For Android and Web developers, VR View allows you to embed 360° media into websites on desktop and mobile and native apps on Android.

360panorama

Aspherical lenses are best suited for applications where spherical aberration needs to be minimized. Spherical aberration is inherent in the basic spherical surface characteristic to most of the common lenses. The aspherical lens mitigates it by introducing complex surface profiles, which are not portions of a sphere. These lenses are often the best single element solution for collimating and focusing narrow beams.

Pannellum

Imagery for 360° media isn’t limited to captures from the real world. CGI software can generate 360° images and videos for everything from architectural walkthroughs to movie previews. Some of the most popular capture solutions are listed below:

Although 360° media supports true stereoscopic VR playback through compatibility with VR platforms like Google Cardboard, it can also be displayed in a simple “magic window” that can be viewed from desktop browsers and mobile apps without any special VR hardware.

Rendering Omnidirectional Stereo Content: A whitepaper for anyone interested in writing their own 360° capture solutions.

Panorama Viewer

Cardboard Camera App: This app for Android allows users to quickly capture 360° images. To use these images with VR View, download the image, and then use our conversion tool to create a stereo 360° image that meets Cardboard's image specifications.

Free360image

Image to panorama

For iOS developers, the GVRkit library (provided as part of the Google VR SDK for iOS) provides similar functionality and includes samples demonstrating its usage.

360° media, consisting of 360° videos and images, is a great way for developers to enhance traditional apps with immersive content. You can embed a 360° video into a travel app to provide viewers with an Underwater scuba diving tour as they plan a vacation, or into a home-building app that takes prospective buyers on a virtual walkthrough of their home before it’s built.

Some older devices cannot decode video larger than 1080p (1920x1080). If maximum compatibility and quality is a priority, we recommend that developers provide both a monoscopic 1920x1080 video and a stereo video at 2048x2048 or higher.

You can create 360° media in either mono or stereo format. Images and video generally need to be stored in the equirectangular-panoramic (equirect-pano) format, which is a common format supported by many capture solutions.

There are multiple options for taking 360° photos and videos that support the equirect-pano format described above. These options include: