YouTube VR – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 15, 2017

‘YouTube VR’ Finally Comes to PC, Bringing the Platform’s 360 Videos to Vive, Rift, and Windows VR

It’s been a long while coming, but Google has finally launched a YouTube VR app on PC. The app is now available on Steam, officially for the Vive (but also functional with Rift and Windows VR headsets). Google expects YouTube VR to remain in Early Access through 2018 as they continue to develop it based on feedback.

As one of the largest video content libraries on the planet, demand for being able to watch YouTube content in a VR headset has been understandably strong. Google however hung onto YouTube (seemingly in a strategic move) for itself, launching the first official YouTube VR app for the company’s Daydream platform in 2016 (and notably keeping it from competitor Gear VR).

At the beginning of 2017, PlayStation VR was the first tethered headset to see an official YouTube VR app, but it isn’t until now at the very end of the year that YouTube VR has come to Vive, Rift, and Windows VR via Steam. The app, which is free (and Google says will remain so), allows users to watch any YouTube video, 360 or otherwise (including stereoscopic video).

For Vive and Rift users interested in watching some of the interesting 360 video content out there, it’s been frustrating to either need to download a bespoke app for each video, use an unofficial workaround, or simply not have any way of accessing the content at all. As one of the largest 360 video libraries around today, the YouTube VR app on PC will hopefully mean much broader and more seamless access to 360 content across headsets. Gear VR is still left out in the rain for now, as far as an official YouTube VR app goes, but at least users can access and watch content from YouTube.com via the headset’s web browser.

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VR has put Google in a curious place; the company—which is famously web and mobile-first—has now launched a number of PC applications in an effort to forge a path as a pioneer in the VR space. Though Google is also very involved with the development of WebVR, the launch of YouTube VR on Steam suggests the company didn’t feel WebVR was yet mature enough to support the experience they wanted to create.

It took a while, but YouTube VR on PC was largely inevitable. Google may have played things close to the vest for some time, but ultimately the company’s play with YouTube has been to make its content available to the widest group of people as possible; the move is also sensible to support Google’s growing efforts to equip creators with the skills and equipment to shoot 360 content, like the Jump Start program.

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June 23, 2017

Google to Bring 3D 180 ‘Point-and-Shoot’ Cameras to Vloggers this Winter

To fit alongside the company’ Daydream mobile VR platform, Google is partnering with Lenovo, LG, and YI Technology to create a new class of 180 cameras. Called VR180, the point-and-shoot video cameras create stereoscopic 180 video that can be uploaded or livestreamed to YouTube, and viewed on VR headsets.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took the stage at Vidcon 2017 to announce that the Google-owned company would immediately support 180 video, or what YouTube calls VR180, and is bringing an eponymous class of VR cameras to market. In a YouTube blogpost, the company says VR180 video can be viewed on Cardboard, Daydream, and PSVR headsets.

While individual VR180 cameras are still under wraps, the company says the point-and-shoot cameras are due out sometime this winter. As for price, Wojcicki says these cameras will be comparatively cheaper to 360 cameras, revealing that VR180 cameras “are just a couple hundred [dollars].”

Google is also opening up a certification program so other manufacturers can create VR180 cameras—starting with Z CAM.

YouTube has released a playlist on its official Virtual Reality Channel showing a number of its content partners using what we would presume is some version of the supported 180 camera. Unlike 360 video, which first saw support on the video sharing platform back in 2015, VR180 video is missing the ability to change your point of view (POV) when viewed on traditional monitors. Since these videos are also displayed as 16:9 videos on traditional monitors, a YouTuber could hypothetically shoot video exclusively in VR180 to garner a greater crossover of VR and non-VR viewership on a single video.

It’s uncertain if the videos below were captured with official VR180 hardware, or a test rig that provided similar performance. Notice the videos are delivered at up to 4K resolution at 30 FPS on both traditional monitors and in the VR-accessible YouTube app. Find out how to watch a VR video on your smartphone here by using the stock YouTube app.

180 degree stereoscopic video has been around in VR for a while now, with companies like NextVR broadcasting their sports coverage almost exclusively in 3D 180. This is because it allows you to deliver video with better resolution than a 3D 360 video, but at lesser or equal file size—something that’s important when you’re streaming to headsets. When the action is mostly forward-facing, the back register of a 360 video tends not to be used anyway, making 3D 180 a smarter choice for specific purposes.

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June 23, 2017

YouTube VR Creator Lab to Mentor and Fund Creators up to $40K

On August 7th 2017, YouTube Space LA hosts the beginning of the VR Creator Lab, a 3-month program to assist content creators in producing “original and experimental” 360-degree videos. Along with regular mentoring and advanced education from leading VR instructors, participants will receive $30K–$40K in funding toward the VR video production projects.

The VR Creator Lab, detailed on this page, opens with a 3-day ‘boot camp’ at the YouTube Space LA, “full of workshops, coaching, pre-production, and social activities”. Using the 360 cameras and audio gear provided by YouTube Space, each participating channel is expected to produce “at least four original and experimental VR videos and one behind-the-scenes video,” which can be multi-part or standalone. Every other Monday, the group reassembles at the Space to “review works-in-progress, meet with mentors, and hear talks from leaders of the VR industry.”

Applications are open to YouTube channels with at least 10,000 subscribers (1,000 subscribers if registered in the YouTube Nonprofit Program) with at least two 360° videos already produced and published to the channel. Channels associated with a consumer brand are not eligible. Up to three team members per channel, who must be at least 18 years old, may participate in the program, and the significant funding is intended to be entirely “put on screen” rather than directly paying the creators, the results of which will be exclusive to YouTube for the first year.

According to VRScout, who have collaborated with YouTube and VR Playhouse on the project, the goal is to “help YouTube creators grow their knowledge of VR production workflows and walk away with a refined approach to producing immersive content both during and after the lab”.

YouTube Now Offering Heatmaps for 360 Video Analytics

Spherical YouTube videos with over 1,000 views now include ‘360° Heatmaps’ within the Analytics section of the Creator Studio. The new feature provides a visual representation of low to high attention areas of the video, helping to inform content creators of what aspects of a 360-degree scene are engaging viewers the most.

YouTube has supported the viewing of spherical videos in VR since 2015, adding features such as stereoscopic 3D, live streaming, and spatial audio along the way. Google’s Daydream VR platform sparked a further push for 360-degree video, encouraging YouTubers to create content with their Jump program, and they’ve also attempted to help creators acclimatise to the unique challenges of recording in this format, offering some tips and best practices.

Further assistance is found in the Creator Studio, with 360° Heatmaps adding to the wide range of existing analytics tools available to all YouTube content creators. According to YouTube’s Creator Blog, “you’ll be able to see exactly what parts of your video are catching a viewer’s attention and how long they’re looking at a specific part of the video”.

As the feature applies to any 360-degree video, heatmap data is generated from all views, regardless of what device is being used. This means that some data will come from the orientation tracking in VR headsets, but a significant percentage will represent users without headsets, viewing a 360-degree video on their mobile device, either physically turning around or swiping the screen, or even using a regular browser, panning the view around with a pointer. As people are likely to engage with content in a slightly different way with their head compared to flicking around a screen, the heatmaps can be sorted by device.

YouTube VR Wants to Find the Next Billion Dollar Genre That Hasn’t Been Created Yet

At Sundance this year, I had a chance to catch up with a couple of representatives from Google to talk about what’s happening on the YouTube VR platform with 360 videos. I talked with Jamie Byrne, YouTube’s Director of Global Creator & Enterprise Partnerships as well as Julia Hamilton Trost, Google VR’s Business Development & Content Partnerships.

We talked about the YouTube VR application, what they’re doing to do to empower content creators, how they see 360 video as a gateway into higher-end VR, and some of the potential future to add more volumetric and interactive elements to the YouTube platform in the future.

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Here are a number of 360 videos that were mentioned in this interview:

The Unboxing Time Machine – NES 1985

Rhomaleosaurus: Back to Life in Virtual Reality #PreviouslyOnEarth

The Dropper – A Minecraft 360° Video

Meredith Foster giving a 360 tour of her apartment

New York Times is doing a Daily 360 video

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Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

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January 21, 2017

PlayStation VR is the First Tethered Headset to Score YouTube VR Support

While YouTube is rapidly growing as a leading source of 360 degree video content, an official YouTube VR app has been notably absent from the high-end tethered headsets, even after its debut on Google’s Daydream VR platform. Now, PlayStation VR is the first to get support for the app, while the Rift and the Vive will likely have some time still to wait.

After a small initial deployment of an update to PS4’s YouTube app a few weeks back, users in both US and EU are reporting that the 1.10 YouTube patch has added support for the PlayStation VR headset (if you don’t have it yet, click the Options button while highlighting the YouTube app on PS4 and press Check for Update).

When launching the app, users can now choose between launching the Normal version or the PlayStation VR version of YouTube. The PSVR version of YouTube now supports both 360 monoscopic and 360 3D video, and adds a ‘360 Videos’ category along the interface’s top row. The interface is otherwise identical to the Normal version.

youtube-psvr — Among a number of 360 videos on the platform, this one will let you swim with the infamous Great White from the comfort of your couch.

Inside the videosphere of a 360 video on YouTube you can look around in all directions to see the action, but of course there’s no positional tracking because the video is a standard single point capture (which means if you lean from side to size, the view won’t move). Non-VR 3D videos don’t appear to be supported by the application yet, but hopefully they will be in time.

For reasons that are likely more political than technological, PlayStation VR is the first of the big three tethered VR headsets to get an official YouTube VR app. Notably, as PSVR is console-based, PC VR headsets still have no official YouTube VR app despite being available for much longer than PSVR.