Hi all, I've recently been discussing with colleagues the idea of producing a piece of VR theatre/art. The premise being an audience would experience a pre filmed piece in whcih they could wander around the scene, viewing different aspects of the play thus creating their own unique experience.
I was wondering how realistic this outcome could be. ie, is it feesible to have an audience of say, 30, all with headsets and hooked up to the same system? How much would this cost?
You can only view from the same position in which you film. If you had multiple cameras, you could allow the user to switch between them with the controller.
30 Oculus Go would cost you $6000. The Gear360 cameras from Samsung are pretty affordable too. If you had a custom app developed - who knows? Depends on the exact features, of course.
We created an immersive theater-inspired piece a couple years ago called The Presence, which allows the user to actively switch between camera POVs at any time, allowing them to follow any character, and view the story from whichever room they like. There is also a passive, gaze-based version that is more "directed" and has other camera angles such as close-ups and over-the-shoulders shots.
We have also been playing with 6-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) filmmaking, which does allow the user to 'move around' in the space that was shot by a single 360 camera, but visually there are a lot of artifacts and issues. So I would say that inside-out 6DoF not really there yet for most filmmaking needs, but it is a possibility. Here's a demo video: youtu.be/1tBS66cWBno, and check out reddit.com/r/6DoF for more info if you're interested.
We are a for-hire production company, so if you'd like to work with us to create or consult on your production, we are available and located in Los Angeles. Here is our website: http://pseudoscience.pictures
