Best settings for Gear VR

[jobes]

@360Texas You'll see a difference when you look at the nadir and zenith, comparing an equirect to an Oculus-format cube strip… the poles exhibit the same 'pinching

Here is an early stereo 3D pano which I shot as a test earlier this year. I've shared it already with friends so I'm happy for you to check it out in Oculus Photos or the ORBX Media Player app on Gear VR. This was shot with one camera, but in two separate positions (left and right… each spaced equally from the rotation point of the tripod & head. The distance is known as the Interpupillary_distance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpupillary_distanceor IPD, and while it can change, generally we're looking to approximate the distance between human eyes (I shoot around 65mm apart). I hope this demonstrates what stereo 3D looks like in Gear VR.

@bkiter These are all just different projections or outputs of the same 360x180° panorama. How it is created is of little issue, as one can make a spherical panoramic photo with any kind of lens, from fisheye to zoom. It just takes fewer or more photos to stitch together, in order to create the full sphere. So you might need 4 or 8 shots with a fisheye, but dozens or more with a longer prime lens. This article describes some of the different projections https://www.ptgui.com/man/projections.html

[jobes]

And as a comparison, here's the left-hand panorama (so this is a 'mono' view) saved as an equirectangular. Exactly the same size etc. as the stereo one. Load them both onto your Gear VR and compare them: look especially at the zenith and nadir on the equirect version… it looks like a crappy Google Streetview treatment, with that characteristic 'pinching' and distortion. Using the cube strip format avoids all of that, so the image quality is consistent on all sides.

[360Texas]

We did as you asked

Load them both onto your Gear VR and compare them: look especially at the zenith and nadir on the equirect version… it looks like a crappy Google Streetview treatment, with that characteristic 'pinching' and distortion. Using the cube strip format avoids all of that, so the image quality is consistent on all sides.

We can not see it in the equirectangle of course because of the natural fisheye barrel distortion. So I am assuming that the zenith is perfectly stitched maybe using Ptgui.

This screen capture is from the stereo horizontal strip.... RIGHT SIDE. The same zenith image on the LEFT side is straight (not "S" shape distorted)

zenith.jpg (22.38 KiB) Viewed 11903 times

The Equirectangle is stitched properly no parallax stitching issues and looks good. Horizontal stereo strip -The LEFT zenith UP image the cross wood ceiling members looks straight. The RIGHT zenith UP image that one wood member is distorted.

Can't see any distortion in the down NADIR cube face... of course you are using a tripod cap.. can't see the floor below the cap.

It might be caused by the strip software you used to create the stereo strip. The software is supposed to reuse your perfect left side cube faces for the right side strip.

I can really see the 3D affect. Thanks for the show and tell.

[360Texas]

Glad you provided an additional response day because we now take a comparison look at your Horizontal strip NADIR and Zenith cube faces.

Here is the zenith cube face left and right set.

zenith.jpg (52.65 KiB) Viewed 11891 times

We found that these two NADIR tile floor cube faces are ROTATED rather than OFFset which might be a contributing factor to the apparent nadir distortion.. similar to the observed zenith distortion.

Notice the center right black floor circle dot AND tripod cap backwards written 'BY' are not in same position in the left and right Nadir capture.

Did you apply the tripod cap after you created horizontal strip ?

nadirleftright.jpg (114.24 KiB) Viewed 11896 times