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