stereo cube map display different phones

[ignaciofernandez]

Hi guys!

 

We have been testing the 12x1 VR output from Vray, and it works great. The problem is regarding the clients, htey usaully do not have Oculus, Galaxy S6 and the VR...

 

We ourselves do not own any of those, just use a Nexus 6 with cheap e-bay lenses and the Holodeck app, and it works perfect. The problem comes when a client ask for the stereo panorama, and each one of them has different phones/platforms: Samsung S6, IPhone, Nexus, others...

 

So far, the Holodeck app only allows for a minute or so of viewing before stopping in the lite version, and telling the clients to purchase the pro version is a bit rough. Even so, that would be OK, but then we have the problem of platforms: it is only available in android so far, not iOS.

 

Then there is IrisVR, which works as an online viewer, crossplatform. We have not tested it yet, but the fact that the image is stored in their servers is going to be an issue with some clients.

 

So...any of you guys know another app/way of showing the stereo panoramas in different platforms? These two options are the best we have come up to so far, and even the official VRay guide for VR do not talk about any other.

[Shaun Hamm]

I"m in the same boat as you. I like that Holodeck allows your to view with or without google cardboard. I did find a link for it on IOS http://myiosgroup.com/APK_Holodeck-FREE-360-VR-Panorama_iOS.html

 

I downloaded the IrisVR app but can't use it until my google cardboard is delivered (just started looking into VR 2 days ago). I signed up for the desktop application but am on a waitlist. Looking forward to seeing how it works with 3D files.

 

Looking forward to see what other people are doing with this.

 

Thanks!

[Francisco Penaloza]

I use KRPano, it is multi-platform and you can transform your cubic panoramas to spherical back and forth.

You can preview as regular panorama to look around your scene, or as stereo panorama, with Google cardboard or Galaxy VR and what not.

it also can be viewed with Oculus Rif.

The only drawback, if we can call it that way, is you need to host the HTML 5 that creates, for us (Arch Firm) this works fine, because we send the link to the client and they can review them self and we can control updates. but if you are in a zone with no internet access then you are doom.

 

But over all KRPano works great.

 

boy that sounds like infomercial...sorry

[scottfolts1]

When using KRPano, how are you converting the 12x1 from vray to stereo panos? Manually via photoshop, renaming etc? or has someone developed a "12x1 droplet"? Last time I checked, the unfortunate answer was "manually".

[Francisco Penaloza]

well it depends, if you render spherical panoramas you'll be fine, KR Pano will take care of it, if you render cubes from V-Ray, the orientation is designed to be compatible with Samsung VR only, so if you use anything else you may need to create an action in photoshop that arrange the frames.

[Shaun Hamm]

this guy has a tutorial to convert 12x1 cubemaps to Krpano but it's restricted viewing access :/

 

http://www.sbrusse.com/index.php/2016/02/03/tutorial-vray-cubemaps-to-krpano/

[M V]

Anyone have news on this? Lumion just released an update yesterday that also exports these 12x1 maps, but I dont see an easy way to make these work with Krpano.

[ignaciofernandez]

Hi guys, I am sorry I left this thread unattended.

 

It is clear to me that we are at the beggining of this...not sure how to call it, technology or workflow. Probably in a short time we won´t have to be looking for workarounds and there will be options straight from the renderer that will work with any device we need. On the other hand, the most common reaction from the prospective clients that put the glasses on for the first time is: Can I move in here? So we have decided to invest some learning time in Unreal Engine (it still does not offer easy export to any device, but we are confident it will be soon), but that is a different topic.

 

About Holodeck 360 app, they released an iOS version, so those are good news. But as Francisco pointed out, KRPano is multiplatform (web-based) and also allows to make virtual tours through hotspots, which is a very interesting feature to connect different spaces of the same project.

 

To use the cubic output from V-Ray in KRPano (I can imagine Lumion is exporting the same format) we need to split each one of the squares and mirror them. KRPano needs to be feed with each square image, so it will create the panorama for you.

 

I created an action in PS to do that, but it is just a matter of identifying each side of the cube, make it a single image, mirror it, and rename with a letter in the end so KRPano will know its position (_l:_r;_u;_d;_f;_b):(left, right,up, down, front, back). If you want to use a different image for each eye,then also add (_1;_2) after the name so it will be left or right. And before we feed KRPano with this images, we need to change the .xml file in a couple of lines. It is explained in KRPano forums.

 

So..it is far from ideal, but for now it works.