Why 360° Video?

[bubimude]

There are so many discussions on how to view 360 degree video content, and I'm actually quite surprised that everyone seems to be orienting at this as the standard for viewing videos in VR. With the current technology where it is, we get much higher quality video by limiting our range to 180 degrees, or anything less than 360 for that matter.
I totally get that in a game we want to look around everywhere and explore without breaking immersion, but video content is usually choreographed to guide the viewer, so I find myself rarely looking around everywhere and mostly just trying to sit back and enjoy the experience. The whole time I was watching "Evolution of Verse", I was wishing there was just a little more resolution and quality too it. And having rewatched it several times, there's almost a frustration that I have to turn all the way around to see everything that's going on.
To all the people shooting videos out there, and all the artists creating VR animations, I just want to pose the question... why 360 when we can do much better than this blurry compressed experience if we close up the FOV some?

[bubimude]

Yeah that would definitely be ideal if there was a way to pull from a higher res source video. I'm not a developer myself but my guess is there would be some lag when loading in the bands... especially on quicker head turns. Has anyone experimented with this?

[bubimude]

A quick update on this:

I've been testing 180 degree animations in MilkVR... figured out how to force the app to display correctly by adding the proper tag to the filename. I have to say 180 isn't enough. But 360 is too much for most viewing experiences. Maybe between 190 and 200 degrees would be perfect for GearVR. I wish MilkVR would allow us to plug in any FOV we wanted to test out!

[mosley]

in answer to the original question, there is absolutely a case to be made for 360, simply because there is content that doesnt require "guiding the viewer". concert videos would be an example. not being guided but being able to look at whatever you want is pretty much the whole point there, so that you dont depend on what the editor of a concert film found to be worth looking at a particular moment.

to go even further, theres the concept of having concert videos where you can jump around to different spots on stage, all being in 360. stuff like that is going to be the ultimate bandwidth killer, but boy will that be fun once its doable.

having said all that, in regards to content where the viewer needs to be directed (like, pretty much anything that involves an actual plot) and also in regards to the current status quo of what technology can do, you're absolutely right on all points you made imo. telling, that the most successful VR video company at the moment *cough* makes 180 videos *cough* 🙂

[schmeltzer]

I understand the argument. However, I'm all for 360. Why? Because I like the effect that you can watch in all directions very much. It's the whole point imho. I understand it's currently a limiting factor, but I'd hate to see a future that still has this limit (180 degrees), because "it's comes from an age that bandwith mattered".

[ZeneRoche]

My question is: can I record my own 360 Video to screen it on my Samsung Gear VR? is there any compatible software to do that? 🙂

[nosys70]

yes you can do that, but it cost a lots of money and time to do it nicely.
the cheapest way is to buy one of the 360 cameras ?(between 300-900$).
the other one is to make your own camera from a bunch of cameras tied together.
it is a PITA because you have to stitch all videos into one.
the last step is to buy a multi input card , connect cameras on it, and stitch (and eventually stream) in realtime.
but just the card is about 8004, the software about 2000$ and the cam up to several thousands.

[ZeneRoche]

Thank you for your prompt response!

I'm investigating about Project Beyond (the new 16 camera device which is being developed by Samsung). Any idea when will it be available? It's such a good way to record a 360 Video...

[Anonymous]

In the future, with higher FOV, 360 will be a "must", simply because humans have an almost say 200 degrees FOV (horizontaly that is. Vertically its much smaller. thats why they said, "Widescreen" (16:9) would much better match the picture humans naturally see, than 4:3 TV,w ich produces an "unatural" too square picture)

Of course a human only sees a VERY tiny spot "clear" (cant find how much that is, but it may be as small as 5 degrees or something while the other 195 degrees are all blurry) Yeah you cant even see all parts of a human face clearly in one view. You need to sweep your eyes over the face and build the whole picture in your brain to get an idea how the other person in front of you does look like) Think about it, you need to look everywhere. You look at the mouth, you look at the right eye, the left eye and so on.

BUT the general view is like 200 degrees. And the head can be turned around like 180 degrees. So, you should be able to see 360 degrees without turning around, just by looking right and left. If we couldnt, we would would have been long dead.

[bubimude]

"mosley" wrote:
in answer to the original question, there is absolutely a case to be made for 360, simply because there is content that doesnt require "guiding the viewer". concert videos would be an example. not being guided but being able to look at whatever you want is pretty much the whole point there, so that you dont depend on what the editor of a concert film found to be worth looking at a particular moment.

to go even further, theres the concept of having concert videos where you can jump around to different spots on stage, all being in 360. stuff like that is going to be the ultimate bandwidth killer, but boy will that be fun once its doable.

having said all that, in regards to content where the viewer needs to be directed (like, pretty much anything that involves an actual plot) and also in regards to the current status quo of what technology can do, you're absolutely right on all points you made imo. telling, that the most successful VR video company at the moment *cough* makes 180 videos *cough* 🙂

Yes the idea of 360 video is promising in general... it just seems kind of ridiculous that everyone is accepting that as the standard approach right now when resolutions are so bad and the tech hasn't caught up with us yet. We can gain a lot of quality by cutting out the back hemisphere, and I bet a lot of users will barely ever turn their bodies to notice. It bothers me to see the edges of the video of course, but if I have to turn more than my neck in order to do so, I don't feel constrained at all.
I guess what I'm saying is the 200 degree option is great for both directed pieces and for ones where you want to look around. Once people know they'll break immersion by turning their bodies, I don't think they'll bother too.