News9 Aug 2026Whirligig Steam Deck compatible version - early beta whirligig_v5.8000Hi Everyone As people who are in the know, know, the Steam Frame is on its way with a lot of development into SteamOS. Well in anticipation I'm working on getting Whirligig compatible with SteamOS (through proton) and the first stage was to borrow a Steam Deck and get it working there. The first version is now available for beta download whirligig_v5.8000. What's changed SteamOS and the Steam D…
current beta is whirligig_v5.7942 Hi Everyone again This is hopefully the last release before I push a full default release. I've added some major updates for network browsing, added some other requested features and fixed lots more bugs. Hopefully this will be the most stable and feature packed version yet. Network browsing · Plex (including remote play) · Jellyfin/Emby (Auto detect your local…
Hi Everyone Well I've been working hard again on another release. As I've mentioned before, a lot of the features you'll see here were requested by others, including Jellyfin support and Gamut adjustment. I of course throw stuff in myself for things I'd like to see :) So have a look over what's new and try out the latest beta to access them whirligig_v5.7940. New Features · Jellyfin support - W…
Warning, it is best to update before opening Whirligig. VLC loads dll's and because I've updated the VLC plugin, if a previous version of Whirligig was running you might find that the VLC video path doesn't load properly until a restart. If you continue to have issues the previous default release is whirligig_v5.761 and can be found in the betas list Hi Everyone I've been working on a new relea…
Hi Everyone I've been working on a system to allow you to control Whirligig on multiple headsets from your PC or your phone (Android). The reason I've been doing this is that I had a request for being able to control multiple headsets in a museum environment. They wanted to be able to put several people in VR headsets and then set off a video automatically on all headsets at once. I looked into…
Hi Everyone We're in the new year now. Lets see what 202 has in store. Hopefully good things but who knows. So this is the first beta release of the year. It's got some updates based on feedback, bug fixers and I've made a tutorial over the Multi Monitor feature. Updates · Sorting has been improved to match the order that Windows does for alphabetic ordering. · Movement improved to take advanta…
Hi all, Here's the New Year’s update. I've continued to improve the Plex integration, which now allows for remote play with a Plex Pass / subscription, etc. Plex Improvements So the Plex integration (I'm not affiliated with Plex in any way and I'm using their API for integration) is going well. Over the Christmas period I worked on remote play — I was away so it made sense 🙂 — and on some of t…
Hi Everyone I've been working on a final release before Christmas working on updates, bug fixes and anything else that was half done and needed finishing. Well one of those things is the alternative languages. I always intended to release Whirligig in different languages and created a system to easily include new languages. Well that was a long time ago and I was getting friends who spoke those…
\ It’s been a while since the last default update, and I’ve been working hard releasing several betas to get us to this point. This is a massive update that changes the core of how Whirligig runs, alongside some highly requested features. I’ve been holding off on pushing this to default to ensure stability, but after extensive testing in the beta branch, I’m finally releasing these changes to e…
Hi everyone If you've been keeping up with my posts I'm working towards a large default update. This update has been a process of fixing and optimising as much as I could. The one I thought I'd tackle that week was the NETWORK BUTTON. I have been trying to get network support in Whirligig for a very long time. It's a consistently requested feature especially for standalone. My attempts have bee…
Whirligig Update – Major Optimisation and Core Improvements Hi everyone, This is another big update! The main focus this time is on bug fixes , performance improvements , and core system optimisation . I’ve been working hard to polish Whirligig so I can move forward on solid ground. I’ve tested everything thoroughly, but as always, some issues might have slipped through the cracks — so please l…
Hi all, I’m continuing to work on updates, and this beta release includes some major backend improvements. Whirligig has always used Unity’s built-in render engine, but it’s now been upgraded to the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) . This was a major change under the hood, especially with how stereo eye rendering works in VR. Render Engine Updated to URP This update should bring better performan…
Hi Everyone Thanks for all your support. I'm still working hard on updates and the next beta should be another big one but until then this is a small update that hopefully should fix some issues with controllers not appearing on some systems. Update notes Here is a list of the controllers that appear in my controller profiles. A lot of manufacturers will supply profiles for there controllers an…
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. I've been doing extensive testing and releasing beta versions for people to test for a while now. My reluctance to release a new default version in fear of breaking it for users has meant tha…
Hi Everyone I'm now preparing to release this latest version as the default build. Since the last build a couple of weeks ago I've been working on any bugs, testing on different headsets and adding a couple more features. I'll go through this in a little more detail. Bugs and their solutions: Cursor visibility I've spent a long time trying to get the cursor to disappear correct in all circumsta…
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 muc…
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 thi…
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 tr…
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. Explorer · 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…
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 r…
Hi Everyone Another week and another beta. I've continued to work on overall improvements in UI, usability and optimization. I've also wanted to make Whirligig a viable desktop player so I've included some updates relating to that. This also includes bug fixes and probably additional bugs. Please let me know if you come across anything and I'll do my best to fix it. Updates · Set cinema mode to…
Hi everyone After the last release and all the work on the browser I received a couple of comments about Whirligig failing to open. I started examining this issue and discovered on the first run of Whirligig, Whirligig would take a very long time to open while being unresponsive giving the impression that it had crashed. Every time after that Whirligig would open much quicker. So down the rabbi…
I've had a couple of comments regarding it not loading. I've made some changes including moving the permissions thing for networks so that you'll only be asked if you wish to use the network feature. I've also tried to optimise the startup code as it seems to take a long to to start when started for the first time. I'll continue to look at this over the next few days. The new version is Whirlig…
This update should fix the issue with the WMR controllers not mapping properly. Something I've noticed is that the thumbstick buttons open the SteamVR dashboard and appear to be set to be their default. Because of this I've removed these from mapping in Whirligig and indicated that they open the dashboard in the inputs menu. If this isn't desired please let me know. Happy watching Phil
Version 5 is a continuation of the v4 releases. There are multiple updates from the last build with many fixes and a few enhancements. Current details for this release are available as a news post on steam here: A full list of changes from the previous default will be released soon. If you have any issues either email me [email protected] or post on the Steam forum. I hope you enjoy the upda…
Hi Everyone I've been working towards a new default version after all the large updates I've been making over the past few months and I'm now almost ready to push that live. This version needs a bit of testing by you, the users so I don't accidentally break it for everyone. I'm hoping that it won't require too much in the way of confirmation that it's good to release as the majority of the unde…
Hi all Index controller support update. This update includes fixes to the Index controller support. The issue with the index controllers is that the grip is too easy to read as a key press so it appears as if you are always holding down the grip button. This update moves the mapping from the grip to the touchpad on the top. For this fix to work you need to have the index controllers selected in…
Hi Another update with a couple of bug fixes but the main addition is an update to the backgrounds options. So I found a very good equirectangular sky pack and I've include the options from there and in the process updated the background menu to accommodate them and updated the outer glow options to support screen transparency. Here is the new selection: and a few screenshots of it in action: I…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.