VR cameras and videos

[manux]

Let's discuss about vr cameras and 3d vr videos. What are your favorite clips? Will there be whole new generation of youtubers making money out of vr videos? What are the movie experiences feeling pleasant and would an action 3d vr clip be the ultimate hangover cure? What would be the challenges for 3d vr content?

For starters I'll try to list the in market/nearly in the market vr cameras I know of. I'm sure there are many more but these are the ones I for one reason or another have noticed.

Vuze seems like the likeliest camera a hobbyist might buy. Preorder price of 799$, small size and 360x180 degree 3d vr video seems like a winner. I can easily imagine packing this in and shooting some really nice videos when I'm up and about.

http://vuze.camera/

Another attainable camera seems to be sphericam v2. true 360 3d vr camera on a very small package. Will hopefully ship this year and cost somewhere around 2500$

http://www.sphericam.com/

In the unattainable space there is the nokia ozo 360 3d vr camera. With price of ~60000$ it is definitely something of a unicorn. It seems that at there are users for it though

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/1...or-vr-to-create-extraordinary-experiences.htm

I'm also wondering if some movies could be made with real time 3d rendering. It might really change how movies are if you could roam inside the movie to some extent. Imagine for example a hercule poirot tv series episode rendered inside a roomscale vr experience.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/05/09/studio-ghibli-vr-rift-vive/

http://www.foovr.com/

 

[eastmen]

I am more interested in 180 degree 3D camcorder for my home back ups. None of the 360 degree stuff looks like it will work for recording families and vacations.

 

[Arwin]

I am definitely interested but only by the time you can get good quality for about 400 or so I think. It is not something you can always use for everything for sure. Also I don't know how well they all do 3D yet, I am not interested in 360 degrees in 2D

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Do these camera's even work? I'm guessing the experience is like looking at a sphere as there's no 2D. And I've no idea how stereoscopic 360 degrees can be captured becuase youd need stereocameras in every configuration. I supose it'll take a few stereo cmaeras and a lot of clever processing to tween interrim positions.

I think VR experiences really need to be real-time. Could be a major push for realtime rendering. Cannes apparently has a lot of VR this year.

 

[manux]

Do these camera's even work? I'm guessing the experience is like looking at a sphere as there's no 2D. And I've no idea how stereoscopic 360 degrees can be captured becuase youd need stereocameras in every configuration. I supose it'll take a few stereo cmaeras and a lot of clever processing to tween interrim positions.

I think VR experiences really need to be real-time. Could be a major push for realtime rendering. Cannes apparently has a lot of VR this year.

I agree that there is much more possibilities with realtime rendering. Especially if it's combined with roomscale tracking.

Those videos work. The pattern in which they place cameras mimicks human eye and typically each camera captures up to 180 degree. At least the nokia one also has array of microphones mimicking human ear placement. There always is some overlap in cameras so 4 cameras is not enough to capture 360 3d vr in good quality. Typically there is 8 or more cameras to capture 360 3d vr. 180 degree 3d vr is trivial and usually done with 2 cameras with side by side or up and down encoding. 360 3d videos are still rather new and there isn't optimal codec out there. Even simple sounding things like storing and rendering proper 360 audio is a new art.

Good clips are really good to the point where your brains says this is real. There also are not so good captures, especially in the adult world of vr. The typical artifacts are various kinds of distortions or errors in scale. I guess using fish eye lense doesn't help for the distortions. Multiple camera solutions might produce better results but with more expensive hardware and more stitching work on post process.

For playing back videos this app is best I have found: http://www.whirligig.xyz/ The free version works fine and supports most if not all things that are out there. whirligig is written in unity and works on rift and vive.

Edit. To add about the artifacts at least the clips I have seen tilting head breaking videos especially in 180 3d clips. Tilting head causes 3d effect to rapidly disappear and picture to be distorted. Picture only works for straight head rotations(vertical, horisontal). Not sure if this is the case for all cameras as I have seen only some clips for some cameras. Could also be issue on video players/encoding/decoding needing something special.

 

[manux]

Looks like google wants a piece of they pie too:

Google's Clay Bavor revealed at the company's developer conference that Hollywood was fascinated by JUMP too -- that's why Google's working on a cinema-quality 3D camera rig in partnership with IMAX.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/19/google-imax-3d-camera/

 

[SiaGarcia]

I am the fun of Sphericam, which is very professional 360º video camera that records in 4K.
You can capture everything around you with Sphericam.

 

[milk]

You are it?

 

[manux]

Collection of recent news about vr video

Valve revealed that it was to bring its own solution for the delivery of immersive video content to its content portal Steam. It’s partnering with video streaming specialists Pixvana and Akamai to deliver an adaptive 360 video streaming system that’s capable of delivering what it claims to be 8k-10k resolution video quality via the same bandwidth as a 1080p stream.

http://www.roadtovr.com/steam-to-get-high-quality-adaptive-360-video-streaming/

The actual format of the broadcasts, according to Keens, will be heavily produced. Viewers will find themselves moving between eight strategically placed camera positions. An in-house director will alter the positioning in real time as the game progresses to ensure that you will always have the optimal viewpoint to catch all of the action.

“People may say they want to be able to choose their positions at will,” Keens said. “But in our tests we found that they actually rarely use that ability when offered to them. In general, people don’t want to make decisions like that when watching a game. They just want to enjoy the experience without missing anything.”

http://uploadvr.com/nextvr-broadcasting-nba-weekly/

which vr camera should you get?

Lastly, custom camera rigs are another option for those filmmakers wanting a specific set of benefits not fulfilled by any off-the-shelf solutions. For a recent shoot, I opted to use a custom rig of five RED Weapon cameras in order to capture content at 10K resolution and 60 FPS. The higher your resolution, the better the content will look in a VR headset, something to keep in mind when deciding on a camera system.

http://www.roadtovr.com/choosing-the-right-360-vr-camera/

On other news some vr porn sites are promising psvr compatibility in near future. Not sure if that really happens or if they are just trying to fish for more customers. At least the higher end vr porn sites have sorted out camera issues. There no longer is significant scale, distortion, camera positioning etc. problems in good content. Some sites still don't get it and the content is worse than horrible.

 

[manux]

NFL announced an exclusive deal with Google to produce a series of VR videos focused on the NFL that will launch this Thanksgiving Day on YouTube, and eventually on the Google Daydream platform. The exact tenants of this partnership aren’t clear, but it sounds like the series will not appear on other video services such as Within and Samsung VR, or other devices natively, such as the Rift, Vive, or Gear VR. However, it’s worth pointing out that YouTube videos can easily be downloaded and/or accessed on other headsets anyway.

http://uploadvr.com/nfl-google-vr-series/

 

[manux]

Seriously cool

Here’s where things get really cool. Just as I was getting used to my surroundings I was instructed to take a step. As I did so the world stayed exactly where it should while I started to move. For the first time in my life I was walking through a 360-degree video and I couldn’t help but smile. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the occasional blur or glitch, I would have believed I was truly standing in this indoor arboretum.

https://uploadvr.com/facebook-surround-360-x24-hands-on/

https://uploadvr.com/facebook-otoy-volumetric-camera/

 

[Deleted member 13524]

In the unattainable space there is the nokia ozo 360 3d vr camera. With price of ~60000$ it is definitely something of a unicorn. It seems that at there are users for it though

Nokia has since brought the price down to $40 000, and people apparently can apply for a program to pay only $25000.
It doesn't make much difference though, because apparently the camera's image quality is ass.

Here's the demo footage Nokia themselves put up on youtube:

 

[manux]

Now I'm very envious at samsung owners. I so wish I had ufc on vr for oculus rift... Though this is pretty niche inside niche

The first broadcast will be a UFC clash between José Aldo and Max Holloway. The featherweight bout will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 3rd, and mark the first time a UFC fight has been live-streamed in VR. Samsung will then shift to the X Games in Minneapolis for some live BMX and skateboard coverage starting on July 13th. With the likes of Jimmy Wilkins, Chad Kerley and Jagger Eaton, you can expect some, like, totally gnarly backflips and 5-O grinds. Finally, the Gear VR pass will cover a live music concert with a yet-to-be-announced artist in August.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/30/samsung-gear-vr-live-pass-sports-music/