Ok, so the weekly updates are continuing. Only with the betas at the moment as the cursor lock is still a problem with the Oculus. Oculus and Unity are working on it. So whats going on then.
Update list.
-Add selection menu for Custom formats. To select this click on the FOV part when you have custom formats selected.
-Add selection Menu for Formats. Click on Format and you'll get the Formats menu.
-Back arrow when outside the menus.
-Loading dialogue when clicking on videos in the Explorer.
-Fixed bugs for publisher.
-Included Oculus SDK back in.
-Included VRidge support. Now VRidge is detected as an Oculus and allows for resetting the viewport.
-Removed auto detect for position at start. It's in front so should just be that unless you want to reset it to point another way.
-Reduced the size of the textures for smoother loading. Most textures are loaded in from external png's for skinning ability.
-Add a new custom format Samsung Gear 360. Thanks again to Andrew Hazelden http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/ for making it.
Responses from the reviews
The UI
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The biggest part of this update is the inclusion of the menus for Formats and Custom formats.
If you've read any of the review, I have :( then you'll know there is a lot of criticism of the UI. The player originally came from the free version and was intended entirely to be keyboard driven and to be used on hardware as low res as the DK1. This means the UI looks and acts very basically. When I originally released it here on Steam I wanted to at least get it out there so people had a least a way of playing videos, grow a community that was interested in using it and then take their suggestions. Some people have made suggestions in the discussion forums and some in the reviews negative and positive alike. Believe me I am taking this on board. Many of the updates in the last few weeks have been to prepare to make a big change to the UI. Hover buttons, explorer updates, Format menu, Custom format menu, Edit gamepad menu etc. Also I've been including new features such as stereo separation, Vive control sleepy time etc which I've taken from the discussion forums. So the next step for me now I have all the elements is to update the UI. A big task but hopefully made easier by the updates I've been putting in place. It's not going to please everyone and it will take longer to implement than a week but hopefully you'll be seeing some good improvements soon. Suggestions for UI are great appreciated and if you have examples of good UI's that you would like to see Whirligig go in the direction of please leave feedback on the forum :)
Unsupported videos and choppy playback
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The player currently requires external codecs to be installed to get the most out of it. It's incredibly frustrating for me as I can't include them because of legal issues and I can't use Media foundation yet because of lack of support of the video plugin. It is also for some very frustrating also as the player often doesn't work out of the box. I am currently waiting on an update to the plugin that should improve this situation immensely as it will offer Media Foundation support and improved performance on Directshow codecs support. As soon as this is released it will be going straight into the player (and hopefully not break stuff). Until then I will be using the older plugin. It's not perfect but for many once the codecs are set up it provides good video support and in most cases smooth playback.
If you have any problems and need help please don't hesitate to contact me via the forum. I've advised a lot of people in setting up things and can most likely help you get things up and running.
Gamepad Issues and instability
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I've built in support for 360 and xbox one controllers but on some systems there are conflicts with other devices that cause problems or just stop the gamepad from working. This is a continuing frustration as as far as I'm aware I have implemented gamepad support in a very standard way so conflicts shouldn't arise. But as some have reported there can be cases where this does happen. I've been hoping that Unity3D updates would bring about a solution but this appears to not be the case. I am working on another solution which should hopefully improve support and maybe also bring in more options. This will take time to implement though. If you do have problems you can disable the d-pad. The player can be used pretty well without this now (the updates have also been done to reduce the reliance on the d-pad). There is a pinned discussion in the forum so have a look there for advice and any information about this that I can get will really help me pin down the problem.
Other instabilities and issues can also arise. I work with the latest versions of all the software and plugins and in each iteration I hope the stability is increasing. If there are any problems that you can show me how to recreate then let me know and I'll fix them. On every version I release I try and fix updates and improve the experience. hopefully you'll see this coming though.
Refunds
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If you are unhappy with Whirligig, feel it is unfinished, difficult to use or just plain crap then please get a refund. Steam's refund system is easy to do and won't take you a moment. I offer Whirligig on Steam to give people a way to play back videos which at the moment there aren't many options. If you want to try other options please do. I've heard very good things about Virtual Desktop for example although I do hope the wide range of options in Whirligig will make it a commendable alternative.
However if you want to continue with the player and see where it's going then stick with me and you will see some marked improvements in the future. Give me suggestions, bug reports feedback, I need as much as I can get. There is a reason Whirligig is Early Access and that is because it is still growing. By sticking with me you'll help it to hopefully grow into a great video player and a multitude of other things :)
Final thoughts
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That's it for now. The next update will hopefully come same time next week. Not sure whats going to be in it yet but hopefully some marked improvements. If you like Whirligig and want to see it develop into a great player please give some good reviews :)
I look forward to hearing your comments.
Until next time
Over and out.