HereSphere update v0.10.0 for PC is now available on the HereSphere Steam beta branch. This update adds support for passthrough by using Virtual Desktop's passthrough feature for Quest and Pico headsets. Native PCVR passthrough still isn't supported yet, but will be added with the UE5/OpenXR update.

Passthrough with Virtual Desktop:

• In the Virtual Desktop settings, go to "Streaming", make sure the VR frame rate is set to 90fps or less. Under the "VR Passthrough" settings, enable the checkbox and then click on "Configure". Set the settings to Red: 0, Green: 255, Blue: 0, Similarity: 45, Smoothness: 0.
  
• You can switch to passthrough mode on a global basis (for all videos) by going to the user settings, clicking on the background dropdown box under the environment group, and then select passthrough. If you want to only enable passthrough for the current video, go to the advanced video setting when the video is playing, and then change the background dropdown box under the environment group to passthrough.
  
• By default, the player will color the background green in order for Virtual Desktop to remove the solid green color and replace it with the passthrough feed from the Quest or Pico headset. You can change the default color or disable this option by going to the user settings, and under the environment group, switch the background to "Passthrough", and change the color settings or disable the "Replace Passthrough With Color" toggle.

Chroma key masking:

• Added chroma key masking, which removes parts of an image based on the color (useful for removing green screens for passthrough). To enable chroma key masking, go to the advanced video settings, and under the environment group, change the mask dropdown box to chroma key. Press the cogwheel icon next to the dropdown box to edit the chroma key mask settings. You can define up to three different chroma key colors, a light despill color, and a light injection color. Click on the eyedropper icon to select a color by choosing a location in the image. Pixels that are similar in color to the chroma keys will be made transparent. You can define a cutoff value, soften value, exponent, and spill mask for each chroma key to specify the range of affected pixels. Pixels that are close to the light despill color will have their color adjusted to remove the tint of the despill color. This helps with removing green screen halos and skin tinted by the green screen. After the light despill operation, the color may look unnatural, so the light injection can be used to add color back into the image to make it more natural. For more details, view the tooltips by holding the grip button when hovered over the settings.

Alpha packed masking:

• Added alpha packed masking, which defines the alpha (opacity) of the image by packing it into another region of the image. To enable alpha packed masking, go to the advanced video settings, and under the environment group, change the mask dropdown box to alpha packed. Press the cogwheel icon next to the dropdown box to edit the alpha packed mask settings. The alpha coordinates shift x and shift y settings define the position of the alpha image relative to the normal colored image. The alpha coordinates scale x and scale y settings define the size of the alpha image relative to the normal colored image. For more details, view the tooltips by holding the grip button when hovered over the settings.

HereSphere Web API:

• Added "alphaPackedSettings" and "chromaKeySettings" field, which can be used to load settings for alpha/chroma key masks. Check the HereSphere discord for more details on the HereSphere web API.
  
• Added "hspArray" field, which contains the url of hsp file and the version of the hsp file. Newer hsp files aren't backwards compatible with older HereSphere installations, so the version number is used to determine which hsp file can be read.

Quality of life improvements:

• Added support for local cmscripts used by Connect & Control.
  
• AB Loop times are now saved per video
  
• Added "Toggle AB Loop" keybinding
  
• Searching for tag ratings without a tag name will now match with all tags rather than just tags that have a blank name. For example, searching for ">3" will match with all tags that have a rating greater than 3.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed crash that occurs when pressing the seek keybinding without a video loaded.

HereSphere update v0.9.7 for PC is now available on the Steam beta branch. This update fixes the issue with cubemap projection and background color not being visible.

HereSphere update v0.9.6 for PC is now available on the Steam default branch. This update adds DirectShow playback with support for VapourSynth/Smooth Video Project for realtime motion interpolation and better playback compatibility.

DirectShow:

• To use the DirectShow player backend, download and install the K-Lite Codec Pack, and then go to the HereSphere user settings, and switch the player backend to "DirectShow".
  
• DirectShow offers much better codec compatibility than Media Foundation, so try switching to it if you have playback issues.
  
• In order to use Smooth Video Project with HereSphere, you'll need to setup VapourSynth. Install and update SVP, making sure that VapourSynth is selected for installation. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\SVP 4\avsf, right click the register.bat file, and run as administrator. In the HereSphere user settings, set the "VapourSynth Max Megapixels" setting to the max number of megapixels in a video where you want VapourSynth to be enabled. There are performance penalties for having VapourSynth enabled, so I'd recommend setting it to below 8.4MP. With an RTX4090 and an i9-13900k, I'm able to get 120fps realtime motion interpolation on 4k videos with SVP.
  
• The default audio renderer doesn't support pitch correction with playback speed changes. If you want this feature, download the MPC-BE standalone filters, and then register the MpcAudioRenderer.ax file. Message me on the HereSphere discord channel for an install.bat file you can use to register the filter. This filter has some audio artifacts when playing multiple videos simultaneously, though.
  
• This update is still a work in progress, so please message me if you encounter any issues.
  
• K-Lite Codec Pack: https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
  
• MPC-BE standalone filters: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/files/MPC-BE/Release%20builds/
  
• SVP: https://www.svp-team.com/

Other changes:

• Added script heatmaps. The heatmap opacity can be adjusted in the synchronized peripherals menu.
  
• Added "_SBS" to file name detection, which will set stereo mode to side-by-side (left-right).
  
• Fixed bookmarks menu overflow
  
• Controllers are also hidden when using the "Auto Hide Menu" feature (using grip button to adjust a setting causes menu to automatically be hidden until grip is released).

HereSphere update v0.9.6 for PC is now available on the Steam beta branch. This update adds DirectShow playback with support for VapourSynth/Smooth Video Project for realtime motion interpolation and better playback compatibility.

DirectShow:

• To use the DirectShow player backend, download and install the K-Lite Codec Pack, and then go to the HereSphere user settings, and switch the player backend to "DirectShow".
  
• DirectShow offers much better codec compatibility than Media Foundation, so try switching to it if you have playback issues.
  
• In order to use Smooth Video Project with HereSphere, you'll need to setup VapourSynth. In the SVP menu, go to utilities, then click on "Set environment variables for Vapoursynth" and continue. In the HereSphere user settings, set the "VapourSynth Max Megapixels" setting to the max number of megapixels in a video where you want VapourSynth to be enabled. There are performance penalties for having VapourSynth enabled, so I'd recommend setting it to below 8.4MP. With an RTX4090 and an i9-13900k, I'm able to get 120fps realtime motion interpolation on 4k videos with SVP.
  
• The default audio renderer doesn't support pitch correction with playback speed changes. If you want this feature, download the MPC-BE standalone filters, and then register the MpcAudioRenderer.ax file. Message me on the HereSphere discord channel for an install.bat file you can use to register the filter. This filter has some audio artifacts when playing multiple videos simultaneously, though.
  
• This update is still a work in progress, so please message me if you encounter any issues.
  
• K-Lite Codec Pack: https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
  
• MPC-BE standalone filters: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/files/MPC-BE/Release%20builds/
  
• SVP: https://www.svp-team.com/

Other changes:

• Added "_SBS" to file name detection, which will set stereo mode to side-by-side (left-right).
  
• Fixed bookmarks menu overflow
  
• Controllers are also hidden when using the "Auto Hide Menu" feature (using grip button to adjust a setting causes menu to automatically be hidden until grip is released).

HereSphere update v0.9.4 for PC is now available on the Steam default branch.

Event Server:

• The synchronized peripherals time offset is now applied to the playback event server, so the time reported to the event server is now offset by that value. The minimum reported playback time is 0, so if the time offset is negative and the video opens at time 0, you'll need to toggle play/pause or seek after the video starts for the time offset to properly be applied.
  
• When using the Handy with the playback event server (where scripts are controlled by a third party instead of HereSphere), the synchronized peripherals play/pause toggle and range settings will still work. Manual oscillation or manual pattern mode will also work. When disabling those manual modes, a video open message will be sent to the event server to force it to load the script again. It may take several seconds for the script to resume (toggle pause/play if the script doesn't resume after several seconds).

Quality of life improvements:

• The first and second tag tracks are now shown above the seekbar if there are multiple tags in that track or if the tag doesn't start at time 0. As a reminder, you can scroll each track horizontally by using the scroll keybindings (default is thumbstick up/down).
  
• Added a "Use File Modification Date" toggle to the user settings. When this toggle is enabled, the file explorer will use the file modification time instead of the file creation time as the date. This can be useful if you want to sort files by when they were modified instead of created (like when you copy/paste a file, the creation time changes but the modification time remains the same).
  
• For local files, the video's release date is now set to the file modification time instead of the date the video was added to the media library. To update the dates of videos that have already been added to the media library, you will need to remove the video from the media library and then open the video again.
  
• Time offsets can be favorited by clicking on the star icon next to the time offset input box. You can also cycle through these favorited time offets by using the "Next Peripherals Time Offset" and "Previous Peripherals Time Offset" keybindings.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue with cursor sometimes disappearing when interacting with the synchronized peripherals menu
  
• Fixed some wrong tooltips in the synchronized peripherals menu

HereSphere update v0.9.4 for PC is now available on the Steam beta branch.

Event Server:

• The synchronized peripherals time offset is now applied to the playback event server, so the time reported to the event server is now offset by that value. The minimum reported playback time is 0, so if the time offset is negative and the video opens at time 0, you'll need to toggle play/pause or seek after the video starts for the time offset to properly be applied.
  
• When using the Handy with the playback event server (where scripts are controlled by a third party instead of HereSphere), the synchronized peripherals play/pause toggle and range settings will still work. Manual oscillation or manual pattern mode will also work. When disabling those manual modes, a video open message will be sent to the event server to force it to load the script again. It may take several seconds for the script to resume (toggle pause/play if the script doesn't resume after several seconds).

Quality of life improvements:

• The first and second tag tracks are now shown above the seekbar if there are multiple tags in that track or if the tag doesn't start at time 0. As a reminder, you can scroll each track horizontally by using the scroll keybindings (default is thumbstick up/down).
  
• Added a "Use File Modification Date" toggle to the user settings. When this toggle is enabled, the file explorer will use the file modification time instead of the file creation time as the date. This can be useful if you want to sort files by when they were modified instead of created (like when you copy/paste a file, the creation time changes but the modification time remains the same).
  
• For local files, the video's release date is now set to the file modification time instead of the date the video was added to the media library. To update the dates of videos that have already been added to the media library, you will need to remove the video from the media library and then open the video again.

HereSphere update v0.9.3 for PC is now available on the Steam default branch. This update adds a toggle in the synchronized peripherals menu to control whether HereSphere is able to adjust the device's movement range. If you prefer to use the buttons on the device itself to control the movement range, then you should keep this toggle disabled. If you want to use HereSphere's range controls, then you should enable this toggle.