My Gopro 3+ Black 180 degree stereo rig

Hi mediavr, I am very eager to know how you make your stereo movie using gopro3 camera? As far as I know, the video creation process would be:
1. Extract every single frame from captured video stream.
2. Use PTGUI or some program similiar to do the stitch parameter estimation, and batch process all the frames.
3. Re-generate the video files from the stitched images.
I would like to know whether there exist some tools can handle these steps more intelligently.....

"mediavr" wrote:
Here is a 180 equirectangular stereo movie done with a twin Gopro 3+ Black rig
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gslyccr43c8whwy/eveleighmarkets.mp4

In VR Player under Media you need to set Format to Side by Side and Projection to Dome

Until recently there was no way to get good synchronization reliably with recent Gopros for stereo but there is now a sync cable you can buy from http://3dguy.tv/ which works well. I am not sure if the concept behind it can be extended to work with more than 2 cameras

Basically my rig for this video looks like this http://www.mediavr.com/gopro3plusfisheyestereorig.jpg
with replacement Sunex lenses to get about 180 by 150 degree coverage on the 1920 by 1440 format on the Gopros

It is very simple to shoot 3d for the Rift with this because all you need to do is hold the camera level and point it generally in the right direction.

For more accurate composition I can plug a Gopro LCD Backpak into the cable or I can plug a 7" monitor into the HDMI socket of one or other of the Gopros -- I have this one
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FEELWORLD-7-TFT-LCD-HDMI-Monitor-FW678-HD-O-W-Sun-Shield-Shoe-Mount-f-Camera-/141125167872?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item20dbb72b00&_uhb=1

With two LCD Backpaks connected you can get stereo previewing of the video if you arrange some optics (spare Rift lenses maybe).

I'm still working on Gopro stuff. Finally the Gopro sync kit for Gopro 3+ black is available from Gopro directly (but not in shops yet).
http://www.stereoscopynews.com/hotnews/3d-cinema/shooting-cameras-rigs/3693-gopro-dual-hero-housing-and-sync-cable-are-available.html

I got mine yesterday -- aka the Dual Hero System. It gives sync for all video modes, stills and time lapse stills. I have been working a lot with gimbal stabilizer tech -- see the thread in this subsection. It makes me think you can video moving around much more and still be able to watch Gopro 3d in the Rift comfortably if it is steady enough.

Re workflows. The most recent description in this thread about "morph to fit" vertical disparity removal in PTGui is I am afraid not really applicable to Rift processing Ive decided (though it is good to use for showing equirectangular panoramic stereo on 3d tvs etc). I think PTGui plus After Effects is still the way to go though. The main thing is to use standard PTGui (or Hugin) optimization to get distant areas of L and R equirectangulars aligned very exactly (vertically and horizontally) and not worry about vertical alignment for closer foreground areas . The reason being that when you take those equirectangulars and view them in VR Player as rectilinear views say then those same views in rectilinear perspective have good alignment close and far - if they are not yawed too much to the left or right. With a 180 equirectangular pair there are more basic issues preventing good alignment in views much to the L or R especially up and down views. It is hard to demonstrate these issues online without making anaglyph versions and most people dont have anaglyph glasses.

I will write a detailed list of my current PTGui/After Effects workflow steps soon.

Here is an example of the Gopro Dual Hero System (with my Sunex equipped Gopros and using my gimbal stabilizer).

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/25xwuq/gopro_dual_hero_system_now_available_good_for/

It is really great to be able finally to rely on very perfect sync for fast action subjects (dancing here)!

Hi,

Based on this very interesting thread, I have a few questions as I'm a bit new to this. I just purchased the dual hero system so that I can sync my two gopro hero 3+'s. My main question is...does having the two 180 fisheye lenses and steady camera moves using a gimbal enough to make the 3D video feel immersive in the oculus or do I really have to find a way to stitch everything together using panoramic equipment on a tripod.

Any advice you can give would be wonderful,

Thanks,
Elli

"eraynai" wrote:
Hi,

Based on this very interesting thread, I have a few questions as I'm a bit new to this. I just purchased the dual hero system so that I can sync my two gopro hero 3+'s. My main question is...does having the two 180 fisheye lenses and steady camera moves using a gimbal enough to make the 3D video feel immersive in the oculus or do I really have to find a way to stitch everything together using panoramic equipment on a tripod.

Any advice you can give would be wonderful,

Thanks,
Elli

Also new to this but I'll try to answer based on my understanding so far... the two 180 fisheye lenses will work to give you presence in a single direction, however, without the correction for the distortion, you won't get a perfect 1:1 mapping of real world to rift. However, you should still be able to get a good sense of presence.

I'm currently working on a 3D video player and am able to map both a single fisheye video and full 360 video (4 fisheyes stitched together) to a dome in Unity. If anyone here is able to get some 3D fisheye footage, I would appreciate any content. Out the country for the moment, so no Oculus and no easy way to get hold of the equipment I need so any help is welcome :)

Hi Peter, this is my experimental 3D walkthrough video with dual full circular fisheye gopro using the same approach.
http://vrplayer.tv/archives/480

Best to view the 4K version in VRPlayer. I filled the 2nd half sphere with some deco for making it more enjoyable :) next time I shall not taking the sun into the fisheye lens as it's very difficult to grade a nice color in the post.

And here is my adjustable rig: http://ge.tt/625pkuj1/v/0?c

btw, as long as the frames were remapped in PTGUI, this is how I get perfect sync without the 3D cable: when the gopro were started by the wifi remote, I fired a quick flash light at the beginning. When I've converted the video into frames, I put the L/R frames in different folders. Then pick the frame with all white-out as the new starting point and bulk rename the image series with a script. This will garantee the sync easily.

The new PTGui 10 use OpenCL for accelerating the stitching. The performance jump 10X that is now comparable to the other GPU stitchers.

Cheers,
KC

Hi KC
I had a problem using Keepvid to download the video

The website you are trying to download from ( keepvid.com ) is not supported by KeepVid at the moment. If you would like to download from this site, feel free to e-mail us a request for this site to be added.

you motivated me to get the PTGui upgrade -- batch processing speed is important with this stuff :-)

The lenses look like the Ragecam 1.4
http://ragecams.com/shop/14mm-circular-fish-lens-hero3-panoramic-view-p-535.html?osCsid=f563cb20400afa9fa031f0642511a419

Is that what they are? Or some other brand? I would be interested to see some stills with it if you have some.

Sync with your method will get to within a frame but for fast action you probably need more. The Dual Hero System is
great but you dont have the flexibility of having any separation you like.

[edit] I got to see it in the end -- with another downloader -- and it works ok. The alignment is good . The 180 panorama of the car as a kind of viewing platform is a good idea -- but it would be better if it was stereo too. The video itself seems very soft. Maybe your lenses need more focusing or a lot of software sharpening. I shoot in Gopro Protune mode where the video is very soft and find I have to do this to get sharp looking videos -- Unsharp Mask, 1.4 pixels, 200% then I use Gaussian Blur Horizontal 0.4 pixels, Gaussian Blur Vertical 0.7 pixels, then Unsharp Mask again 1.0 pixel 50% (in After Effects) -- in a Filter stack.

Hi Peter,

I'm not using the 1.4mm lens from ragecam. I got one but the quality was not ok. (http://ge.tt/8sETg5m1/v/0 , the one at top-right corner) I took it for a lab test and it was marginnally rated to 1MP, waste of $$. At the end I crafted my own lens, 1.39mm 10MP. Getting the optimal focus is a tedious job as I cannot see the fine details with the HDMI output or the wifi app. Changing the gopro lens by violence may distort the mounting screw and may resulted in partial focus (e.g. only half of the image wwas in focus, the remaining half was in total blur). I have to buy some repair parts to get them working again.

The output from Protune was not sharp and I have to make some adjustments in the gopro studio. Converting to equirectangular make it even softer. anyway shooting in direct sunlight was my mistake as the color would hurt no matter how I did in the post. I've tried sharpening the image as you instructed, and it looks better. see the comparison here:
http://ge.tt/2BWEj5m1

Cheers,
KC

Can someone check this Youtube video in a Rift please?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhflLzmOxwM (watch fullscreen and HD)

It is a test for using greater than normal fov images for non-interactive Youtube 3d Rift videos. Is it comfortable to see in 3d? It is from 180 degree fisheyes converted to stereographic perspective (less barrel distortion with extreme angles). The view in the Rift is 20 or 30 degrees wider than normal. On the Reddit forum there was a report it was difficult to view.

Kclai said

Getting the optimal focus is a tedious job as I cannot see the fine details with the HDMI output or the wifi app. Changing the gopro lens by violence may distort the mounting screw and may resulted in partial focus (e.g. only half of the image wwas in focus, the remaining half was in total blur). I have to buy some repair parts to get them working again

.

The only way I have found to accurately focus these lenses is to make marks every couple of mm around the circumference and do test still photos at the different settings and look at them closely.