I would like to film experiences in a 3d360 format, everything from skydiving to motor racing to wine tasting. I’ve read a lot of conflicting information on “VR”, how to film, how not to film, playback quality issues, Samsung Gear VR etc…
The issue I’m most concerned about is viewers experiencing motion sickness and/or becoming nauseous? Is this a real issue, and if so, how best is it to be avoided? Another question is the playback quality, the few examples I’ve seen to date haven’t been the best quality – ideally I would like HD quality if poss – is this reasonably achievable? Which headset setup is best for these type of 3D360 type films? Is the Samsung Gear VR able to deliver good enough quality? Which hardware and software is best? I’m looking at the 360heros cameras and software – ayone have any direct experience using them?
currenlty there is no affordable 3d360 equipement, so either you pay for that service, or you go the DIY way. there is a few examples on internet on how to build a "cheap" camera out of mobius or xiaomi cams (i do not consider using 12 gopro as cheap). the problem with VR video is if you move the camera, you need to make sure the viewer will feel it looks like a natural movement like a floating camera, so the camera movement dos not interfer with the head movement). Else it is exactly when you are on a rolling boat, it makes you sick. So if you do not need to move the camera, just set it on the top of a pole, hang it on the ceiling etc... at the best place you can . For skydiving it will be pretty hard to stay level, the best in this case is to find a subject and keep it centered, minimizing the relative movement, since there is no other reference, this should make the trick. That is easy for all video involving movement over rail, because the viewer can expect the movement from what he sees. if the displacement is not "wheel on rails" (a walk , a ride on the back of an elephant etc..) you need stabilize the shot. the ideal way would be to stabilize after the panorama is done, but i do not know any application that stabilize panorama (most of the software stabilizer crop the picture). You can eventually accept a small cropping picture for stabilization if you go for a limited vertical FOV for example (150 deg instead 180 for example). So your best guess would be to shoot with in the most stable way you can , using wheelchair, segway, drone being the easiest way. The second problem is 3D360 is a very heavy format, so you will need either big compression, lower resolution and frame per sec, or a very powerfull equipement. For the rift that is not a problem, since the pc that is behind has probably lot of power, it will certainly be a problem for gear with limited ressource from the smartphone.
The cheapest solution, with the best reviews, I have been able to find is the Ricoh Theta, which comes in under $300. I plan on getting one myself at some point. It's biggest complaint seems to be quality.
