VR Fundamentals
(VR and 360 Video Production by Google AR & VR)
- VR video referred to as 360 video or immersive film.
- VR Video is one component of the Immersive Spectrum. Like VR games and other interactive experiences, it’s intended to be viewed in VR headsets. It can also be viewed on flat-screen devices, such as phone or computer.
- Unlike VR video games, which use computer-generated characters and environments, 360 videos are made by capturing live action in the real world with “360 cameras.”
- 360 video exists between the spectrum of immersion with 2D video on one end and fully interactive VR on the other.
Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
- The 3DoF is composed of yaw, pitch, and roll, which are types of rotational change around the x, y, and z-axes.
- 6DoF means that, in addition to the three types of rotational freedom you have in 3DoF, you
also have three types of positional change: forward/backward, up/down, and left/right.
Agency, Presence, & Immersion
- Choosing where to look for you to allow yourself to “create” your own experience of the story is called “agency”.
- Agency helps generate presence.
- Presence is that feeling of actually being present in a VR experience.
- Immersion, which generates presence, includes the technicalities provided by hardware and software that “trick” a user into believing they are surrounded in this alternate reality. For example, if
you turn your head in the headset and the experience changes with you—that’s immersion.