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360 Video

secrecysecrecy
in Suggestions
So, hear me out here. What if you were able to make POV 360° video? Like be able to choose a character in a scene and render a 360° video from their perspective. Let me know what you guys think, hopefully I'm not the only one who's had this thought.

Comments

  • zagzagzagzag
    Having played around a bit with equirectangular stereo in 3d apps, I can share a few things about stereo 360 that were surprisingly unsolvable. (by "video" I assume you mean exporting footage to a regular video format, that could be played on any device with or without vr, and not in-engine playback). These don't fully apply in non-3d 360.

    Stereo 360 works best (or at all) when the subject is a certain distance away, and roughly at the horizon level. Anything too close to the highest or lowest point will be distorted, and impossible to see in 3d. There are solutions but they are mostly hack-ish - mainly reducing the 3d effect from full at horizon level, to none at all at both poles. This produces images that can at least be looked at, but there can still be severe distortions at those points. Also, panoramic video requires CRAZY resolutions, since your view at any time is much less than the total surface of the video. 4k minimum for a "480" or "720" looking image, double that for 3d.  Huge files that aren't trivial to play back on some devices.
    Those distance, placement and resolution constraints wouldn't be very nice to have in this particular kind of game, so I think a full 3d 360 video wouldn't be as seamless an experience as you'd think. Look at some of the POV porn that's out there. It's blurry, the action is weirdly restricted to the middle of the screen only, and the angle is usually restricted to 180.

    If you scrap 3d and go for a regular 360 image, it's certainly easier, but there will still be distortion at/near the poles, and you'd still need a very high resolution, just not doubled. 

    Oh and of course, no head translation whatsoever in either case, only rotation, and no 3d sound.

    Overall, using the engine itself for rendering is much better for both 2d and 3d. All those limitations don't apply at all. Yiff1 POV looked pretty much perfect from any angle and at any distance.

    I'm not against the option, but I think it wouldn't be what you want. 


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