The Tom's Hardware Indie VR Roundtable (360-Degree Video)

[Guest]

We gathered five of the brightest and most creative indie VR developers to discuss their development process, the future of VR, and questions submitted by you!

The Tom's Hardware Indie VR Roundtable (360-Degree Video) : Read more

 

[-Fran-]

Man... I was expecting a nice interview, but you guys overdid yourselves so nicely.

Damn fine job Toms and guests!

I had a blast listening and, weirdly enough, moving the camera, haha.

Cheers!

 

[Jsimenhoff]

Thanks Yuka! We hope to hold many more of these in the future.

 

[bit_user]

Thanks for this. It was very interesting to hear.

Now about that... 360 degree video doesn't seem so useful, especially in the middle of the table. It's like you'd continually be spinning around, trying to look at who's talking. Needless to say, I didn't. I just shrunk the window and listened to the audio.

More on the audio: it was pretty poor. I got lots of small dropouts, hiss, and distortion, and there were some participants I could barely hear. Due to loudness and distance variation, I'd have to turn up the volume to hear the quietest speakers. Then, everyone would break out laughing, blasting my ears and forcing me to turn it back down.

Please, if you use 360 degree video for more panel discussions, maybe seat everyone in a semicircle and put the camera at the center. Also, if you can find some way to enable auto gain adjustment on the volume (or do it in post), that'd be even better.

But, I really don't think 360 adds anything, for this type of content.

 

[Jsimenhoff]

Thanks for this. It was very interesting to hear.

Now about that... 360 degree video doesn't seem so useful, especially in the middle of the table. It's like you'd continually be spinning around, trying to look at who's talking. Needless to say, I didn't. I just shrunk the window and listened to the audio.

More on the audio: it was pretty poor. I got lots of small dropouts, hiss, and distortion, and there were some participants I could barely hear. Due to loudness and distance variation, I'd have to turn up the volume to hear the quietest speakers. Then, everyone would break out laughing, blasting my ears and forcing me to turn it back down.

Please, if you use 360 degree video for more panel discussions, maybe seat everyone in a semicircle and put the camera at the center. Also, if you can find some way to enable auto gain adjustment on the volume (or do it in post), that'd be even better.

But, I really don't think 360 adds anything, for this type of content.

Thanks bit_user. This is awesome feedback. The 360 aspect was definitely an experiment. It hasn't been done before, at least not in this type of setting. Perhaps a better arrangement and better audio capture equipment can improve your viewing experience next time.

 

[bit_user]

Thanks bit_user. This is awesome feedback. The 360 aspect was definitely an experiment. It hasn't been done before, at least not in this type of setting. Perhaps a better arrangement and better audio capture equipment can improve your viewing experience next time.

Thanks for following up.

I have no experience with 360 video, but I've done a little audio recording. Anyway, I had the thought that you should imagine sitting wherever the 360 camera is placed, because that's effectively what the viewer is doing. If the view from that perspective would be awkward, then maybe pick a different spot or rearrange things.

I do appreciate experimentation. It'd be hard to have some of these insights without trying it, and the discussion was worth a listen.

BTW, the part about having meetings in VR had me imagining that the participants could conceivably demonstrate some of the things they were describing. Now, that would be a good use of tech & reason enough to put on a HMD.

 

[Jsimenhoff]

BTW, the part about having meetings in VR had me imagining that the participants could conceivably demonstrate some of the things they were describing. Now, that would be a good use of tech & reason enough to put on a HMD.

*Mind blown*

Imagine playing game demos with the developer behind your shoulder, coaching you through it.

 

[bit_user]

BTW, the part about having meetings in VR had me imagining that the participants could conceivably demonstrate some of the things they were describing. Now, that would be a good use of tech & reason enough to put on a HMD.

*Mind blown*

Imagine playing game demos with the developer behind your shoulder, coaching you through it.

Indeed, and that might be a way to get pre-release demos without having to travel to a show like E3.

However, I was still thinking about pre-recorded content, aimed a larger audience. The simpler thing would be to do it all with computer generated graphics, and we'd just see their avatars (+ whatever they want to demo).

...or, what about 360 Video + CG elements. So, like mixed-reality. To do this well, we need 360 degree cameras that also capture depth. I think some exist, but they're very expensive.