Wednesday, October 14, 2015
NextVR AT THE DEM DEBATE
Watching the broadcast in VR is terrific. The feeling of being there is very powerful.
There is still a way to go before VR streaming to a cellphone in the GearVR headset achieves the same technical level as a network TV broadcast, but even now it has its special pleasures, with promises to be a standard for viewing live events as the technology matures.
In many ways this broadcast improved on NextVR's streaming of the Republican debate and the Oculus keynotes.
Among the improvements were better camera position than in the Republican debate, more cameras, full spherical viewing and, at the end, a framed closeup interview (more on these last two points later).
The chief technical glitch was that (at least two) splash screens on the Oculus home page did not work. Selecting the screen only brought up a demand for an upgrade ro the NextVR App, but without any suggestion for how to get it. Finally, another splash screen, on the Store, provided the ability to upgrade the App to run the broadcast.
As in previous NextVR broadcasts, the distance from the camera to the speakers meant that faces were small and badly pixelated. -- A solution was suggested by the interview at the end. On the rear side of the sphere, there could be an optional frame which shows (preferably in 3D) a close-up of the person talking. It is (often) nice to be able to see the full sphere, but sometimes there are more interesting or useful things to project on the back than what happens to actually be live at the event behind you.
And, generally, when there are multiple cameras, it would be nice to have a simple way to select the camera view rather than depend on the stream to select it for you.
There was some minor tearing in the image sometimes as you looked around.
Also, after about half an hour the Galaxy 6S overheats. -- One can turn the phone off during a break (if the event has breaks), but you need some other viewing screen (such as the TV) to know when the VR has to go back on. Also, during a break, if the phone did not need a rest, it would be better to have some live commentator or other programming, rather than a dead screen that just says it will return after the break (with no estimate as to when that will be).
As for the debate itself, it was very well done with clear, sophisticated, and impassioned commentary on many of the next important challenges for the country.
I liked viewing the event in VR.
Labels: Democratic debate, NextVR, Streaming Virtual Reality
Saturday, September 26, 2015
OCULUS CONNECT-2 KEYNOTES & STREAMING VR
OCULUS RIFT just held their 2nd annual developer conference, Connect 2. It was held on the West Coast. Only the Keynotes, not other sessions, were streamed. Oddly, a view of the audience seemed to show several sections of the Keynote auditorium that were completely empty, even though they posted a "FULL" notice for the conference on the site. (One sour note was that the opening day of the conference was on Yom Kippur. Surely Facebook, even if not Oculus, should have been sensitive to this.)
As a New Yorker, I feel that New York is not getting its share of opportunities to test out VR hardware and software locally. Major developer conferences, as well as E3, CES, GDC, SIGGRAPH and other important events with demonstrations and prototypes, are all very far away.
There were no very significant announcements at Connect 2, but it is clear that Oculus is very serious about quality, and they are making a major investment in developing a platform for the best possible VR hardware and software.
SOME ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next GEAR VR will sell for $99, lighter and more comfortable than the current version and will accomodate all four top Samsung Smartphones.
The consumer RIFT will be more comfortable than the DK2, allow for eyeglass wearers, and include earphones.
OCULUS TOUCH will include powerful position sensing.
There will be a certification for RIFT READY computers.
Content available at launch of the RIFT (some sooner on the Gear VR) will include film & video streaming from NETFLIX and other partners, and will include MINECRAFT and a 3D art creation program for TOUCH.
Not announced: My access to information on OCULUS was limited by the fact that they made only the Keynotes available and not the sessions. However, I believe that, as of now:
- they expect to be tethered to a computer, and do not have cameras or distance sensors built into the RIFT
- Pixel resolution and display is above the minimal level for comfort, but still orders of magnitude below high resolution 60 fps 4π display. (Note: 4π indicates full spherical display; a sphere subtends an angle of 4π - ie the surface of a sphere is 4πRxR. -- The circumference of a circle is 360 degrees or 2π since the cirumference is 2πR. A hemisphere is also 360 degrees, or 2π steradians.)
- I did not hear any announcement on cooling the Gear VR.
THE STREAMING VR PRESENTATION
Here are some comments on what worked, what did not work, and we can learn about live streaming of VR.
When it worked, the presentation of the Keynotes by NextVR, streamed live to the Gear VR was AWESOME!
NextVR streamed 3D, front-facing, hemispherical video live (with a few seconds delay). They had two camera setups: one at the side of the stage, one at the front. It was very comfortable switching from time to time between the two views. The sound was fine.
The limitations of the live streaming were that it crashed about 4 times an hour, and only sometimes re-started by itself; and the Gear VR Smartphone overheated about twice an hour, and had to be turned off for at least five minutes to cool. (You can miss a lot in 5 minutes. -- fortunately, I had a second, regular stream running on my desktop.) The camera lost about 30% of its battery in an hour. Since regular vision is blocked while using the headset, until voice note-taking and commands are implemented, it is hard to take notes, or participate in side-chats, while watching the VR stream.
Notes:
- Hemispheric, front facing stereo works fine when there is a particular subject (as opposed to a landscape, for example); streaming the back half of the hemisphere is not necessary.
- For a feeling of perspective, and to appreciate 3D live action, it is useful to have some well defined objects at short distances from the main subject.
- The best place to put a camera is a place where the viewer would like to be standing. A camera at the wings is good. A camera at the lip of the stage is good. A camera on the stage, just a little bit closer to the speaker/performers might be even more exciting.
Overall, especially for short events , VR Live Streaming works well and is very exciting.
Labels: Conect2, GearVR, NextVR, Oculus, Rift, Virtual Reality, VR
