Oculus Rift VR Support

Q&A about the latest versions
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skyfocus
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Hi,

Maybe it's to early, but I'm wondering if it is possible to use the Oculus Rift to view the created pano's. I've ordered an development kit to explore the possibilities and be prepared for the future when people want more.
Samsung is developing a nice 3D depth panorama camera http://thinktankteam.info/beyond/ ... maybe the combination between the two is the next step in virtuele tours.

Is Garden Gnome also thinking in that direction ? In other words is it in the future development to support VR-glasses of any kind ? Did anybody allready explored this path ?

regards,

Arjan
Windows 10 Pro x64, Pano2VR pro V6.1.13 , Browser latest Firefox
Website: https://www.skyfocus.nl/
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JimWatters
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I have done some experimenting. I can produce side by side linked panos that are controlled smoothly by the Rift in a WebVR enabled Browser. But there are still a few things to be worked out in the player to make it useful. The big hurtle will be figuring out a new UI for HMD that is not hidden out of view at the bottom of the screen but also does not interfere with uninterrupted view of the pano.

In the mean time you can shoot stereoscopic panoramas to be ready. Follow the advice of Wim Koornneef
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2692#p11246

Samsung's camera is similar to the rig I have created.
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jobes
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Hey Jim

I thought if anyone would've looked at Pano2VR for displaying Oculus / HMD friendly pano content, it would be you!

Regardless of the challenge of a UI (something Key, I appreciate, especially for tours rather than standalone panos) would you care to share how you achieve the side by side viewing? I presume it's HTML5 rather than Flash-based, so it plays with WebVR?

I just got my #DodocaseVR today and I'd like to try it out by viewing one of my CG-based 360°s. Thanks in advance!
Howard
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LiveViewRift is an application that natively displays equirectangular pano files (I use .tif) on the Oculus Rift. Just discovered this yesterday; just had the Oculus a few days. Not sure what the optimal resolution is. I'm using 10K x 5K, which seems to work great. Have yet to try 3D.
http://soft.viarum.com/liveviewrift/
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JimWatters
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Yes there are a few stand alone apps available to look at individual panoramas. We need a solution integrated into the web so you don't need to take the HMD on or off.

The DK2 uses a 1920X1080 display giving each eye 960X1080 at about 100° horizontal FoV
That works out to be about 10 pixels per degree. so anything over 4k wide is not of a benefit currently.
The consumer version will have a higher resolution but hopefully also a slightly wider FoV.

Gear VR has a screen per eye of 1280x1440 with a horizontal FoV of 96°giving about 14 pixels per degree. Making 5k worth while.

I will show something after I clean up the code to work with and without a HMD.
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jobes
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Thanks Jim, look forward to that.

Thanks Howard, hadn't seen LiveViewRift before, will have to check it out.
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skyfocus
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Hi Jim.

This sounds very interesting, I'm also looking forward to view my pano's with the Oculus.
I just received it this week (DK2) and ran some demo's on it (I still have to try LiveViewRift), VR does have it's potential, making it 3D would be
better but in 2D is a good start. There are some cardboard VR headsets available to put a cellphone in (just like
GearVR does with the Note). It supports anything that can project 3D in a side by side configuration on a smartphone. For 2D this could be the
same picture, I think. Or am I missing something ?

regards,

Arjan
Windows 10 Pro x64, Pano2VR pro V6.1.13 , Browser latest Firefox
Website: https://www.skyfocus.nl/
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skyfocus
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Just for anybody who is trying to view panoramic images in The Oculus Rift (DK2). I found a very good viewer called MaxVR.
Just put the screen type to "Spherical Panoramic" and load up your equirectangular images. It's brilliant !! Works with native DK2 support.

Now I have to find a way to shoot 3D panorama's =) 2D is good 3D is better ... and off coarse, the next step would be a virtual tour within the Rift, must not be that hard to
code some arrows in it that lets you hop to the next pano like we do now in pano2vr ...

regards,

Arjan
Windows 10 Pro x64, Pano2VR pro V6.1.13 , Browser latest Firefox
Website: https://www.skyfocus.nl/
Tevvie
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Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:45 pm

Any progress on a (beta) Pano2VR release with VR support?

Just curious about the hotspot functionality, will it be possible to use the same interaction mechanism as what mozvr.com is doing, i.e. look at a spot and keep looking for x seconds to activate it? This same functionality is used in Oculus Home on Gear VR.

The code for mozvr.com is publicly available at https://github.com/MozVR/ (e.g. https://github.com/MozVR/vrclient).

Furthermore, a mobile WebVR enabled Chrome browser is available. Is this something we could use for Pano2VR and Gear VR?
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skyfocus
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I saw an interesting news item about Google and Mattel teaming up to
blow some new life into the old view-master concept using a smartphone with a vr-glasses-holder.

see: http://www.view-master.com/

The video also shows a concept where you can look around in a 360 sphere and when looking at hotspots you can open the next photo
ore info boxes.

Would be nice to be able to output this format from pano2vr ! ... (and be oculus compatible off cource :D )
Last edited by skyfocus on Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Windows 10 Pro x64, Pano2VR pro V6.1.13 , Browser latest Firefox
Website: https://www.skyfocus.nl/
AZ ChopperCam
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:17 am

KRPano announced a few days ago their pre-release which has VR support.

I am not fond of KRPano so I sure hope Pano2VR will integrate VR support in the next release. :D :D :D
DJ Vegh
Aerial Sphere
Mesa, AZ
http://www.aerialsphere.com
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Chu
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I just bought a Google Cardboard to house a Samsung Galaxy and run an App from Play Store called Tao360. You can configure a split view and load up your own panos with something strapped to your head.

I'd recommend NFC enabled too, so you have a 'switch'

Plus - isn't the screen inside an Oculus Rift the same as equipped on Samsung Galaxy?
Using:
Pano2VR PRO 6.1.15 pro 64bit
build 18116/5.12.2

Windows 10 x64
Human Brain v1.3

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est.1971
Tevvie
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Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:45 pm

I've played around with the 1.19 pre-release of KRpano, and I must say it works amazing.

Any progress related to Pano2VR support for stereoscopic 3D and WebVR?
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JimWatters
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WebVR is still at development stage; requires a special browser build. http://webvr.info/

I have to have DK2 turned on when starting the browser, otherwise the browser does not see the DK2. Then press F11 to go fullscreen.

The next version of Pano2VR will enable more functionality required to make a better experience.
This is little experiment to see a tour on a HMD. I added just a little code to the html file to sync the view to the DK2.
http://photocreations.ca/Partridge_Island/indexVR.html
Tevvie
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Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:45 pm

Any ETA of the next release with VR support?
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