Facebook’s virtual reality just attempts what artists have been doing forever

Mark Zuckerberg says VR will capture human experiences like never before – but is it really superior to what writers and artists achieved centuries ago?

The future is here, and it is glorious – but it’s not real. Or so said Mark Zuckerberg in an interview published on Wednesday, wherein he sketched Facebook’s grand ambitions for virtual reality. If Zuckerberg’s billions have anything to do with it (and it’s reasonable to suppose that they will), headsets like the Oculus Rift will shape our future digital lives, transforming everything from movie-watching, to tennis matches, to sharing baby pictures with our friends into immersive, Technicolor 3D experiences.

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Enlisting the virtual as a way of navigating and coping with the real has long been an established part of human life

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Game of Thrones 360 Video

With nearly everyone getting into VR these days it is no surprise that the biggest TV show in world ‘Game of Thrones’ would also have some VR content of its own. The show which is based off of A Song of Ice and Fire series created by George R.R Martin is about to premiere its 6th season later this month.

Anyone that would be familiar with the books or the TV show would know that George R.R Martin’s world has a very large roster of characters which are spread out around his immense world. This then is probably why that the opening credits of the TV show there is a map of the known world showing the audience all the different locations that the show will be going to.

Now you can explore this map through your browsers or in VR as there is a 360 immersive video available to watch. So now you can feel like one of the many, many gods of the world and look down and around on those that worship you.

Check out the video here.

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Facebook Surround 360

At Facebook’s annual global developer conference yesterday, Facebook showed their commitment to help further content on their platform when they introduced a brand new camera capable of capturing 3D 360-degree footage called the “Surround 360”.

Facebook who also own Oculus, are going to release the software and plans for the camera free online this summer and both will be available through GitHub. An open source platform will help drive the growth of the system and in turn provide more content available for VR.

Surround360-2

‘Surround 360’ which is packed full with 17 cameras, 3 of these are fisheye cameras with one pointing up and two pointing down and an impressive 14 around the circumference. Facebook say it offers up to 8k resolution for each eye. The unit is shaped like the old spin tops and is made out of aluminium and the design helps provide hours of recording without the cameras overheating.

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The stitching software made available will drastically reduce post-production time using “computational imagine algorithms that will stitch all the images together”. The output which can be viewed by Gear VR or the Oculus Rift.

The camera will not come cheap at a whopping $30,000 but still won’t be the most expensive 360-camera on the market.

Check out the official page here and for anyone wanting more details can check the Facebook blog on the camera  here.

The post Facebook Surround 360 appeared first on Virtual Reality Reviewer, VR, Virtual Reality News, Virtual Reality, VR Games, Demos, Software, Virtual Reality, Virtual Reality News, Virtual Reality Hardware, Oculus Rift, PS4, Project Morpheus.