Hi Everyone
It's been a while since the last default update, and I've spent that time working through a run of beta releases to get us here. This release has a lot of updates. I've rebuilt a lot of Whirligig's core, for stability and performance, added a free companion app for controlling headsets over your network and I've worked on bringing a lot of the long requested features into this build as well.
So after a long list of beta releases and testing I'm finally pushing it to the default build. And without further ado, here we go.
Network browsing
Plex (including remote play)
Jellyfin/Emby (Auto detect your local servers)
SMB (Auto detect your local shares)
DLNA (Automatically connect to local shares)
Network browsing has been an often-requested feature for Whirligig, especially the standalone versions. I now have the tools and the time to implement it and this is the culmination of my efforts. I've added all the requested types of share and tested on my limited system. Things seem to be working well but if you have issues, requests or questions let me know.
New: Whirligig Remote (free companion app)
Control a single seat or synchronise a whole fleet of headsets at once
Play, pause, stop, restart, seek, switch content and adjust projection remotely
Browse media on connected headsets and transfer files from your PC (skips duplicates, with live per-device progress)
Works across both the Steam (PC) version and standalone headsets on the same network
A free companion app that discovers and controls Whirligig across your local Wi-Fi network, from a Windows PC or a mobile browser. It started as a request to run several museum headsets at once, but it's just as handy at home. This is available as a DLC and is in early development. Give it a go and let me know how I can improve it.
3D Environment Fades
In 2D Environments I have an option to fade the environment when playing videos for better comfort. I've now added this to the 3D environments as well.
Colour Gamut Options added
A requested feature was Colour Gamut controls for getting better colour replication when on certain headsets or videos. I've added this to the Quality's menu.
Fisheye output for planetariums
The multi-monitor output now includes fisheye distortion, so planetariums with a fisheye-lens projector can output a correctly distorted image and take full advantage of their dome.
Rotation & tilt speed
New menu options to adjust view rotation and tilt speed to your liking.
Settings Preset saves
Whirligig has a way to save presets for your films so you can return to your perfect setup. I felt that this would be a good option for the Player Settings also. So I've added it: You can also see that there are a few pre built presets. Whirligig works very well on the desktop as well as the headset and can work well without a VR headset entirely. For that reason I've provided three options.
Default This is what the settings are set to when you first install the player. Desktop VR This provides an option that is designed to work well in VR (VR is mostly unchanged) and some ease of use for desktop use. This extends to making the desktop independent, unlocking the mouse from the window etc. Desktop This is designed for systems that don't have VR support at all. Whirligig can be used as a 360 degree player with all the extended options that the VR setup brings but also sets up the Player so that it will work well as a screen based player such as VLC.
Rebuilt engine, VLC pipeline & stability
Rebuilt VLC pipeline for better reliability and performance across the huge range of formats Whirligig handles
Native thumbnail generation, dramatically speeding up capture
Full script overhaul — every script reworked to remove bottlenecks, with reliability fixes throughout
All plugins, APIs and SDKs updated; both video engines (AVPro Video and VLC) brought up to their latest versions
Fixed memory and resource leaks when stopping or switching videos, hangs and stuck states during media teardown, and startup/shutdown exceptions
(Meta Quest standalone) full migration to Vulkan rendering for better on-headset stability and performance
A ground-up overhaul of the player's internals focused on reliability and speed.
Bug fixes
Fixed the Subtitles on/off control not toggling subtitles when bound to an input
Fixed crashes when browsing DLNA and SMB network shares
Fixed the laser pointer being blocked by backdrop colliders
Fixed file explorer issues (menu sizing and opening)
Fixed the video progress bar when using presets
Fixed the mouse cursor interfering on standalone (Quest/Pico) startup
Fixed the remote control failing to connect on standalone builds
Fixed stereo separation in cinema mode for 3D content
I've done my best to fix as many bugs as I come across for this release. Here is just a few. If you come across any more and I can relaibily recreate them, I will fix them (I promise) just message and let me know :)
Standalone Releases (Meta Quest 2/3, Pico4VR)
All these features have been worked on across platforms and I've released updated versions for both the Meta and Pico headsets. I currently have a policy that respects your purchase across platforms, so if you want to have Whirligig on the Horizon store or Itch.io for Pico please email me and I'll send a code over [email protected]
As I'm also looking for people to try the new features on the Standalone platforms I'm also giving away codes for those platforms. So if you don't have Whirligig yet and would like to help me test everything new coming into it, fire over an email as well.
And finally
Thanks for everyone who continues to enjoy using Whirligig. I'll continue to add features as you continue to ask for them. If you have found using Whirligig a good experience a positive review is always welcome. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this update :). All the best, keep cool and happy watching.
Phil