VR photography

VR photography, or virtual reality photography, is a technique which allows the interactive viewing of wide angle panoramic photographs. A VR Photograph is generally a wide photographic image encompassing a 360 degree circle, but can also encompass an entire spherical view.

VR photography is the art of capturing or creating a complete scene as a single image, as viewed when rotating about a single central position. Normally created by stitching together a number of photographs taken in a multi-row 360 degree rotation; the complete image can also be a totally computer generated effect, or a composite of real word photography and computer generated objects.

The final digital image, known as a VR Panorama, is viewed through an interactive software interface. The viewer is at the center of a virtual cylinder or sphere onto which is projected a wrap-around image, within which the viewer can rotate horizontally and vertically, as if they were immersed within the real world scene.

VR Panoramas are viewed through movie players, such as Apple's QuickTime software, which may be part of a Web browser plug-in or a stand-alone player application. QuickTime VR (QTVR) was the original interactive panorama format, but there is now a growing number of different players and plug-ins. Many of these are based on Flash, but some use Java, SilverLight, custom programming using OpenGL and WebGL, and even JavaScript. This variety has contributed to interactive VR Photography becoming more widespread. Most of the players can be seen in the Panorama Player Comparisons project.

The term "VR Photography" is still a fairly new one, but describes a process that has its foundation in the photography used in Virtual Tours since around 1995. However, the ever increasing data speeds of internet connections now allow much larger images to be published online. These larger file sizes allow VR Photographers to create higher resolution and full-screen images with much more detail that helps to immerse the viewer into the scene.

In 2010, an authoritative book on the subject by pioneering VR photographer Scott Highton was published entitled: Virtual Reality Photography: Creating Panoramic and Object Images.

Beyond the panorama

In 1999 a product called Geometra 3D was released. This allowed not only looking in different directions, as in photographic panorama viewers, but also moving the point of view around in a VRML model. However, this product is no longer available.

See also

• Image stitching
• MotionVR
• Panoramic photography
• QuickTime VR
• IPIX

External links

• Virtual tour software at Curlie
• College virtual tours at Curlie
• Panoramic/360° photography techniques and styles at Curlie
• Panoramic image galleries at Curlie
• Panoramic/360° photographers at Curlie
• Panorama Player Comparisons project - a comparison of the majority of interactive panorama players currently available
• The World Wide Panorama Project - a series of ongoing worldwide VR Photography events
• Virtual Reality Photography