Stereoscopic Spherical (Equirectangular) mod.

[Zom-B]

somehow related: http://research.lighttransport.com/fove ... y-headset/

[OnoSendai]

Sounds like quite an interesting idea.
Note that the proposed method is still an approximation. The sides of the image will have an incorrect eye position. You could improve this a bit by blending together multiple panoramic images at runtime.

We don't have any VR headsets to test on currently. Maybe it would be a good excuse to buy one When's the Occulus rift actual coming out?

[vr360]

Hi OnoSendai,
The method to get good stereo is to take a camera pair and "spin" it in a circle. the pivot, of course, would have to be between the stereo camera pair.
The way Blender and the plugin for Maya do it is this way. They end up with 1degree Fov (can be a little larger too) images, which are then spliced together to form the completed Stereo spherical / equirectangular image.

If Indigo renderer were to have this feature, I'd think it would be a hit with the VR film making community, as well as Architectural studios, Medical... the list goes on.

The reason Indigo would come out a leader is because you already support popular packages; sketchup, iclone...

Cheers!

**edit**
You could just get Google Cardboard as a VR headset, in the interim. I think it's about $10. Most android phones will work with it.
But I think HMD makers such as Valve, Sony, Oculus would just flood you with headsets if they knew you were considering a feature to advance VR filmmaking

[kklors]

Played around with equirectangular videos a lot for both the DK1 and 2 and in no case was the loss in resolution worth the difference when it came to real stereo vs. interpolated fake stereo.

https://vrplayer.codeplex.com/

Does it perfectly. In a blind test neither me nor friends were able to see the difference between real and fake stereo. No idea how it does it, guess it just shifts one eye and creates a seam at the back, which always stays hidden because there is head tracking.

Regardless with the new upcoming Rift running at 90fps, even with H265, I'll have 8-12k video in mono over 2x4k stereo any time.

Edit: And yeah other story for stills, But then again looking at stills in VR isn't thaaaaat exciting.

[vr360]

...And yeah other story for stills, But then again looking at stills in VR isn't thaaaaat exciting...

Check out (on the GearVR), the on-going "render the metaverse" VR competition renders that are coming in via Octane. I think you'll change your mind when you see stills rendered in stereo.

As for 2d to 3D converted... old story, not worth getting into a debate about, because you are right, most people can't tell the difference. The correct term is "pseudo-stereo".

Regards.

[OnoSendai]

Well, I have ordered an Oculus DK2. When it arrives I'll look into adding support for stereoscopic spherical image output in Indigo.

[Zom-B]

Well, I have ordered an Oculus DK2. When it arrives I'll look into adding support for stereoscopic spherical image output in Indigo.

Sweet!
But I hope this one will not become top priority, since me wants a working v4 first

[Oscar J]

Yeah, first things first.

[OnoSendai]

agreed

[Zom-B]

A side project for relaxing during free time is still allowed

[Oscar J]

Adding support for stereoscopic spherical image output is your idea of relaxing?

[thesquirell]

How are we on this subject?

[Jay-ko]

up

[Nikolaj Knudsen]

As a start it would be nice to have the spherical camera option in open-cl mode. I often use spherical renders with google cardboard through street view or other panorama viewers. It gives customers a great insight in the spacial qualities of a project.