360 Video, VR, and Stereoscopy: audiences are not going to understand the differences until you stop talking and let them play.

360 Video, VR, and Stereoscopy

Let the children play!

     Note: this is a repost from a question sent to me on Quora. It remains a pertinent response to all the confusion of terms spreading out in the mainstream, with the imminent release of VR. I'll likely continue to refine this post as the technology and lingo continues to evolve.

     The post was from the webzine VRFocus, and the headline read: Oculus Creator: ‘distinction’ Between 3D and Stereoscopic VR Video Needed." My immediate response was NSFW, but let's dive in as to why this is a problem.

     Below is the video in question from my Quora post, a 360 Video by the incomparable artist that is Bj?rk (sounds like: buh-york).

  The video is inaccurately listed also as 360 degree virtual reality. The latter it is not, for if it were, then someone wearing a VR HUD (Heads-Up-Display), would be able to do more than just look all-around from a stationary vantage point (like a tripod). No, in Virtual Reality, the term implies a synthetic universe (photorealistic or not), where one has the freedom to move around in all dimensional and temporal axes.

     Ideally, for true, full immersion, this virtual universe should also be stereoscopic. It's the fancy term that means what you are looking at is 3D. Not "3D" as in watching a movie through a "window pane" and seeing somewhat selective dimensionality. No, you can move around things: up, down, left, right, sideways, however you want, they have true dimensions, to whatever scale you wish to make your universe (or, the ones you are visiting).

     Video does not yet have the capability to do all of this, but CGI can do so rather effectively. Perhaps some day, video will, but most likely as a combination of many different technologies that we today would not recognize as traditional video nor cinematic capture.

     I can say that there are some very clever bits of trickery going on in many facilities, that are going to blur this distinction even further. Before VR goes mainstream to the point where a: real, quality, wireless, 2k/4K stereoscopic (3D) HUD, with surround sound, can be bought for under $200, this 360 Video will be a quaint footnote in the evolution of the moving image.

     How fitting that Bj?rk would be among the first to do so.

Below is the full text of my older Quora post:

      360 degree video is actual photography from a number of cameras that are stitched together, to appear as a seamless whole. Depending on the video player and device, such video allows the audience to appreciate not just what the Director of Photography wants you to focus on, but anything else that is part of the studio and/or environment -- in all directions.

     Assuming a live feed of 360 video, unlike a production, like a music video, you are not confined to "re-watching" the same content, even if it is from a different angle/perspective.

     Depending on the quality of the production and post, and the way things move in-between the "edges" of where the cameras overlap, you may witness soft/feathered ghosting of details as they cross this space. This can be corrected in post, but it will depend on time, budget, and how egregious the perceptible error is to the persons making it.

     I have no doubt that this type of issue will have a plug-in or intelligent camera adaptation where this ceases to be an expensive and/or time-intensive problem to correct, before too long after writing this post.
    

     For example, the music video by Bj?rk, is a 360 video, not Virtual Reality, it has simply been mislabeled.
    
     Virtual Reality is, in my humble definition to this answer, because no doubt its definition will change and expand, a 100% synthetic creation that allows you to view content in the same way as described above for 360 video.     
    
     The difference is, since it is probably running off of a game engine of some type, it does not require multiple cameras to stich the videos together. Before VR helmets, you were still playing in virtual worlds. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a perfect example of a virtual world that lets you go anywhere, do anything, look in any direction, etc.     
    
     Perhaps where others make the greater distinction is in the use of a Virtual Reality piece of headgear. By blocking out your "real" environment, you are more fully immersed in the synthetic one of the game, both visually and aurally.
    
     The further advantage is that if your game engine and headgear support two screens or lasers to project the images onto your retina, then it can provide slightly offset images, that appear truly 3-dimensional (aka "stereoscopic"), as opposed to a 2D image you would see on a traditional HD/TV, playing back 2D content.
    
     Since this stereoscopic, virtual world is likely running off of a game engine, you are free to MOVE in any direction, not just LOOK in any direction as with a 360 video. Additionally, depending on the game, you may encounter different experiences every time you play, but a 360 video will always look and sound the same every time you watch it. Even with a live feed, you cannot move around, only shift your point-of-view from a fixed point in space.
    
     This introduction to Virtual Reality's promise, is echoed in this video by the storytellers at Oculus Story Studio: