Future development is discussed on the Headjack Roadmap Trello board
Apr 5, 2023
- Complete server migration of the Headjack CMS, including:
- Dedicated server instance for Headjack CMS hosting and databases
- Dedicated server instance for Headjack app analytics handling
- Dedicated server instance for Headjack Cloud Build handling
- Dedicated server instance for legacy Cinema functionality
- Much improved performance of the Headjack CMS pages
- Much improved stability of the Headjack CMS
- Improved stability and faster Cloud Builds
- Updated server software and libraries for improved performance and security hardening
Dec 20, 2022
- Huge update to Headjack SDK 5.3 (Learn how to migrate from SDK 4.x.x here)
- SDK updated to latest Unity 2021.3 LTS
- SDK updated to latest VR platform SDKs, with support for Meta Quest Pro, Pico 4/Neo 3, Vive Focus 3/Focus Plus
- Updated and improved compatibility with the app stores, including Apple App Store, Oculus Quest Store and Google Play Store
- Improved structure of Headjack SDK in Unity game engine to allow easier development and customization
- Improved loading of app menus with many projects and thumbnails (further improvements to come soon)
- Improved offline mode so it works with more device configurations
- Improved accuracy of analytics data gathered during offline sessions
- Many smaller improvements and bug fixes
Aug 25, 2022
- Completely overhauled Headjack Get Started page with many more learning resources
- Released Headjack 101 Lessons, consisting of 7+ articles explaining all Headjack systems in fantastic detail (also coming soon in video form)
Aug 9, 2022
- Added dedicated Studio(+) plan pricing page with new pricing options including custom bundles
- Headjack users can now upgrade to the standard Studio plan themselves for as low as $99/mo*
- Migrated the legacy Cinema remote control web interface to new server architecture for improved reliability
- Various styling improvements to the Headjack CMS
* see Studio pricing page for details
Jul 11, 2022
- Overhauled email backend architecture for improved reliability and security
- Redesigned automated system emails to better inform Headjack users of account status
- Various styling improvements to Headjack website
Jun 14, 2022
- Improved analytics backend architecture for improved network performance and stability
- Migrated Headjack website to entirely new server architecture for much improved performance
- Various smaller server optimizations for improved stability
May 10, 2022
- Fix Offline Mode on Android with certain configurations
- Fix occasional crash in Operator when switching video
- Fix network connectivity check with specific network configurations on all platforms
- Updated Headjack Link app on multiple app stores
Jan 11, 2022
- Freshened up the style of various CMS pages
- Entirely redesigned the onboarding flow for new users
- Improved the tutorials and account progress indicators in the CMS
- Massive improvements to video streaming on Android-based devices, with much better initial video quality and faster switching to higher quality (if connection permits)
- Fixed issue with Quest 2 not always being recognized as a separate platform (from Quest 1)
- Various smaller fixes and improvements
Nov 9, 2021
- Released the Headjack Link app for Android phones/tablets, iPhones and iPads, download here!
- Huge update to video encoding and playback preferences!
- With Transcode Profiles you can now configure exactly how every video is displayed on every individual platform, like allowing only streaming video on Android/iOS and only downloading the original video file on Quest 2
- The Headjack CMS will now transcode your videos up to the maximum resolution of our supported platforms, like transcoding to 8K 60 FPS on Quest 2
- Improved the quality of downloaded video (when using transcoding) by increasing the maximum bitrate to 85 Mbit/s
- Streaming video resolution and quality have also improved, up to 5.2K 30 FPS or 4K 60 FPS and with new higher bitrates up to 32 Mbit/s
- Streaming video now supports more configurations, like as an alternative to downloading the original video or as the only option
- These video preferences can now also be changed after the initial upload, just click on one of your videos on the Content page to have a look
- Improved the perceived quality of flat video in VR headsets, by better matching the video resolution to the headset resolution
- On Android, granting the external storage permission is no longer required when first launching your app (in most cases)
- The comfort of viewing monoscopic immersive video has been improved by setting a better default projection distance, this distance can now also be customized on a per-project basis
- New Headjack Unity SDK 4.0.3 with full support for the new Transcode Profiles
- Allow developers to access more Project metadata, like the project’s creation date
- NOTE: Updating an existing app with a new cloud build that uses SDK version 4 may result in previously downloaded content getting removed, requiring you to re-download your projects
- NOTE: it is still possible to add new videos to previously built apps, just take a look at the Legacy Apps platform when configuring your videos
- New limits have been introduced for users with a Free plan; the Free plan is limited to 100 total views, offline mode is unavailable and uploaded videos can only be configured for one platform. Upgrade to a Pro plan to remove these limits entirely. More information on the Pricing page
Apr 30, 2021
- Prices cut by up to 50%!
- Pro plan gives you more than ever, like unlimited white-label apps
- Check the new Pricing page for all the details
- Fixed Cardboard lens distortion on latest iPhone models
- Fixed rare case of incorrect video orientation on phones
- Fixed cases of offline mode not starting during app initialization
Mar 29, 2021
- Released the Headjack Link app on the Oculus App Lab for Quest (2)
- Replaced background download library on Android platforms for better performance
- Make Headjack Unity SDK and (cloud build) apps compatible with all Oculus App Lab technical and usage requirements
- Improve compatibility and performance on Oculus Quest 2
- Fixed rare case of app not loading when using the Packaged Content cloud build feature
Feb 16, 2021
- Updated Headjack Operator tablet app to the latest Headjack SDK and include support for standard/flat video formats
- New and updated support articles in our Knowledge Base
- Added SDK function to allow the app to continue playing video while it is not currently in focus (disabled by default)
- Fixed recentering of immersive video view on Cardboard platforms
- Improved support for apps with a very large number of video projects
Dec 16, 2020
- Large update to the Headjack Unity SDK documentation
- Added SDK property to check if video is available as adaptive (live) stream, for best video streaming performance
- Fixed rare case of controllers not tracking on app startup on SteamVR platform
Nov 17, 2020
- Improved the performance and fixed issues with video looping, allowing more seamless looping of a downloaded video
- Fixed issue with displaying of videos with a custom field of view (e.g. 180º video)
- Various smaller bug fixes
- Updated Headjack SDK to version 3.2.9
- Updated Headjack Link and Headjack Operator apps in the app stores to the latest Headjack SDK
- Added more resources to the ever growing Headjack Knowledge Base
Oct 15, 2020
For template developers: this update will require a template update; to the new Headjack SDK 3.2.3 and Unity 2019.4.12f1 LTS (more info)
- Migrated the Headjack SDK for Unity and Headjack Cloud Build to the latest Unity long term support version (2019.4 LTS)
- Released Knowledge Base, combining our existing and new documentation on a structured and searchable page
- Added support for uploading and viewing Standard / Flat videos on a large virtual screen in VR or full screen on smartphones
- Added support for Oculus Quest 2, including up to 8k resolution support
- Included the ability to upload stereoscopic standard format videos to view in 3D on the virtual screen in VR
- Completely overhauled the Headjack SDK for Unity, to use the new Unity XR Plugin system and Unity package system for (VR) SDKs
- Updated to the latest Oculus XR Plugin, SteamVR SDK, Audio360 SDK, Pico SDK and a great Cardboard VR SDK
- Increased render resolution on Oculus mobile platforms (Quest, Quest 2, Go) for slightly increased video quality at higher video resolutions
- Fixed and improved compatibility with multiple app stores, including support for the latest OS versions like iOS 14 and Android 11 and building 64-bit apps on all platforms
- Now using Unity Video Player on Windows and iOS, replacing outdated and proprietary third-party video player plugins
- Streaming video support on Windows and iOS now handled by AVProVideo, which is included with every app built with Headjack Cloud Build
- Headjack SDK 3.2.3 supports building locally for iOS in Unity, for testing purposes
- Discontinued the Gear VR, Wave VR and Daydream VR platforms due to lack of official support or lack of use
- Oculus Go support will continue until the end of 2020, after which the platform will be deprecated and support is not guaranteed
Apr 23, 2020
- Added ability to retrieve download progress of individual media to Headjack SDK
- Fixed field of view not always being consistent between platforms when watching video on mobile devices without VR
Feb 10, 2020
- Added full controller rendering support for Oculus Quest / Rift S
- Fixed some button mapping issues with specific VR SDK versions
- Various smaller fixes and improvements to Headjack Unity SDK
Jan 13, 2020
- Fixed rare issue with Google sign-up to CMS
- Various small style and alignment fixes on CMS pages
- Updated iOS Cloud Building to support new App Store requirements
- Added initial SDK support for self-hosted app content
Nov 29, 2019
- Improved clarity of Pricing page
- Improved subscription checkout flow and clarity
- Various smaller bug fixes and improvements
Nov 7, 2019
- Massively improved download stability on Android with sub-optimal internet connections
- Various smaller fixes and improvements
Oct 28, 2019
- Improved stability of Operator app by always playing 1080p video on tablet
- Improved playback sync performance of Operator and VR apps
- Fixed spatial audio artifacts occurring under some very specific conditions
Sep 6, 2019
- Added media preview and overview to media select menu in CMS
- Overhauled video encoding options menu in CMS
- Fixed spatial audio error on latest iOS version
Aug 8, 2019
- Improved system emails
- Added ability to detect Oculus Quest as separate platform in SDK
- Updated all third-party libraries in SDK
- Multiple bug fixes
Jul 27, 2019
- Launch Headjack Operator app to tablet app stores
- Launch Headjack Link app to VR app stores
Jul 1, 2019
- Change default template to Essential All-in-one
- Add support for offline analytics caching
- Small bug fixes and improvements
May 3, 2019
- Show white label logo based on domain name
- Added input fields to FOV settings
- Fixed uploading MKV files
- Improved iframe layout
- Fixed reset project name after adding new category
- Various fixes and improvements
Apr 1, 2019
- Added Pico as build platform
- Added white label logo for paid plans
- Added programmatic user creation
- Added iframe domain masking functionality
Mar 12, 2019
- Added folder structure feature
- Improved project edit flow from app edit page
- Moved per-project template variables to project edit modal
- Various small fixes
Mar 5, 2019
- Fix for media uploads with file names including special characters
- Performance improvements
- Show warning before leaving edit pages without saving
- Style improvements to lock feature
- Various small fixes
Feb 26, 2019
- Added embeddable WebVR player and embeddable heatmap to Project Edit page
- Added lock feature to prevent projects and media from accidentally being edited or deleted
- Increased thumbnail generation speed and remove image size limit
- Lazy load certain large and infrequently needed libraries to improve page loading time
- Improved template variables modals
- Several bugfixes
Jan 31, 2019
- Massive UI overhaul to allows apps to be built in way less steps and with more explanation
- Added installation modals with detailed installation steps per platform
- Show builds list on app page
- Allow Free users who exceeded their capacity limit to still upload small (<30MB) files
- Improve page loading times (e.g. by using 8-bit PNGs as thumbnails)
- Several bug fixes
- Improved error handling in VRsideloader
Jan 29, 2019
- Fix stereo mode not always saved correctly when uploading video
Jan 21, 2019
- Implemented Vive Wave, adding support for Vive Focus and Pico headsets
- Improved platform select dropdown
- Made platform IDs human-readable
- Improved analytics logic
Jan 8, 2019
- Increased upload speed dramatically (up to 75x if uploading from SSD)
- Increased speed of saving and of starting a build by using queues
Dec 11, 2018
- Simplified & optimized signup process
- Removed “Apply” buttons to prevent confusion and unintended redirects when saving
November 26, 2018
- Lowered price of Pro plan to $99/mo
- Added support for custom FOV videos
- Added support for left/right stereo
- Added QR codes to builds page for easier installation on mobile
- Added option to change name of media items
- Added button to download the original file uploaded by users from the media view page
- Retain original name of uploaded file
- Make file and project names more readable by giving them more space in the UI
- Fix bug with OBBs that have a version number > 1
- Fix analytics bug related to Oculus Go
- Several small bug fixes and improvements
October 23, 2018
- Launched new frontend for Headjack with more info and easier access to resources.
July 23, 2018
- Added a Cinema Control page, allowing users to give access to Cinema controls for a single app without having to grant access to their entire Headjack account. A link to the Cinema Control page of an app can be found at the bottom of the app’s page.
May 29, 2018
- Fixed incorrect bundle ID verification for iOS
- Fixed builds remaining in queued status even though they had already finished building
- Small bug fixes
May 24, 2018
- Added support for Oculus Go builds
- Set Oculus audio device as default, as per Oculus Store requirements
- Added option to give a name to a stream on the Media page
- Added exit survey
- Added admin option to delete all of a user’s data to comply with GDPR
May 17, 2018
- Added support for streaming spatial audio in AmbiX format
- Changed encodes for all platforms to HEVC
- Reduced encoding time by a factor of 3
- Increased playback resolution on iOS devices to 4K
- Improved adaptive streaming on all platforms
- Improved sync between video and spatial audio by implementing latest Facebook Spatial Decoder (v1.50)
May 11, 2018
- Added privacy policy and terms of service to registration form to comply with the GDPR law
- Added improved onboarding tour
- Added FAQ behind ? button
- Added thank you page after signing up
- Added account setup progress on Dashboard
- Added links to resources on Dashboard
- Added links to tutorials on App Signing page
- Small fixes and textual changes
March 9, 2018
- Fixed resolution selection during playback of odd sized videos
February 15, 2018
- Added organization name to signup form for improved account initialization
- Added ability to change email address
- Added tooltip for long media names in media list and project edit
- Small fixes on to modals and emails
- Implement ExoPlayer as Android player to support fMP4 and DASH
January 23, 2018
- Added example content to new accounts
- Added introduction video on Cinema page
- Small fixes on checkout and billing pages
January 18, 2018
- Improved CDN caching at edge locations to further improve streaming and downloading speeds
January 11, 2018
- Removed watermarks in apps when on a Free plan
- Added dedicated checkout pages
- Added support for payment through PayPal
- Unlocked Cinema feature for all accounts
- Free plan is limited to controlling 1 device simultaneously
- Pro plan is limited to controlling 3 devices simultaneously
- Updated Dark Galaxy template now that everyone can use Cinema
- Changed Cinema workflow to require re-activating Cinema for an app every 72 hours
- Improved handling of media upload failures by automatically retrying uploads
- Improved performance of Template pages
- Added emails for nearing or hitting bandwidth limits when using a Free plan
- Small performance and layout improvements on various pages
December 04, 2017
- Removed microphone and call permissions
- Heatmaps now run at 60fps and show smoother animations
- Updated Oculus SDK to 1.20
- Fixed an issue with the app.json
- Updated minimum Android SDK for Gear VR to 21, to meet Oculus Store requirements
- Fixed Gear VR app signing for store builds
November 24, 2017
- Reduced load time of the App pages by up to 60%
- Reduced video transcoding time by up to 30%
- Added support for viewing HLS stream media on the Project page
- Fixed sorting App and Project lists by session/view count and average duration columns
- Improved performance when sorting App and Project lists
- Various layout and style improvements
November 07, 2017
- Added Hollywood template
- Adapt Try Pro for Free link to new price plans
November 03, 2017
- Added battery level and device temperature indicators to Cinema feature
October 20, 2017
- Updated Headjack and templates to Unity 2017
- Fixed several issues with iOS builds
- Fixed issues with Daydream app icon and controller
October 10, 2017
- Added annual price plans
September 5, 2017
- Improved template variables from just strings to multiple different types, as well as the ability to set variables per project instead of only per app
- Improved UHD Zencoder settings for mobile devices, specifically for Samsung S7 and Daydream phones
- Added onboarding tour
August 29, 2017
- Improved payouts for affiliates and template creators using PayPal MassPay
- Added advanced options to set build- and version numbers
- Added option to delete credit card when on a Free account
- Several layout fixes
August 14, 2017
- Improved layout on mobile devices
- Fixed displaying of correct price after applying coupon
- Added warning emails when credit card cannot be charged
- Added tutorial video to Cinema page
- Refactored code
July 3, 2017
- Small bug fixes
June 12, 2017
- Launched Cinema feature to control multiple VR devices at a distance
May 12, 2017
- Added “Try Pro for Free” link
- It is now possible to add a YouTube video to a template page
- Updated “Print” template
- Added “Parallax” Cardboard template
- Added follow-up CRM features
May 1, 2017
- Added support for Google Daydream
- Added support for UHD @ 60fps playback on Oculus, VIVE and Daydream
- Added feature to package video files up to 2GB inside the app
- Fixed sorting and pagination of projects in app
- Better Zencoder error reporting
- Added animation tools for Headjack templates
- Added support for Oculus Touch & Daydream controllers
- Performance improvements
April 4, 2017
- Plan charge and additional charges are now merged into a single invoice
- Several improvements around payments and switching between plans
- Fixed video artefacts in black scenes
- Improved VP9 encoding quality
- Fixed errors when saving Account Settings when current password was autofilled by browser
March 31, 2017
- 20-fold (!!) page-loading speed improvement of the website
- Fixed bug when adding projects to apps
- Fixed bug with selecting app signing credentials
- Added blur tool for Unity UIs
- Fixed reset password URL
- Fixed bug with adding or replacing credit card
- Fixed 403 errors for non-existing images
- Improved downloading of invoices from Billing Info page
- Fixed display of average session/view duration
- Added check for valid osig files
- Add video to project even if video is still processing
March 17, 2017
- Added NSCameraUsageDescription key for iOS store builds
- Added option to disable mipmaps for downloaded textures
- Thumbnails now display in original aspect ratio in CMS
- Revamped Marketplace UI
- Added 2 new templates to the Marketplace
- Fixed spatial audio bug on Windows
- Added new video sphere for better monoscopic playback
March 13, 2017
- Fixed UI upload bar when uploading multiple files
- Fixed unique views and average session duration analytics
- Performance improvements
March 3, 2017
- Several UI improvements
- Small bug fixes
- Added chat support widget
February 28, 2017
- Launch Headjack 2.0
- Completely re-written CMS backend for better performance and faster content delivery
- Completely re-written Unity project to support standalone app building directly from the Unity editor
- Added “skip encoding” option for Agency and Enterprise accounts
- Improved encoding settings
- Improvements to Headjack Unity API and performance of apps
January 16, 2017
- Public launch of Headjack
- Fully functioning analytics and heatmaps
- Added Key/Value pairs to Templates for further customization
- Added affiliate program and support for paid templates
- Significantly improved the performance of our apps, especially Gear VR
- Improved encoding settings for 360 videos
- And countless other fixes and improvements
December 8, 2016
- Added support for Splash image to App add/edit page
- Fixed issues when uploading large files
- Fixed issues with Safari
- Added full-page drag & drop functionality on Media page
- Several fixes for analytics
- Improved video encoding
- Fixed uploading of custom templates
- Improvements to default templates
- We no longer force monoscopic content in Free apps
- Added project duration, project file size and app background skybox to template API
- Added fade to templates and API
- Added Access Management functionality so you can invite developers to your account
- Swipe & zoom in full-screen video in Cardboard apps
- Fixed long build times with Unity Cloud Build
- Fixed issues where app builds failed or remained pending forever
- You can now cancel builds
- Added support for paid templates, so you can actually earn some cash money with your creations
- Improved the user interface of the Headjack CMS
- And much, much more!
November 9, 2016
- Added support for up to 8k video uploads
- Added a workaround for Unity Cloud Build failing with shader compile errors when building Android or iOS apps
- Fixed incorrect MIME type for video uploads
- Fixed the Vive menu and added Vive controllers
- Fixed issue with uploading multiple files simultaneously
- Fixed Template uploading and editing
- Fixed Facebook and Google login
October 27, 2016
- Closed beta launch of Headjack