The technical preview of the latest VLC media 3.0 desktop app was released on Saturday with support for an entirely new medium: the 360-degree video. VLC has earned noticeable popularity among consumers as one of the top media players available, since it’s able to play basically any video format on practically any platform without the need for installing additional codecs.

The addition of 360-degree support to its mobile apps is the result of a joint collaboration between VLC’s creators VideoLan and 360-degree camera developer Giroptic. With it, VLX can display photos, panoramas, and videos which users can play using either a mouse or a keyboard.

 “VLC is one of the video players most widely used in the world,” said Richard Ollier, co-founder and CEO of Giroptic. “This will allow the millions of VLC users to take full advantage of a promising new technology and be widely involved in its democratization.”

Dedicated VLC versions for virtual reality (VR) headsets like Oculus Rift and Google Daydream are expected to appear next year and on Windows-based devices like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift too, as confirmed by Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the lead developers behind VLC. He further added that his team is already busy working on the spatial 3D audio necessary for implementing VLC on VR headsets.

The latest versions of  VLC media player for Windows (7 and upward) and macOS (10.10 and upward) machines are available for download on their official website absolutely free. VLC version 3.0 will soon be rolled out for Android, iOS and Xbox One as well.

“Mobile versions will use the phone sensors to navigate inside the videos,” notes on the technical preview website said.

VLC version 3.0 is expected to make its official public appearance on November 30, 2016. You can get the Windows build here and the macOS build here, but stay cautious as the technical previews can often be buggy.

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