Virtual reality gives you the amazing immersive experience in videos that flat 2D videos can’t just compare to. Even 360-degree videos make you feel as if you part of the 3D surrounding. It is a whole new level of video watching. But sadly making such immersive high-quality videos is cumbersome, time-consuming, and most of all requires skills that most creators just don’t possess right now.
That is why YouTube is stepping in to ease the transition and get more creators on to the new platform. It is called VR180. And to cut it short it is half of 360-degrees. YouTube is imaging a middle path that falls in between plain 2D videos and full-blown 3D VR videos. And thus simplify the transition.
But the new format while providing easy adoption also sacrifices some aspects of 3D. With VR180 you can only watch the front 180 degrees field of view. This is so because Google has observed that 75% of 360-degree videos viewers just see the front 180-degrees. Also, content creators are not completely used to the new 3D format because of new hardware and so it is a much less used option.
It is notable that VR180 doesn’t qualify as VR when looking at it with bare eyes rather it projects a stereoscopic 3-D image. But even in its best form, it is a halved 3D video. In fact, we can call t a demo of actual VR. YouTube has made sure that the new format works with current hardware and software. Video editing application like Adobe already supports the new VR180. the new format also supports live streaming. The best part is, now content creators can give something little extra to VR users.
That is the software part of the story. Google is also partnering with hardware makers like LG and Lenovo to get VR180 certified cameras to the market. The new devices will launch in Winter this year.
