The "current state of VR" - corona and beyond

[jojorender]

Hi all,
I’m preparing to create a 3D virtual tour for a client, and I wonder what the “current state of VR” is?
For starters, I find it strange that my iPhone 12 pro still doesn’t recognize that equirectangular images in my library could be displayed as a 360º sphere. It’s 2022 and I still need to download a 360º viewer app?
While that by itself is not “VR”, but with so many 360 cams out there, this basic stuff should “just work”.   
What’s the easiest way to share 360º render previews for approval, without asking everyone involved to download a viewer app?

Do you have any recommendations for creating a good VR tour experience? Maybe care to share a VR tour you created?
I created a simple tour before using www.marzipano.net and I like the simplicity, you get to download the entire tour to host on your own server and of course I like that it’s free.
Do you use a different tool with better features?

While I’m not convinced that VR is currently such a great real estate sales tool, there is soooo much talk about the metaverse, that makes me wonder if it makes sense to look more into the whole VR thing…
Am I asking all this in the wrong place? Is unreal engine the future of VR real estate marketing?

Share your thoughts! 

[BigAl3D]

Well, a few years back some in my company were convinced this VR/AR stuff was going to change everything. I LOVE that stuff, but I just wasn't feeling it. I had the same feeling I had in the 90s when people were pushing the new VRML format. Just never took off, but bandwidth was a major issue back then. This problem still exists to an extent. You need HIGH bandwidth/data for mobile viewing or a high-end PC and expensive headset for the full experience. Great for gaming though.

Anyway, I was setting up C4D scenes and using a special camera tag for rendering out a 360 image. Probably r18 which did not have it built in, but Cineversity had a plugin. I remember there was some type of converter I had to process the render to make it compatible (injected was the word it used) with YouTube for example. After that, I could simply upload it to YouTube and you could view on any screen and drag the mouse or finger around. If you had Google Cardboard or similar viewer, you would enable that option and put your phone in it and you could spin around and up and down. The issue I had in 2016 was getting data on a phone that could handle 4k for each eye which gave you the full experience. You can check this old Acura showroom I had set up before Corona.

To be honest, I haven't looked into Corona's 360 capabilities yet. I might have to revisit just for fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFPjMTF_q6g

[ficdogg]

You just need to upload it to a 360 compatible player, you don't need to ask clients to download anything.
Youtube, and Facebook have it, as well as loads of other sites. Last time I played around with this I uploaded my renders to kuula. The free tier allows you to upload individual 360 images, the paid one allows you to make Virtual tours by adding hotspots to individual images, and then it blends between them.
Here are two renders I did some years ago when I was starting out with corona.
https://kuula.co/post/7lW4Z
https://kuula.co/post/7lW4b

I even did a stereoscopic 360 render for google cardboard, but I can't remember if I uploaded that somewhere or if I just used it on my phone.

[jojorender]

Hi guys,
thanks for your feedback.

@BigAl3D
I can’t remember when corona added spherical, etc mapping and VR mode to the C-camera tag, but it has been there for a long time. The corona blog had some articles about VR in 2016/17 and then it gets quiet.
I absolutely agree with you about “not feeling it”. It’s gamers and pixel pushing freaks like us, that are willing to try things out to see where we are. That’s not the critical mass to get VR off the ground.

@ficdogg
Looks like the free tier in kuula posts your image publicly, wouldn’t work for me during development. The paid tiers are private but I didn’t see any features that really justify that price.
In terms of VR, I think your response is also a good indication that we are not “there” yet.

You just need to upload it to a 360 compatible player,

Imagine you want to quickly email or whatsapp someone any old picture, but you need to upload it to a site that offers a 2D compatible player and they have to click a link… because your phone or PC is not able to display the image correctly. No, thanks. 
I think as long as 360/VR content is not as easy to handle as any regular 2D image, it will not be widely adopted.
Once the regular user doesn’t think twice about spinning around in a photo and sending it to someone else without instructions “how to view”, maybe then we’ll get closer to VR acceptance. I think we are a “long” way from people reaching for their VR glasses the same way they reach for their phones.

Sorry for ranting…

[BigAl3D]

@Jojorender Have you ever seen Sketchfab? It's pretty amazing. You actually upload the scene and it renders out a very nice image that's fully immersive. In this example I found, they added points of interest so people can just fly to that spot and read about it. Navigation can be tricky for some. Thought you might enjoy browsing around in any case.

https://skfb.ly/6w99H

[jojorender]

Yes I’m familiar with Sketchfab and even used 3D models from there in personal projects.
The project you sent are actually hundreds of images captured with a 360 rig and uploaded for point cloud processing. It’s basically photogrammetry. Similar process to what matterport etc is doing. I didn’t see a great project with a 3D model processed that looks amazing. All have very low res textures and that basic “sketchfab” light. Not up to par for virtual tours. Once Corona goes RT, then there is hope… or go unreal
The teasers for unreal 5 look amazing. Did you see this

[BigAl3D]

Unreal Engine 5 will change everything. It's insance. The Meta Humans are the closes thing I've seen to convincing digital people.