360 Video -- anything I need to know before I make the investment?

[lunatick]

Now that the 360 camera market is starting to mature, I'm looking to play with 360 video this year, and seriously considering getting a 360 3D camera as well, to get into the emerging VR space, too.

I noticed the 360 support in the latest RR update, and I just read the section on 360 in Weston's excellent documentation (and BTW -- the scripting language for custom objects is going to be SUPER fun to play with -- this product just keeps getting better!!). Most encouraging was mention of the specific camera I've decided to start with (360fly 4K).

It looks like everything's in place to start experimenting, but I was wondering if others who have played with this feature might have some advice for a fellow early adopter before I go out and blow a couple of grand on new toys?

Second question, and this one's for Weston and Co directly: is support for the 360 3D cameras on the horizon? I'm extremely excited about this product coming out later this year:

http://vuze.camera/product/vuze-vr-kit/

I am not (yet) very familiar with the technical details behind these video formats, but will the support for 3D video from this device Just Work, or do you expect this to require enhancements to RR in order to support it?

[Weston@HPTuners]

As with any 4K video, you'll want a fast computer, and ideally Windows 10 or macOS 10.10 "Yosemite" or newer. But other than that, you should find that 360fly video works pretty well here, as RaceRender will automatically flatten their raw video into a usable view and it understands their metadata as well. Other 360 cameras may also work, but you'll typically need their video to already be processed into an equirectangular 360 format (typical format for YouTube and Facebook 360), rather than being able to use the raw camera footage like you can with a 360fly. Look for a 360fly 4K firmware update in the next few weeks that should make its GPS feature produce data that will work in RaceRender... They'll also have some cool stuff like gyro data.

The 360 workspaces in RaceRender will look a bit zoomed-out, due to having about 9x as much screen space to work with. You can zoom back in on the center view by using the preview Settings button to set it to 16:9; just remember to change it back to a 360 workspace before rendering your output video. There's also a 360 guide under the Edit menu that will help show you the vertical center of your view, as placing anything too far above or below these lines can start to get a bit distorted due to being mapped onto a sphere in 360 viewers. When testing a new 360 layout, I usually render the output only in 1080p or less at first (still in 360 mode, though) to make sure it looks like I expect in YouTube and Facebook 360 viewer, and then once I'm done tweaking it, I'll render the final output in 4K, which will take a bit longer to complete. In my opinion, YouTube's 360 viewer seems to be pretty good, while Facebook's 360 viewer feels a little more zoomed-in or narrow FOV by default, so that can take a bit more tweaking to get the feel right there.

We're not sure about 360 in 3D just yet. That would be super cool, but my research thus far suggests that it's much more complicated than traditional non-360 3D, and we haven't had an opportunity to explore it yet. It's definitely on my radar; we'll just have to see what becomes available in the consumer market for that, and then determine what's practical to work with...

[lunatick]

Sounds like I picked the right camera then... My impulses got the better of me and I scored a 360Fly 4K yesterday, so I'll be giving all of this a try later this month. I've got a track day at Lime Rock Park in 3 weeks, and I am going to try this thing both inside and outside the car, and see how it all looks. I'll post a tutorial on how to do the 36p stuff on my blob, and here as well, as it's clear this is still an early adopters niche, and it's FAR from obvious how to create and upload these videos when you use 3rd party software. But I can't upload a track video without some RaceRender data overlays!!

If they gather gyro data, the motorcycle guys are going to love them!!! Personally, I try to keep my Miata from tilting more than 5 degree or so in any turn, though. Anything more than that and I have serious suspension problems :-P

I am also going to pick up a Vuse 3D VR camera this winter, so next year, I'll be happy be a beta tester for 3D 360 support in 2017.

As with any 4K video, you'll want a fast computer, and ideally Windows 10 or macOS 10.10 "Yosemite" or newer. But other than that, you should find that 360fly video works pretty well here, as RaceRender will automatically flatten their raw video into a usable view and it understands their metadata as well. Other 360 cameras may also work, but you'll typically need their video to already be processed into an equirectangular 360 format (typical format for YouTube and Facebook 360), rather than being able to use the raw camera footage like you can with a 360fly. Look for a 360fly 4K firmware update in the next few weeks that should make its GPS feature produce data that will work in RaceRender... They'll also have some cool stuff like gyro data.

The 360 workspaces in RaceRender will look a bit zoomed-out, due to having about 9x as much screen space to work with. You can zoom back in on the center view by using the preview Settings button to set it to 16:9; just remember to change it back to a 360 workspace before rendering your output video. There's also a 360 guide under the Edit menu that will help show you the vertical center of your view, as placing anything too far above or below these lines can start to get a bit distorted due to being mapped onto a sphere in 360 viewers. When testing a new 360 layout, I usually render the output only in 1080p or less at first (still in 360 mode, though) to make sure it looks like I expect in YouTube and Facebook 360 viewer, and then once I'm done tweaking it, I'll render the final output in 4K, which will take a bit longer to complete. In my opinion, YouTube's 360 viewer seems to be pretty good, while Facebook's 360 viewer feels a little more zoomed-in or narrow FOV by default, so that can take a bit more tweaking to get the feel right there.

We're not sure about 360 in 3D just yet. That would be super cool, but my research thus far suggests that it's much more complicated than traditional non-360 3D, and we haven't had an opportunity to explore it yet. It's definitely on my radar; we'll just have to see what becomes available in the consumer market for that, and then determine what's practical to work with...

[Weston@HPTuners]

Update: TrackAddict v3.3.8 is releasing today on iOS and Android, and is able to control a 360fly camera via WiFi, just like it has been able to control a GoPro or Garmin VIRB. That makes it much easier to get your TrackAddict data onto a 360 video, and it's a heck of a lot easier to start the camera this way when you're strapped into your race car. The 360fly video and TrackAddict data/video should typically be within 1 second of sync with each other from what I've seen, and you can always fine-tune it further in RaceRender if you wish.

I tested that setup successfully this past weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TQ2Mfo5iqg

360fly 4K camera on the roof... I just powered it up before my run and let TrackAddict control everything for me, then I put it all together in RaceRender afterward.