thisisvaze/spatial-webview.git

Usage

From the menu

Click GameObject > XR > Spatial WebView, set Initial Url in the Inspector, and build to your headset or glasses.

From C#

using SpatialWebView;
using UnityEngine;

public class Example : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private SpatialWebViewWindow webView;

    public void ShowArticle()
    {
        webView.OpenUrl("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope", forceReaderMode: true);
    }

    public void ShowVideo()
    {
        webView.OpenUrl("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg");
    }

    public void ShowCleanHtml(string title, string bodyHtml)
    {
        webView.OpenReaderHtml(title, bodyHtml, "https://example.com");
    }
}

Two-way JS messaging

From JavaScript inside a loaded page:

window.xrBrowserPost({ type: "chapterSelected", id: 3 });

From Unity C#:

webView.MessageReceived += json => Debug.Log("From page: " + json);
string title = await webView.EvaluateJavaScriptAsync("document.title");

System keyboard on Meta Quest (optional)

If your pages have <input> fields and you want Horizon OS's overlay keyboard to open on tap, add this to Assets/Plugins/Android/AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-feature android:name="oculus.software.overlay_keyboard" android:required="false" />

License

MIT