I have been undertaking some experiments using the game engine Unity to create environments to film in 360 VR. My VR application has now been submitted to Meta Store and is going through that process, so between polishing and making changes to that, I have been tinkering with Unity.
I like that with a game engine I have the potential to create and film scenes that I wouldn’t get chance to otherwise, or at least not easily! My first experiment involves an ocean asset from Unity, placing the viewer just above (and sometimes below) the rolling waves. I grew up near the sea, and I could watch it all day!
Filming in 360 in Unity was more complicated than I had at first thought it was going to be – using the out of the box Unity Recorder and choosing 360 and Stereo results in weird lines around the image where the pieces are stitched together poorly, especially when the camera gets close to the top of the wave or goes below it. In the end I opted for replicating my VR camera by recording the scene twice with the camera 0.03 units apart. Thankfully the ocean asset I used allows for deterministic waves, meaning that they are identically aligned both runs through – I can’t say I fully understand the process behind this as they seem entirely random and natural! Overall, I am very happy with the result as a simple first attempt, let me know what you think in the comments!
Please view the video in the YouTube VR app in your headset for the full experience, and make sure to turn the quality up to maximum.
