Hi

So there are big updates and small ones in this release. Firstly I’ve spent a good while trying to optimise the code to improve performance. This isn’t something a lot of people will notice but it’s worth it to keep Whirligig running smoothly.

The second update which all should see is that I’ve reintroduced the desktop mirroring option and rearranged the implementation of both the Webcam options and the desktop mirroring.

So under explorer you now have 3 tabs at the top of the of the menu. Explorer, Desktop Mirror and webcam.

When you select desktop mirroring/Webcam you will be presented with four windows representing your selectable monitors. Choose whichever you wish to mirror/show. Webcam will only show available cameras.

These options are still work in progress so there may be bugs and expect extra options such as cropping and remembering the previous sections in the future.

I hope you like this update. Let me me if you have any problems and thanks for your continued support of Whirligig.

[edit] I found how to edit :)

This update might have introduced bugs as all updates do. I do know of at least one. The mirror option in settings/interface/monitoring no longer disables the mirror to screen. I'll fix this for the next update, which won't be long coming as I tidy up the issues with this one.

Happy watching :)

Hi all

So driven by the fact that the Index controllers need support in the main build I've finally got round to updating the default build to the latest beta.

The development of the betas has included a lot of new features, bug fixes, plugin, sdk and Unity version updates. I've gathered as much of the most important ones together for you to peruse below.

[edit]
Whirligig 4.757
So based on the comments and in an effort to fix as much of the issues as possible I've made a few more changes.

[edit][edit]
Whirligig 4.7572
Changed the way that riftcat works so that it should work with gamepads now.
Added another fix for countries that use "," instead of "." for decimals. Hopefully this will fix any problems for people from these countries. Let me know if you still have problems.

• Index controller defaults added. If you are upgrading rather than running for the first time go into inputs and hit defaults.
  
• Steam and Oculus controller code updated to improve the left right handed support and general improve the detection and working of it.
  
• Downgraded from Unity3D 2019 to 2018. 2019 was causing troubles with colour grading in DirectShow and possible other issues.
  
• Added Left and right selection to the input menu and have it stick when you restart Whirligig.
  
• Added grip options for the Oculus touch in the input options.

Now back to the previous updates.

New features and improvements

• Index controller support.
  
• Added memory of previous FOV for Barrel and Fisheye when browsing.
  
• Replaces all the texture loads with a different method which improves load times and removes pauses in VR.
  
• Added Mixed Reality Controller inputs for the joysticks.
  
• Added Polish language option. Very kindly provided by a user :).
  
• Changed SteamVR SDK to v2
  
• Images refresh when replaced while viewing.
  
• Hide timebar option so that it doesn’t show up in the playback when skipping forward and backward. Setting/interface/Show progress bar...
  
• Whirligig now remembers the volume from your previous session.
  
• Text in UI sharpness improved for better legibility.
  
• Playlist option improved and added to settings menu. Still in beta.
  
• Added the ability to delete files through the shortcut menu. Add this shortcut in the input menu.
  
• New environment loft added.

Updates SDK's, Plugin's, Unity

• Oculus SDK
  
• Unity3D
  
• SteamVR
  
• AVpro Video plugin

Bug Fixes

• Double tap of skip forward/backward fixed.
  
• Corrected reversed backwards/forwards on position panel.
  
• Fixed scrolling on input menu.
  
• Fixed double click issue when going from next previous media.
  
• Fixed tilt up not moving smoothly on hotkeys.
  
• Fixed (hopefully) the issue with non English setup machines.
  
• Fixed issue with Windows Mixed Reality controllers.
  
• Fixed warp restore from preset and depth change.
  
• Fixed keyboard shortcut restoring to default on each start.
  
• Fixed Suppressed loading settings checkbox.
  
• Fixed force mono on all videos. Settings/projections/Depth/
  
• Fixed Oculus remote not working.
  
• Fixed fitlers in browser not remember properly.
  
• Made it so you can't select no filters in the explorer.

If you discover bugs

This is quite a big update with a lot of changes to the core structure of Whirligig. Because of this I might of failed to see new bugs that I've added. Please get in touch here or post on the Steam forum or email me phileday@yahoo.co.uk I really want to make sure this is a quality update for all users of Whirligig and build a good bases to go forward. The more feedback I can get the better I can make forthcoming updates.


If you have Issues

There are a couple of things you can try. Try resetting the player completely:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/451650/discussions/0/154642901285181817/

You can also return to the previous default build in the betas. To change between betas follow this guide I made:
https://youtu.be/E0g9ICfaxbU

The version of the previous default is
whirligig_early_access_v.4.72


If things are really bad for everyone I'll need to revert back to the previous default but hopefully with you're help I can fix any of the issues you might be having and we can stick with this version going forward.


And Finally

So these are the updates in this default build release. I hope you like them. I'll be working on some small things in the next update which will occur over the next couple of weeks. These will most likely be small changes to fix some UI bugs and improve the stability. If you have any problems let me know so I can include fixes in these updates as well.

And finally finally, thanks for all your support and I look forward to hearing your thought.

Until next time, happy watching :)

So here we go, another beta. A few things have gone on here. Firstly we have index controller support, then a load of bug fixes, also an update to the image loading code which improves the speed of image loading and doesn't interrupt the VR and a load of bug fixes.

This beta is going to lead onto a default build. This is for a couple of reasons, firstly because I need to release index controller support and secondly I need to release updates to the default build more regularly. So below is more detailed list of updates

• Updated Unity3D
  
• Improved fidelity of main menu.
  
• Index controller support.
  
• Double tap of skip forward/backward fixed.
  
• corrected reversed backwards/forwards on position panel.
  
• Added memory of previous FOV when going through projection options.
  
• Fixed scrolling on input menu.
  
• Fixed some spelling mistakes.
  
• Fixed double click issue when going from next previous media.
  
• Fixed tilt up not moving smoothly on hotkeys.
  
• Replaces all the texture loads with a different method which improves load times and removes pauses in VR.

There's likely to be other things I've done but that's the ones I can remember for now :)


And Finally
So that’s all the updates I can remember. This is going to default soon as the release of the Index means I need to support the controllers in the main build.

As always bug reports, questions and feature requests are always welcome. I hope you like this update and I hope it improves your experience.

Until next time

Keep watching :)

Here comes another update. I’ve worked on a few bugs reported by users. Continued integration of the SteamVR 2.2 SDK and with testing on the 3 headset options, WMR, Oculus and Vive.

- Updated Oculus SDK, Unity3D and SteamVR SDK

- Fixed (hopefully) the issue with non English setup machines.

- Fixed issue with Windows Mixed Reality controllers.

- Added Mixed Reality Controller inputs for the joysticks.

- Added Polish language option. Very kindly provided by a user :).

- Fixed some smaller bugs.

So that’s the current updates. So if you find any issues please let me know so I can have a go at fixing them for them. With the updates of the SDK’s and Unity3D new bugs might have crept in so any help with spotting them is gratefully received.

Other than that, happy watching :)

Hi all

I've not had a great deal of time to work on Whirligig other the past couple of months but I'm getting back into weekly releases of the betas. Today is the first of these with updated features, bug fixes and general improvements.

So welcome to version 4.743. Here are a list of the updates in this version.

• Hide timebar option so that it doesn’t show up in the playback when skipping forward and backward. Setting/interface/Show progress bar...
  
  
• Whirligig now remembers the volume from your previous session.
  
  
  
• Maximum file name length test to stop crash when player ini is saved.
  
  
  
• Suppressed loading settings checkbox fixed.
  
  
  
• Text in UI sharpness improved for better legibility.
  
  
  
• Command line options added to disable VR and to force player to run using SteamVR. -disablevr and -forcesteam
  
  
  
• Playlist option improved.
  
  
  
• Updated Oculus SDK, Unity3D version and plugins.
  
  
  
• Fixed force mono on all videos. Settings/projections/Depth/
  
  
• Updated plugins, Unity3D version.

One of the more complex updates here is the playlist improvement. Playlists were a part of Whirligig before but weren't really easy to create or use. Now I've create a more user friendly version which allows you to drag videos into the window to build your playlists and create multiple playlists. I'm going to add a youtube video once I get a chance highlighting this. I also hope to improve it more with a way to create the playlists from the browser menu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)

So this is the first of the weekly updates, let's see if I can manage to keep it up for more than one week :)

My updates for the future are a combination of suggestions from you and ideas I've got on improving things. I very much appreciate feedback regarding bugs or feature requests so keep them coming.

Until next time

Happy watching

This update page is going to keep updating itself over the next day so keep an eye out for more details.

Whirligig has been updated to version 4.7. Updates since last default release.

• Updates to Oculus, Steam, Unity3D, video plugins and other plugins.
  
  
• Rooms updated. 18 new rooms.
  
  
• Explorer has options to limit media type. Video/images/other.
  
  
• Shortcut menu added to allow extra functions in playback.
  
  
• Beta language support for Chinese and Spanish.
  
  
• Resume from previous time, on all video option.
  
  
• Option to hide controls during playback.
  
  
• Optimisation on menus to decrease possibility of slow downs.
  
  
• Bug squashing and general optimisation.

Rooms menu has been redesigned. Lots of new image based Rooms added. Check them out under settings/projection/rooms. Basically 15 new rooms have been added. These are based on stereo 360 degree images so aren't as dynamic as the originals but they have been lurking in Themes for too long and needed to be properly used.





This is a new feature that allows you to bring up a shortcut menu to user defined options. This has been created to add functionality to the Oculus GO/GearVR version and improve usability overall. The shortcut menu can be mapped to the controllers like other options and the Shortcut menu buttons can be mapped in the inputs menu under settings/other/inputs. I've also updated the default options in the gamepad, keyboard and touch controllers so if you want them to be mapped to a standard key simply go in and hit default on each of the control options.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

A discussion about the latest update. If you have problems or suggestion let me know herre :)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/451650/discussions/0/1743358239845490065/


I’ve worked hard to add new features and improve Whirligig for this default release. If you discover any issues please let me know phileday@yahoo.co.uk

If you like this update please let me know and positive reviews are always welcome.

I hope you continue to enjoy using Whirligig and happy watching :)

Hi everyone

As some of you are aware I've been updating and updating (not so much recently, it's amazing how Christmas and new year can slip you up). I'm now coming to the end of this update cycle.

Because I'm close to the default update I would love to hear from the people using the betas at the moment of any issues you might be having.

The latest version in beta is Version 4.671 and should fix issues from previous versions that include gamepad issues, crosshair showing issues and probably a few other things. So only minor changes from the previous upload but if you've not tried the latest betas then there are some significant changes from the previous default build include more rooms, better optimisation, a shortcut menu, bug fixes and more.

So if you haven't tried the latest beta give it a go.

I very much reach out to the community to get ideas for features and improvements I can make. I've had a lot of suggestions that I want it implement but I've not had a chance to implement them as I've been working on this default update and an Oculus Go/GearVR version (if you want to try the beta email me phileday@yahoo.co.uk). As we are coming to the default release I will soon be back to adding new feature and improving the player again.

I apologise to all that hoped that their feature will be added soon. I really really hope that I will be back adding these new features once this default build is release. I want to improve Whirligig and make it the tool that you the users really want.


I've been working on fixing problems with the keyboard shortcut and mapping and this latest beta should be the most stable so far. However if you are going from the default then make sure you reset the keyboard controls back to default. The setup will be mapped all wrong otherwise. When I release the default build I will have this happen automatically but for now I'm leaving it manual to make things easier for people working their way through the betas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)

So what do I want from you? I really really want to hear bug reports and issue feedback. It would be really good to make this update the best, most optismed, feature laden and bug free version yet. With your help in letting me know of any issues I hope I can achieve this.


If you continue liking Whirligig I'm continue to improve it :)

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Keep watching

Phil

And here comes another beta. Work on different rooms and a new shortcut menu added. Probably some other stuff as well. Details below.

Rooms


Rooms menu has been redesigned. Lots of new image based Rooms added. Check them out under settings/projection/rooms. Basically 15 new rooms have been added. These are based on stereo 360 degree images so aren't as dynamic as the orginals but they have been lurking in Themes for too long and needed to be properly used.

Explorer Update
'images', 'Video' and 'other' options have been added to the right so that you can limit what is displayed. Just click on each to show or remove from selection. These selections are saved and will remain the same the next time you load Whirligig.

Optimisation in all menus
Hopefully this should fix the progressive slowdown that was occurring. I'm also hoping that this will improve dropdown menu speed.

Shortcut menu

This is a new feature that allows you to bring up a shortcut menu to user defined options. This has been created to add functionality to the Oculus GO/GearVR version and improve usability overall. The shortcut menu can be mapped to the controllers like other options and the Shortcut menu buttons can be mapped in the inputs menu under settings/other/inputs. I've also updated the default options in the gamepad, keyboard and touch controllers so if you want them to be mapped to a standard key simply go in and hit default on each of the control options.

Plugins and SDK's

All the plugins, SDK's and Unity3D versions have been updated to the latest release.

I’m sure there is a load of other stuff I’ve missed and if I think of it I let you know. There has been quite a few changes in this update so if you run into bugs please let me know.

Spanish and Chinese language support
Change the language under settings/interface/languages.

This is still at it's early stages so expect it not to be perfect and some translations to be missing. I've asked my brother and a friend to do the translations so far. These will be updated more on the final release. Please let me know what you think of this, is it worth it and how I can improve it. I want to support multiple languages but it's a long process to update everything so it's taken me a while to implement. Hopefully once things slow down I'll be able to properly finalise it and increase the number of translations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)

So this is a continuation of the updates that I've wanted to include. Some are still work in progress but I hope each time I update I add more features and improve the overall experience of Whirligig. I'm currently working on a version for Oculus Go and GearVR which has guided a few of my updates recently. This hasn't stopped me from added features though so I will try and update them parallel. If you're interested in trying the Oculus Go beta email me phileday@yahoo.co.uk,

I hope you continue to enjoy Whirligig and happy Watching :)

Hello again

I've not been releasing many updates recently as I've been working on the Oculus Go and GearVR version. This version is currently in beta and not released yet. If you want to try the beta let me know by email me phileday@yahoo.co.uk

However I've still been improving the player and trying add new features along the way and I've done quite a bit of optimization. here are some of the new features:

- Room projection changed. Hopefully this will be an improvement. I’m currently adding new room updates so this was part of that. Note living room is a bit dark at the moment but will be fixed very soon.

- New rooms added. Loft day time, Loft night time and Large cinema.







- Font update. Hopefully this should improve the look of the UI.

- Update to all the plugins and Unity3D build.

- Adding support for multi language support. Currently I have a preliminary option for Chinese (I have a Chinese friend helping me out with that) I hope to add Spanish soon as well. The option to change the language is under settings/interface/main options.

- Added an option to hide controllers when playing, under settings/other/input.

- Fixed issues with the keyboard layout being wierd or wrong. This might require resetting keyboard options.

- Code optimisation.

In truth I think I've done loads more changes but I don't really know what they are. If you see any I've forgotten to mention let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)


So that's this times update. I've got a lot of requests for new features which I hope to work on soonish. I'm still working on the Oculus Go version and need to release that. The biggest thing that's stopping that release is network location support. If you have any ideas how to implement that in Unity3D let me know.

You can check out the list of features I'd like to add here:
http://www.whirligig.xyz/new-page/

I am still up for more suggestion though. I added new rooms in the last update because I saw a nice asset on the store and knew how to implement it so for my own sanity I added some. You might suggest something that will be easy for me to add and might get put in soon.

Anyway I hope you like this beta. If you have any problems let me know. Adding bugs can often happen especially if you're trying to improve the code.

Thanks for supporting Whirligig allow me to keep going with the project.

All the best and happy watching.

Phil

Edit: This is the release note for the beta but do represent this release. I will be improving this new feed but I just needed to get the update out there instead of dotting the i's and crossing the t's on all this stuff.

I hope you like it and let me know if you have any problems or suggestions for future updates. If you really like it good reviews are always welcome :)

Notes:
The Oculus SDK has been updated to the latest so make sure you have the latest updates installed.

There will soon be a release of this on the Oculus Store and Viveport. I want to make sure that there isn't any real problems before releasing on them as it's much harder to switch back if there is. For this reason any problems you find please let me know so I can do my best to fix them :)

-------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone

So we are sooo close now to a full default release update. I intend this beta release to be the last release before then and the only thing I want different is any bug fixes that I'm currently not aware of.

So where do we begin. The truth is I've not been keeping a full check on the updates I've included so I will be highlighting the biggest I can think of and know that there are a load of others that I've forgotten to include. So here comes the list.

1. Rewritten into C Sharp

Full programming language change. I've rewritten Whirligig to be entirely in C Sharp. This although a massive change shouldn't have an impact on the main running of Whirligig, although during the switch over I've also tried to optimise some of the code. Hopefully this should make Whirligig a bit more stable and quicker. This in the long run is to help with my ability to convert Whirligig to run on Android devices so I can support headsets such as the Oculus Go and Vive Focus.

2. Settings Menu Update
I've got a designer friend in to help with remaking the settings menu to make a lot of the hidden features more accessible and also make it easier to find and add new feature. During this process I've rewritten the code for this menu so again improving the ability to add new features and hopefully it works a bit smoother.




3. Improved Input Menu
The input menu needed an overhaul in both design and code. The previous versions coding meant that it was very slow and had a chance of breaking. This new menu system works in a similar way to before but is much cleaner in both design and code. Hopefully it should feel smoother and more stable.







4. Worked on the main design of the UI
In the redesign of the menu I've also remade the main UI. One of the less know, but big features of Whirligig is the ability to change the menu design to other premade ones of varying degrees of complexity and colour. This was an opportunity to remove some of the old basic designs, remake the main default design to be much more simple and provide better access to the other menus. If you don't like the simplicity of the new design you can simply go back to the old one.




5. A new Second monitoring system
Whirligig has for a long time had the ability to have none VR support. When you don't have VR attached you can use the player as a 360 degree 3D video player with anaglyph. This feature, again like so many other features has been a bit hidden. I decided to dust it off, improve it and make it a part of the player properly. What this means is you can now have your desktop monitor work as a second screen with full mouse support so while a friend is watching the video in VR you can be navigating and using the player with the mouse on screen. Also allowing you to look around with the mouse. I feel this feature has many very useful applications. I often work in a situation when I have to demonstrate videos to people and this automatically makes my life easier.




6. Force Mono
When watching some 3D films sometimes the 3D is done so badly that it is just better to be able to turn it off. This allows you to do that while still maintaining the 3D settings such as Over Under, Side by Side.

7. All major plugins, engine and SDK's updated to their latest release.
Keeping these up to date helps to make Whirligig as stable and powerful as it can be.

6. Drag and drop media onto window
This works well with the new Monitoring options as they don't lock the mouse cursor when the menu is up so it's straight forward to go to a directory and just drag and drop into the window to load that window.

6. Disable mouse and controllers
If you want you can disable the mouse and the controllers just leaving the head mounted cursor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)


So these are currently the updates I think people might be most interested in. As I say I've updated so much, there are defiantly many features, bug fixes and improvements I haven't listed here. To biggest thing to note is that this is the last Beta release before the default build updates on all platforms Oculus, Vive and Steam. There won't be any new features. This is being put out to check for bugs before being released as default. For that reason if you find any problems with this build please let me know. I'm very much in debt to the community for bug reports and feedback. A lot of the updates are directly because of feedback so I take the community very seriously in helping to improve Whirligig.

Apart from all that I hope you enjoy this release and look forward to hearing what you have to say :)

Until next time

Happy watching

Phil