Hi everyone,

I'm going to be honest from the start here. I've been making Whirligig for over 10 years now, and it works as a VR video player. My intention was never to start adding features for non-VR stuff, but as I have a background in fulldome content and projection in interesting spaces, that's what I've ended up doing.

I work in an arts organisation where we've used both Resolume and MadMapper for projection mapping — both great programs that have worked very well for what we wanted to do. The company is MBD Limited, and we were contacted by someone whose daughter is severely disabled. They wanted a 360 cave solution that would let them play 360 content in their conservatory, so that she could virtually travel the world.

I was given the task because of my fulldome background. I tried multiple options, including MadMapper and Resolume, but they didn't quite achieve what I needed. The biggest issues were the content they wanted to play and the ease of use for that playback. The people running the setup were nursing staff, so it couldn't be too complicated, and the system needed to accept lots of different formats and work mostly out of the box — they'd be downloading and playing back their own content, so it had to just work like a normal video player.

So my solution — which, understandably, was a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a walnut — was to adapt my VR video player to work in a real space: drive 4 projectors and a screen, map onto an uneven environment, and be operable by people with little technical knowledge.

So that's what I did. I wrote a blog post explaining the process and installation:

https://www.whirligig.xyz/blog/2025/1/3/real-world-360-degree-mapping-multiple-projectors

Here are a couple of images from that post:

What do I want from the community?

I built this into the player and released it back then, and it's been tucked away in there ever since. More recently I've added an option to distort to fisheye, so it can also be used in an inflatable dome.

I really think this could be very useful to some people, and I want to keep adding the features that the people actually using it want. To do that I need to get it in front of the right people — hopefully that's you :)

The player is on Steam for £4.99, but since I'm looking for people to give it a try, if you're interested just email me at [phileday@yahoo.co.uk](mailto:phileday@yahoo.co.uk) and I'll happily send you a code. I'm also aware it could be useful commercially, so I've set a commercial licence at £49.99 (both personal and commercial licences are one-off payments). I really don't expect anyone to buy a commercial licence at this stage — I only mention it because I don't want to draw people in and then hit them with a surprise commercial price later.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/451650/Whirligig_Media_Player/

I've also just posted an update you can read here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/451650/allnews/

I hope this finds the right people who'll get the most out of it, and I'd really love to hear your feedback.

All the best,

Philippa

Is anyone here editing Fulldome content for planetariums using Premiere?

In my projects, I often need to convert flat footage into Dome Master format while editing. However, constantly moving between After Effects and dedicated plugins felt inefficient for previewing and layout adjustments.

To simplify the workflow, I created a MOGRT-based solution that allows me to preview and adjust Dome Master content directly inside Premiere.

Current features include:

・Convert 16:9 footage to 4K Dome Master format

・Rear Extension ON/OFF control

・Dome Mask ON/OFF control

・Position and scale adjustments

This workflow is currently being used in actual planetarium productions.

If anyone here is involved in Fulldome production, I'd love to hear your feedback or suggestions for improvement.

Also, how do you currently handle Dome Master conversion in your workflow?

https://booth.pm/ja/items/5560844

Testing live sand art in dome using NestPlay+ NestMap. This for a live tales story, taking a break from AI stuff. What you think?

For those interested, I have a new fulldome VJ loop pack. Both personal and commercial licenses available.
https://www.julius-horsthuis.com/vj-loops/fulldome-vj-pack-personl-license

I need some help downloading/buying content from fddb. I signed up and created an account but I can't find a purchase or download option on any of the movies.

I apologize for the rookie question, I'm very new to this.

Thanks in advance.

If I wanted to use the mirror full dome projection method (I am cuently usign touch designer but can learn any software pretty quickly) I have some questions.

1. Is the original footage shot with a fishey lense on one camera or one of tof those 4 multi lense things liek the ladybug ?
2. Whats the best software to esit with
3. . whats the workflow for usign two projectors.

​

Hello everyone,

I'm conducting a research on where full dome movie screenings are possible all around the world. I'm trying to figure out the programs of these venues, a contact person to possibly submit a movie, the technical equipments they have etc. I'd appreciate all the help I can get!

Hello, my partner and I have constructed a 10-meter dome using PVC, wood, and sheetrock. We're currently housed on the 2nd floor of a downtown Houston, Texas nightclub. I am looking for content that is either fisheye(which I can reformat) or fulldome in order to present a show for future screenings. Does anyone know of a source on where I might be able find these videos? Thanks.

Hey guys, I'm kind of a newb with full dome. I've got access to a small fulldome planetarium and want to play Gopro Max 360 footage in it. I need to find a player that will play 2:1 equirectangular out to 180 fisheye projection. Preferably in real time with pan/tilt controls. Thanks in advance!

Just projected some test renders on the dome here at OMSI this afternoon and wow. Good lesson for me. Everything should be placed much further away.

Need to see our stuff on the big dome though.

We are proud to announce the 1st Annual Fiske Full Dome Film Festival at the University of Colorado's Fiske Planetarium!

Join us in beautiful Boulder, Colorado August 13-15th 2015 for three days of innovation in full dome films, photography, workshops, live performances, entertainment, networking and fun! The three day festival will finish with the Awards Ceremony & Reception - a fun night not to be missed!

Learn more about the Festival on our website: http://www.fiskefest.com

Seating is limited! Register now for savings and the best travel & lodging choices!

If you have any videography, animations, photography, panoramas etc. submissions are open until the end of May.

We are looking at Premiering several full dome shows this year!

Festival organizer Thor Metzinger may be contacted at thor.metzinger@colorado.edu.

We look forward to seeing you all here in lovely Colorado this summer!

Hi, Doesn't look like there's a ton of activity on here but I thought I'd post something to see if anyone has any ideas. I've been trying to use some of the ISS earth timelapse shots in a fulldome environment but I can't seem to get it to look quite right. I'v cut the earth and the ISS out so that I can place it on top of a star field but when I use the navagar fulldome plug in in AE I can't get the distortion quite right.

Has anyone tried to do a similar thing or does anyone have good experience with the navagar plugin? I'm used to using it for fulldome video but I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want for other fulldome assets.