Community Virtual Reality - Dome Theater use for Virtual Reality

Enscape Requests, Issues, Discussions Enscape :: General
1

During the year of 2019, I have presented a film during 3 events in Colorado (AIA Local connect, Fort Collins Fringe Festival, and Horsetooth International Film Festival).

ARCHITECTURE IN THE DOME (A COMMUNITY VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE)

It is about how we can view Architectural 3D Models in a Dome Theater as a presentation tool for a large group of viewers to become immersed together while discussing and viewing architectural designs inside the community dome screen theater. This idea is being submitted for viewing in this years (2021) Film Festival in Los Angeles (DOME WEST FEST). After talking to the founder of the event we may decide to present the idea as a presentation of a short 360 video of the idea itself and to perform a digital walkthrough inside the dome theater.

My set of questions for the ENSCAPE FORUM…

  1. how far along is having the 360 Video footage coming? This would be greatly used in any VR presentations (Oculus Rift, any standard VR Glasses, and Dome Theaters).

  2. have the VR walkthrough’s been tested for use in a Dome Theater yet? (I am currently trying to test one of the standard files in one here in Fort Collins.)

  3. would this idea of have an interest with ENSCAPE to take part of along my side at this upcoming Virtual Reality in a dome event - Dome West Fest?

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Thanks a lot for the inquiry and welcome to our Forum @pogoulart .

To answer your questions:

1.) No plans at the moment to add 360 video footage capability anytime soon I’m afraid, we focus on the real-time VR aspect of Enscape for now

2.) Not that we are aware of - this was generally always something we tried to avoid to focus more on VR headsets themselves in this regard

3.) I’m afraid not. I will forward your inquiry to our product management team though, but please don’t hold your breath about any news soon

Let me know in case anything else comes up. :slight_smile:

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  1. It is unfortunate as Unity has already developed for this using a camera setting technique that was developed by Paul Bourke ( paulbourke.net ). He provides this setup for free which uses Unity and Blender.

  2. I was told by an employee of the museum that the test file which Enscape provides did work in the Dome Theater using a dome/planetarium viewing software (Digistar). Back to Paul Bourke… using his camera settings, he also does these architectural walkthroughs in his home using a spherical wall we created so that he no longer needs VR Glasses to view these walkthroughs… Just like in a Dome Theater.

  3. When I first spoke with Phil Read about this in November 2020… he was so excited about this idea and how useful it would be for his clients to find ways to get rid of clunky VR Glasses and instead view as a community in a local dome theater… there is a large community of Dome related people in Los Angeles, Germany, France, England, etc… trying to find ways to use these Dome Theaters as a tool to present architectural work to clients. The AIA has already found ways to create small dome rooms that allows people to view Architectural VR walkthroughs during their Events. Architects in Europe had already been using dome rooms to present there work to clients - so this is not just a new and innovative idea. There are over 50 dome theaters and over 200 planetariums in the US alone. there are several universities developing teaching VR rooms that has some 360 degree viewing capabilities for their learning experience like Colorado State University. All of which are always looking for ways to enhance their use with their theater spaces. So the need to have VR seen in Rooms is a need we all could benefit from.