Tutorial: Stereoscopic panorama with Corona + Cardboard

[rambambulli]

Hi guys,

First let me be clear that I'm not an expert on javascript nor webVR. I'm forced to become one because I love Corona and love my cardboards :)
I'm trying to create VR viewer that can be used by everybody for free but I haven't got all the different phone and hardware at home to test them.

So I'll try to answer your questions a good as I can:

@romanbuha:

iPhone 6
- Too big (wrong) scale; feels like all the objects are a little too close that it needs to be

I agree.
I am working on a proper UI to adjust it yet. Here are some tests with fine-tuned FOVs.
The web app uses webVR's a calculated, recommended FOV. I think things look better when the FOV +10 (say recommended = FOV 60, 70 looks better). If you tune the FOV too high (+15 or +20) it might create distortions or even some motion sickness.

Here are some tests in which I tuned the FOV up and down:

the corona benchmark scene:

http://www.go-stereo.com/?img=corona/bench4k.jpg&ftfov=0
http://www.go-stereo.com/?img=corona/bench4k.jpg&ftfov=5
http://www.go-stereo.com/?img=corona/bench4k.jpg&ftfov=10
http://www.go-stereo.com/?img=corona/bench4k.jpg&ftfov=-5
http://www.go-stereo.com/?img=corona/bench4k.jpg&ftfov=-10

and an image by 88qba88
http://www.go-stereo.com?img=corona/CRN001%20360%20salon%2003.jpg&ftfov=0
http://www.go-stereo.com?img=corona/CRN001%20360%20salon%2003.jpg&ftfov=5
http://www.go-stereo.com?img=corona/CRN001%20360%20salon%2003.jpg&ftfov=10
http://www.go-stereo.com?img=corona/CRN001%20360%20salon%2003.jpg&ftfov=-5
http://www.go-stereo.com?img=corona/CRN001%20360%20salon%2003.jpg&ftfov=-10
and so on...

You can test it by yourself with other values by changing the last ftfov= value to a value you want to test.

iPhone 6 Plus
+ Perfect scale! Exactly how it needs to be!
-  Turn around is not smooth enough; There is a kind of distortion which make looking not comfortable

I have an iPhone 6+ and sometimes it works great, sometimes the FPS are too low. Strange. I had an interlacing problem myself last night.  I'll keep looking to solve this.


@PROH

The browser used is Mozilla Firefox Nightly Build, and I've got Oculus working with other apps/sites, but not "go-stereo,com".

As I mentioned I haven't tested this. I was stupid enough not to buy the Oculus DK2 developer edition. :(

The main purpose of this web app was to create a simple, open source webVR viewer for google Cardboard. The webVR-polyfill (part of the webVR-boilerplate) also detects Oculus.
That's great but I can't test is myself nor help you with this. A bit of a lame answer, I know. Sorry. Have you tested it in Chrome?

Besides that "go-stereo" wont let me access my dropbox - telling me that I can't use that location - so I'm forced to load it from the HD.

Do you sync dropbox to your HD? What is the problem of loading it from your HD when your are using your desktop? Have you tried to load a file from dropbox with your mobile phone? Does this work? Please provide a bit more info here.


Thanks guys for your comments.

@romullus. I keep posting this in Maru's tutorial thread. Is this okay? Or should I move it to the General CG thread?

[romullus]

@romullus. I keep posting this in Maru's tutorial thread. Is this okay? Or should I move it to the General CG thread?

I think we can keep everything here, so it will be easier to follow for newcomers.

[PROH]

Hi rambambulli. Thank you for your answers. No I have not tested it in Chrome - I simply can't make it work in Chrome (Chroium)at all :( I'm really not a programmer...

Regarding loading panos from HD instead of DropBox, then it's no problem. I just thought this could be a reason for my lack of success with Go-Stereo.

I'll keep trying finding a solution.

Thank you for sharing your work :)

[brian]

Thanks so much for creating and sharing this, rambambulli! It's absolutely fantastic. Working great for me on Safari on Mac and on iPhone 6 with Google Cardboard viewer.

It would be interesting to have it automatically slowly rotate by default in non-VR mode... I'm looking into how hard it would be to implement something like that.

Also, have you calculated what is the optimal size to render from Corona for viewing on Phone?

[rambambulli]

It would be interesting to have it automatically slowly rotate by default in non-VR mode... I'm looking into how hard it would be to implement something like that.

It is very easy. You just rotate the sphere. This is easy with Three.js. Don't rotate the cameras because it will mess up your gyro or mouse control.
The hard part is not to rotate it but to implement it in the Boilerplate. The webvr boilerplate is not very easy to customize. So you should add code the webvr-mamager.js to start the rotation in pano-mode and stop it in vr-mode. I'll look into it.

BTW Please use the original boilerplate from Github. My source files are experimental and  full of trial and error junk. I haven't found the time to start cleaning them.

Also, have you calculated what is the optimal size to render from Corona for viewing on Phone?

always use an image based on the power of 2. The viewer will correct this if you use for instance a 3000x3000px image. But it is better if you scale it or render it yourself to al least 2048x2048. 4096x4096 works fine (not on an iPhone 6+ somehow). I haven't tried an 8k image yet.

[AM_visualization]

Hello everyone, I would try to make a vr image, but I do not understand a passage, when selection spherical image from the camera settings, once I have the spherical image after I still have to divide it into r and l?

[maru]

Hello everyone, I would try to make a vr image, but I do not understand a passage, when selection spherical image from the camera settings, once I have the spherical image after I still have to divide it into r and l?

Are you using a daily build? They feature full VR support with eye distance, convergence, etc.

[AM_visualization]

Hello everyone, I would try to make a vr image, but I do not understand a passage, when selection spherical image from the camera settings, once I have the spherical image after I still have to divide it into r and l?

Are you using a daily build? They feature full VR support with eye distance, convergence, etc.

i think not...i've only the option spherical image.....i'm using corna 1.3

[FrostKiwi]

i think not...i've only the option spherical image.....i'm using corna 1.3

VR Camera is currently only implemented in the daily build. Upgrade to that and you get the function, or wait a month till official 1.4 release.

Also, currently starting work on an application for a realtime architect - client review system. Bought a crap ton of phone vr viewers, that can fit into a letter to be send to clients via mail like 1 image attached.
Might do a review from an archviz standpoint. Also, don't buy Cardboard A viewers, or models that are resold with that construction, like image 2. They are awful, compared to Cardboard B models, that were released on Google I/O in 2015.

[AM_visualization]

i think not...i've only the option spherical image.....i'm using corna 1.3

VR Camera is currently only implemented in the daily build. Upgrade to that and you get the function, or wait a month till official 1.4 release.

Also, currently starting work on an application for a realtime architect - client review system. Bought a crap ton of phone vr viewers, that can fit into a letter to be send to clients via mail like 1 image attached.
Might do a review from an archviz standpoint. Also, don't buy Cardboard A viewers, or models that are resold with that construction, like image 2. They are awful, compared to Cardboard B models, that were released on Google I/O in 2015.

Hi thank you for the information, i'm very interested on application for a rel time...
i bought a cardboard called trailblaver v.2 but i decide to take the samsung gear vr,  have only one doubt which mobile phone to pair it with... you have tips?

thank you

[alexyork]

i think not...i've only the option spherical image.....i'm using corna 1.3

VR Camera is currently only implemented in the daily build. Upgrade to that and you get the function, or wait a month till official 1.4 release.

Also, currently starting work on an application for a realtime architect - client review system. Bought a crap ton of phone vr viewers, that can fit into a letter to be send to clients via mail like 1 image attached.
Might do a review from an archviz standpoint. Also, don't buy Cardboard A viewers, or models that are resold with that construction, like image 2. They are awful, compared to Cardboard B models, that were released on Google I/O in 2015.

Hi thank you for the information, i'm very interested on application for a rel time...
i bought a cardboard called trailblaver v.2 but i decide to take the samsung gear vr,  have only one doubt which mobile phone to pair it with... you have tips?

thank you

S7Edge is by far the best option in terms of screen size, PPI and better heat dissipation (doesn't overheat much, or at all). The S7 still overheats sometimes. Expensive though...

Also, here are some tips I found elsewhere:

Some things that help:

turn on airplane mode
turn on "Do not disturb" in the Gear VR "back button" menu
set brightness to 6 or so
play in a cooler environment with air movement (with a ceiling fan or desk fan blowing on you)
reboot your phone just before using VR
allow your phone to cool after downloading/installing VR apps or Google Play apps
turn off "auto update" for Oculus Store and Google Play Store so that apps are not downloading while you are in VR

[AM_visualization]

hi, thanks for the help, i've just bought the s7 edge i'm waiting the gear vr...
do you have any suggestion or there something to keep in mind to have a right output image for the app of samsung gear?

Thank you

[vhector]

Got still some problems with L-eye R-eye difference.
Use bit the standard settings;
 eye sep: 0,063m
front offset: 0,08
And converge eyes I tried a lot of diffent settings, from off till 1m

But still it keeps beeing unnatural. Total other angle on the objects.

Any advice?

[PROH]

Hi vhector. The best results I've achieved was with front offset set to 0 and converge set between 1 and 1,2 meter (When front offset wasn't 0, there was some distorting at the poles).

[vhector]

Thanks PROH,

I tried it. Like the umbella is much more straight. But still objects like the bike, chair, table and glasses are way of. Like the chair is right eye almost from the side and the left is 3/4.
I will go and try different approaches.