Introduction

360-degree video is a form of moving image sequence that surrounds the viewer in virtual space. When wearing an HMD, the viewer is able to freely rotate their head, determining their viewing direction. This can be contrasted with traditional, fixed-perspective video in which the viewing angle is fixed.

As the video content is linear, the viewing position is either fixed or follows a pre-determined path ("on rails") captured in the video. However, a degree of positional interactivity can be introduced through hotspots or portals which, when interacted with in the virtual scene, jump the viewer to another piece of 360-degree video content. Adding these requires the use of a software layer in addition to the video, which places the content somehwere between 360-degree video and 3D software.

360-degree video can be created in a number of different ways:

• Captured by a camera or array of camera lenses;

• Generated as an export from 3D rendering software (e.g. Blender);

• Generated from a real-time 3D game engine (either as a standalone experience or as documentation of a real-time 3D VR experience).

It is then played back using video playback software that supports 360° video and viewed via XR hardware.

Assessing 360-degree Video

• How was the 360-degree video created?

  • Was it created through camera capture?

    • If so, is the camera model and captured video format known?

  • Was it created using a 3D software tool e.g. 3D renderer or game engine?

    • Is the capture and output format of the video known?

  • Did the video undergo a stitching process

    • Is the software used for stitching known?

  • Was the video edited?

    • If so, what software was used?

    • Are these production assets available?

• By inspecting file metadata, are you able to determine key characteristics of the 360-degree video format? If not you will need to determine these manually. See Video Formats for more information about these.

  • The projection format used e.g. cubemap, equirectangular.

  • Whether the video is monoscopic or stereoscopic.

  • The codec and pixel format that the video has been encoded with.

• What kind of audio format does the video use?

  • If this uses spatial audio, how was this created?

  • How has the spatial audio been encoded in the video file?