VLC Media Player Gets 360-Degree Video Support

VideoLAN's widely-used VLC media player app is getting 360-degree video support. The company launched a new technical preview that lets users play 360-degree videos on Windows and Macs. The VLC 360-degree will be available in technical preview for few more days as the company plans to release an all-new VLC 3.0 by end of this month with all new features.

"With the help of Giroptic, VLC becomes the first major video player app to play 360-degree videos out-of-the-box. VLC 3.0 final release will merge those features on all platforms," notes the company on its website. The company adds that the future releases of VLC with 360 features will be available for Android, iOS, and Xbox One users.

The all-new version of the VLC will be able to play 360-degree videos apart from 360-images. Some of the features of the all-new VLC version include playback of 360 videos following the Spatial Video spec; playback of 360 photos and panoramas following the Spherical spec; display modes with zoom, little planet and reverse little planet, and can be controlled with system's mouse and keyboard. VideoLAN adds that the new media player version is open source and will be available cross-platform while will be accelerated with OpenGL and Direct3D11 for 360-degree features.

"VLC is one of the video players most widely used in the world. We are very proud to contribute our expertise in 360 degree to this open source player. This will allow the millions of VLC users to take full advantage of a promising new technology and be widely involved in its democratisation," said Richard Ollier, Co-Founder and CEO of Giroptic.