The SDK is integrated into the main engines and works regardless of the viewer used, capturing photos or video in 360º of the applications that we launch.
Facebook announced yesterday at the conference F8 the SDK 360 Capture, a library that integrates with the main engines such as Unreal and Unity, and that allows you to easily capture and share our experiences in virtual reality through photos and videos in 360º.
In order to carry out the 360º capture, they have had to redesign the way such content is created, which usually consists of capturing several images and their subsequent stitching. The solution chosen for the capture has been the cube mapping, which offers the following advantages:
- Accessibility: Users do not need a supercomputer to capture, since the technique requires less power. It works on all computers that meet the minimum requirements for virtual reality, without compromising the experience.
- Quality– The SDK allows to capture in 1080p and 4K.
- Speed– The 90 fps required by PC viewers are maintained, while capturing 360º video at a rate of 30 fps.
Example of how the capture is carried out with cube mapping.
The cube mapping technique performs a series of photos to cover the 360º, causing there to be overlaps between them, which are solved with an artificial vision algorithm that detects the overlapping pieces and generates the final panoramic image.
We can find more information about cube mapping in the following link. The SDK allows you to upload the contents to be viewed from the Facebook news feed or from a virtual reality viewer, and facilitates the work of creating 360º content for marketing campaigns or other actions such as being able to see what a virtual reality game or application will look like before buying it, or simply share our games with our friends.
The 360 Capture SDK is now available on GitHub for integration by developers.
