Whirligig News

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on a lot of new things and fixing bugs along the way. Some of the new features are large but probably irrelevant to most, while others are smaller and beneficial to everyone.

This beta release marks the start of a testing phase before it becomes the default build and gets rolled out across all the different stores. Because of this, I'm not going to go into too much detail just yet—that’ll come with the default release—but I’ll go over some of the major changes and bug fixes. I’ll likely forget to include some things, so expect this list to grow.

Features

• Passthrough option added to the Themes menu for headsets that support it.
  
• Cropping video and chroma keying added.
  
• Browser optimized for large folders.
  
• Top and bottom menus now appear when using the full-screen cinema mode, allowing for play, pause, skip forward/back, and jump to position.
  
• 3D depth for non-VR moved to the Depth menu.
  
• Lenticular 3D option added. This is still experimental, and I’m continuing to tweak the output.
  
• Subtitles now have position and size options.
  
• Projection mapping for non-VR added, allowing you to use four projectors to create a 360-degree space. (This is a big update, but probably won’t be used by many.)
  

Bug Fixes

• 3D icon now updates more quickly.
  
• Skip forward/back now reveals the progress bar.
  
• Subtitles no longer appear behind the UI.
  
• Cursor hiding issues fixed.
  
• App now tests for VR, and switches to non-VR if no headset is found.
  
• Fixed passthrough material issues where some backgrounds were incorrectly visible.
  
• Menu now appears even if the screen is closer than the menu itself, allowing changes to be made.
  
• In Rooms, the UI no longer moves when something is blocking it—blockers are now hidden.
  
• Fixed issue where selecting half-width stereo would squash mono video.
  
• Arrow key navigation in the browser reinstated and improved.
  
• Fixed subtitle issue where metadata had the same name.
  
• Fixed issue with Windows mouse appearing in NoneVR.
  
• Fixed issue with mouse not appearing on edge when resizing the window,.
  
  

Plugin and Engine Updates

• Unity3D 6
  
• AVPro Video plugin
  
• VLC Video plugin
  

And here are some screenshots of the changes.


As you can see, a lot has changed. I’ve been working hard on improving reliability and fixing bugs, while also adding new features. But with so many updates, there's a good chance a few bugs slipped in. I’ll be testing throughout next week, but please let me know if you run into any issues so I can squash them before the default release.

And lastly, thank you for supporting me while I’ve been working on Whirligig. I’m a solo developer, so I take your feedback very seriously. Many of these updates and changes are a direct result of your input—without that, Whirligig wouldn’t be what it is today. I hope to continue improving it and making it the player I most want to use.

All the best, and happy watching!

Phil

[Edit] I've worked on and updated the browser so that it's much quicker and responsive in folder with large numbers of files or folder (text explorer not the thumbnail one). The new version is whirligig_v5.563.

Hi All

I've been working on a lot of updates some big and some small. I will be posting a full release on all these updates at the end of March, however I wanted to release this update as I think it will have some options that some people can make use off immediately.

[h3]Feature Update[/h3]



I've added a new option for cropping your videos top, bottom, left and right. This also includes keying for transparency of certain colours. Keying of colours for use with videos using green screen will work well when using the passthrough option which has also been added.

These options required a good amount of shader development and I've tried to improve performance for these updates. Please let me know if you have any issues with tiling and stereo seperation in particular.

I hope you like this update. I've been working on a lot of features, some of which I've not gone into detail here but have made it into this beta release anyway. These include, subtitle position options, passthrough options, fixes to sound issues in VLC and improvements to non VR and fullscreen cinema video.

As mentioned, please let me know of any issues you come across and any feedback you might have.

If you want to show your appreciation of Whirligig a positive review is always welcome :)

All the best and happy watching

Phil

[edit - I've uploaded a new version 5.261 which should address some of the controllers being at weird angles. I've also done a load of testing on different headsets and have only found the hand tracking to work on the Quest 2 and 3. My implementation is using XRhands which is not hardware locked so if the other headsets support it it should work. I will have to continue to look into what headsets will allow hand tracking and make a compatibility list. This will be interesting when I start building with the hand tracking for Standalone as I know both Pico and Quest support it so hopefully they will both pick it up. Regardless let me know your experiences and what you'd like to see :).]

Hi everyone

So I've been working on a load of updates including a bit of a overhaul of the VR controller detection system. This has included the addition of hand tracking. So a quick overview.

This is a quick post so lacking a bit of detail as I wanted to get this release out so people can try it. The control system has been worked on so let me know if you have any issues.

A quick note. Hand tracking isn't on as default. It will be disable in the settings/input menu. Switch it on and it should start working. I've only tested this with the Quest 3 but it should work on other headsets as well as it's using XRhands.

[h2]Updates:[/h2]

• Mouse right click plays/pauses.
  
• Mouse doesn't get locked to screen when playing in locked panning and full screen cinema mode.
  
• Direct audio option added to audio menu.
  
• Hand tracking.
  

[h2]Hand Tracking[/h2]


This is the first release of this so it's a little rough around the edges. Hand tracking is a mystic art and anything that feels like it's working is a win. This is how it works.

Control panel use
If you open your palm up with your thumb out the control panel will appear on your palm. You can then push the buttons on your palm. They should do all the things you expect that it does.

Pinch menu use
Put your hand into a pinch gesture (without the palm one above) and the laser will link to your hand. You can then pinch to select items on the menus. This should work just like the controllers with the trigger.

[h2]Is that it?[/h2]
Yes. Well no. This is the first release and I want to make it much more usable. This is the first release to give people a chance to try it and hopefully let me know what's working, what's not and how I can improve it. I will continue to work on it but your feedback is very welcome. Please let me know what you think :)

[h2]And finally[/h2]
This was a quick release update but took a long time to do. Hopefully it works well and I very much want to hear what you think. Again, positive reviews are always welcome as well as feedback and bug reports.

I hope you like the update.

Happy watching :)

Phil

Hi Everyone

Here is the latest update to Whirligig with some major changes and improvements to improve performance, usability and bug fixes. There is a lot to talk about, so here we go.

[h2]Explorer[/h2]

• Shared location support. The VLC plugin has allowed me to provide network shared locations such as SMB.
  
• 4 extra shortcut options to save too.
  
• New root browsing system allowing you to browse local drive or shared locations.
  
• Code optimisation to improve load speeds and unability.
  
• UI improvements to both list and thumbnail views.
  

[h2]Overall UI improvements[/h2]

• Hover state applied to buttons where possible.
  
• UI elements reduced down to increase loading times and unify UI elements.
  
• Scrollbar menus universal design.
  
• Buttons, sliders, toggles and menus universal design.
  

[h2]Projection/Rooms[/h2]

• Rooms have been split up into 360 degree image based rooms and full 3D rooms.
  
• Two 3D rooms removed, the loft and the the loft 2. These both were causing issues with loading and playback. They will return at some point so if you miss them a lot let me know.
  
• Brightness option added to 360 degree image based rooms to make for a more comfortable experience.
  
• Brightness can fade when playing so that it feels like the lights have gone down when watching your content.
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Output options added. Mono, Stereo (best for VR), quad, surround, 5.1 and 7.1. This allows you to use Whirligig as a desktop player and use the surround sound options in 5.1 videos sending the output to your amp.
  
• Media Foundation surround options now have linked slider options to change left/right and rear left/right simultaneously.
  
• mute button added to audio menu.
  
• Spatialize audio option added to surround sound menu for 3D sound.
  

[h2]Subtitles[/h2]

• Subtitle system changed to allow you to select your desired subtitle track and then solely turn that one off and on.
  
• Subtitle repeater input binding option. I've created a thing called Subtitle Repeater, which will turn on your selected subtitle, rewind your video 10 seconds and then 20 seconds later turn off the subtitles. Good if you didn't quite catch what someone said.
  

[h2]Core Updates[/h2]

• Unity Engine updated to 2022.3.25f1.
  
• AVPro video plugin updated to 3.0.
  
• VLC video plugin updated to 1.9.
  
• Implementation of shader removal to improve startup times.
  

[h2]Other[/h2]

• Vsync on/off added to quality menu. This can help with screen tearing and flashing on some systems.
  
• Splash screen and icon updates.
  
• Input drop downs have been organised to make browsing them easier.
  
• Cinema mode fullscreen and locked. This options when desktop monitoring is on and Cinema is selected as projection will make that video full screen in the same way a standard desktop video player would work.
  

[h2]Issue with the latest version?[/h2]
If this latest update causes issues there are a few things you can try.

Return to the previous default release.
Here is a quick tutorial to show how to do this.
https://youtu.be/z9pv-cgn4IE

and here is the Whirligig version you will need to select to return to the previous version.


Reset Whirligig
There are a couple of ways to do this. You can do this from within Whirligig in the about menu.


If you can't get to that menu for whatever reason you can reset Whirligig manually by deleting the Whirligig roaming folder.
Close Whirligig.
Navigate here :
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming
Find the folder called 'Whirligig' and rename or delete it.
Restart Whirligig.

I don't store any information in the registry so by removing this folder you are return Whirligig to it's factory default before it has run for the first time.

[h2]Feedback[/h2]
A lot of the updates, features and bug fixes I do are due to user feedback. I very much build Whirligig on what information I get back from users and my own desires for the player. If you wish to give feedback here's a list on how to get the information to me as best as possible.

Suggestions
Any features you think will benefit Whirligig please let me know. The Steam forum for Whirligig is a good place to post as I check them regularly and when a feature is suggest it's good to get feedback from the community.

Bugs
If you run into a bug then I will do my best to fix it and the more information I can get the better. You can contact me directly [email protected] or post on the forum. Here is a list of useful information you can provide me that will help me track down the problem.

• Headset used.
  
• Country you're running Whirligig from. (some countries uses different syntax, which is easy for me to miss on my setup.
  
• Version you are using. Default release or beta.
  
• A copy of the roaming folder. All information in the roaming folder is readable with a text editor. Information about the projection and previous settings are stored about each media you watch. Problems in the roaming can sometimes happen and a full reset can fix some issues.
  
• A link to the media that is causing the problem.
  
• Anything you think might be relevant about your setup.
  

Reviews
If you like Whirligig review it. It helps to tell people that it's still in active development and also give them a heads up of what to expect. I also get a warm feeling when I get praise :)

[h2]And Finally[/h2]
I've been working on this release for some time now and my main goal has been to improve overall performance, bug fix and add network support. I've also added features where I can and tried to improve the overall experience. I hope that you find the updates beneficial and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

I have lots of ideas for future releases and I would love to hear what you would like to see also :D

Thank you for support me in my Whirligig development and finally, happy watching.

Phil

Hi again

I'd like this to be the next default release but I'm still having a couple of accounts of a black screen on load. I'm working on fixes for this but as I can't recreate it I don't really know what's going on. Hopefully this latest build will improve things as it has some more fixes and an updated engine.

I've just managed to get a black screen but noticed my Quest had disconnected. On re-connection it appeared in the headset and also on the desktop again. It should of appeared on the desktop anyway but Meta headsets pause the app when the headset is removed so I think that mucked around with it. Again any hints on why this might be happening for some people please let me know.

[h2]The updates[/h2]

Subtitles
I've reexamined the subtitle system, found a couple of bugs and made a couple of changes. So now in subtitles you can select the language you wish to use and then when you switch on the subtitles it will switch the selected subtitle on. This information is saved as well so it will load the subtitles you previously selected.

In addition to this I've added a new feature called Subtitle Repeater. This can be bound to an input key to use.

What does it do I hear you cry. When watching a movie on Netflix, Prime etc I sometimes don't always understand what someone has said. This feature when pressed rewinds the film 10 seconds, turns on the subtitles for 20 seconds and then turns them off again. It's designed to stop me having to go through a load of menus to turn on the subtitles and then the same process again to turn them off.

UI update
People may or may not be happy with this. I've changed the buttons on the main UI.


[edit] I brought the quit back replacing the audio menu button. It felt weird it not being there :)

Basically I've removed the quit button and the menus menu button and replaced them with subtitle and audio options. The thinking behind this is that quit is available through the VR interface (SteamVR etc) and I don't think people are using the menus menu to switch back and forth between different menus that often.

If this is not the case please let me know. I'm already missing the quit button but I'm not sure if it needs to be on the main UI.

Fixes
I've fixed a couple of issues that were reported including a lot of the shortcuts not working on the shortcut menu (although I still have a little work to do on this), issues with the subtitle menu and some other smaller issues in the UI.

[h2]And Finally[/h2]

I want this to be pushed to the default build but I'm concerned about the reports of a black screen. I don't know if these are small issues which will require a separate build for people having the problem or if this is more universal.

If anyone comes across this issue I would be very interested in getting a copy of your Whirligig roaming folder, which is located here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Whirligig

my email is [email protected]

Hopefully you like the updates and thanks for your support.

Happy watching

Phil