TL;DR… just watch the video (and move the image around while you are watching.)
I’m hooked! A couple of years ago I bought an Oculus GO. I loved it. But it had some shortcomings. Limited content. Limited resolution. Limited everything. And authoring in 3D was just “not there yet”. Granted, this launched on May 1, 2018. A lot has changed since then! I have two “foundational” beliefs here:
- 3D photography, as it was in 2018, and now in 2021… is evolving: FAST. As much as I love my Oculus Quest 2, this is an evolutionary path. I have no doubt much will change. And maybe it’s just a fad? Who knows? I know both Microsoft and Facebook are heavily engaged. I have to wonder if the pandemic’s work from home response may not add some fuel here too. Pandemic or no, this just has that “something new and exploding” feel to it.
- In the end, I don’t care about 3D photography. My love here is like always: story telling. And that’s the magic of the 2D photo workflow. I get to frame your view, and yet still allow you the freedom to explore the video. My love here is in the creation and story telling. The technology is secondary (for a change!)
Several weeks ago, I bought the basic 64GB Oculus Quest 2. I started with the Roller Coaster app, which I had so much fun on with the Oculus GO. Still is! I tried some National Geographic 3D and high-res videos in YouTubeVR. KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF! Awesome! My first thought was, “Can you imagine how many people, whether due to illness, pain, whatever, could benefit from the peace and beauty in these images. I thought of Todd, and his love and skills in photography out here. Can you imagine authoring “guided tours”, editing them up, then downloading the onto the Oculus GO and shipping it to folks who want to experience his tours. And me too!
I have been thinking about adding a page to this site of the island (and maybe the state too), with photos, videos, and 3D content at each “point” on the map (Deception Pass, Coronet Bay, Ebey’s Landing, etc. etc.). These new tools have only accelerated that desire.
What I am so much more interested in is using this to tell a story, while still affording the view full control. I did a lot of research on the “capture” side of 3D. I scoped it down to:
| Camera | Description |
 GoPro Max | |
 Insta360 One X2 | |
 Insta360 One R |
In the end Insta360 won over GoPro, and the One X2 won for my needs overall.
In a surprise announcement from Microsoft on Microsoft Mesh, I was blow away. Article here. I mentioned I thought this technology has that “Big F****** Deal” feel to it. To wit:
Mixed Reality is the fourth wave in computing followed by Mainframes, PCs, and Smartphones. Mixed Reality is going mainstream across consumers and commercial, liberating screen-bound experiences into instinctual interactions in your space, among your things, with your people. 100’s of millions of Niantic explorers around the world have experienced MR through the devices in your pocket. As we miss in-person social connections, meet-ups like concerts and fitness training are moving to the virtual world. More than 50% of the Fortune 500 organizations have deployed HoloLens and other Mixed Reality solutions to drive material ROI to their business.
The more PR side of that article is here.
So here’s the awesome news. This is Unity as the front end. I just wrote my first XR app in Unity with C#, OpenVR, and OpenXR. By happy accident, I’m in a good place skills-wise to actually be able to create in this space.