Exactly. And guess what? We already live in a 3D world, so it isn’t the amazing revolution that hucksters have been trying to sell us on for over 65 years now. And failing.
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Vision Pro and the future of VR movies
- Thread starter wrcousert
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Exactly. And guess what? We already live in a 3D world, so it isn’t the amazing revolution that hucksters have been trying to sell us on for over 65 years now. And failing.
In regard to content and advertising:
www.latimes.com
“The uses Apple and Disney have presented so far are a bit of a Trojan horse, experts said. Apple’s target audience for the high-tech ski goggles isn’t consumers; it‘s other companies. The tech giant needs media brands, entertainment studios and software developers to start getting on board with this tech so that when customers show up en masse, there’s a suite of AR-exclusive content waiting for them.”
1) Not targeted at consumers
2) Allied with one of the most egregious corporate advertising forces
The math is pretty easy.
Skeptical about VR goggles? How Apple and Disney could create the future of entertainment
At Apple's last big developer conference, Bob Iger announced that Disney+ would be available on the tech company's new virtual reality headset. It could be a fad — or the future of mass media.
www.latimes.com
“The uses Apple and Disney have presented so far are a bit of a Trojan horse, experts said. Apple’s target audience for the high-tech ski goggles isn’t consumers; it‘s other companies. The tech giant needs media brands, entertainment studios and software developers to start getting on board with this tech so that when customers show up en masse, there’s a suite of AR-exclusive content waiting for them.”
1) Not targeted at consumers
2) Allied with one of the most egregious corporate advertising forces
The math is pretty easy.
The point was made that it was targeted at consumers. I rebutted that point.
Yes, Avatar. So????
The sequel came out more than 10 years later when most people probably forgot it existed, had a 3D option which is a format most people got over, and released in a post-pandemic world and still made over $2 billion dollars.
It's literally the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time.
Adjusted for inflation, it‘s not even in the top 10 (yet) and the original Avatar isn‘t #1. But still, it was a big hit and much more successful than I thought it would be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films
The thing is, people went to see Avatar in 3D in the theaters for the experience. If the vision pro can create an experience like nothing else, as a movie buff, that alone will sell me on the device.
I don’t think a movie with full VR lookaround would work that well because of the problem of framing. With 2D movies shots are carefully framed, and 3D movies are a halfway house, keeping the framing but adding depth.
It will be interesting to see how this works. I have watched a few 3D mini shows on the quest, and the reply value would be really high on the content because there would be so much to see.
Imagine Extraction 2 if you have seen that. There is about a 30 minute scene with no cuts. To watch that scene a few times and look around wherever you want would be pretty immersive.
I have a ten year old LG TV that converts 2D to 3D on the fly. It’s serviceable, but not great. After ten years, I’d like to think that the algorithms behind that would be a gazillion times better. Imagine being able to watch ANY video content on vision pro with good real time 3D conversion. That would be worth the price of admission for me.
Well 3D conversion still means 2D cards stacked on Z axis. Nothing spectacular. It's one of the first lessons in video compositing when they throw at you a single image and say make a matte out of it to paste real footage on top of it.
Real 3D conversion would be cutting 2D image into separate objects and generating volumetric video out of it while limiting the viewing angle of head rotation. It's not impossible but it's super tricky.
no. It would not be a system seller.
nobody would see a proper ROI on that type of content.
Quest has film experiences and I can imagine these movies would wind up feeling just as gimmicky.
MAYBE Apple signs on a big name and does 1 good video, but new releases would be few and far between.
nobody would see a proper ROI on that type of content.
Quest has film experiences and I can imagine these movies would wind up feeling just as gimmicky.
MAYBE Apple signs on a big name and does 1 good video, but new releases would be few and far between.
Totally agree though for me watching Avatar or any movies in 3D is just a good side dish. I have other more interesting plans for my VP. Saying that, I foresee a better execution of 3D movies in the future, perhaps one that specifically made for full immersion in VP.
I assume you're being sarcastic about the potential of 3D TVs, VR headsets or both
I guess VR enthusiasts have already crossed the Rubicon though.
I'd say no one can convince Hollywood to rotoscope all these films to 3D anymore, but surprisingly they still do. Nearly all films are still rotoscoped for the 3D cinema market in China. They can't shake it!
Funnily enough I love VR but hate 3D films, but maybe as you say, I just hate the implementation of 3D with polarised glasses.
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I assume you're being sarcastic about the potential of 3D TVs, VR headsets or both
I guess VR enthusiasts have already crossed the Rubicon though.
I'd say no one can convince Hollywood to rotoscope all these films to 3D anymore, but surprisingly they still do. Nearly all films are still rotoscoped for the 3D cinema market in China. They can't shake it!
Funnily enough I love VR but hate 3D films, but maybe as you say, I just hate the implementation of 3D with polarised glasses.
It’s goggles. Huge problem. Goggles, one of whose selling points is “3D movies.” But 3D movies have flopped here in the US over and over and over again.
3D Movies - almost all of them... were not filmed or developed in 3D - they were added in post processing. I have seen those movies in theatre and immediately I could see layers at different distances, but it was not 3D... it was horrible to me... I could see what I would describe as a popup childrens book where you have layers pop up... don't know if they sell those anymore. I have to say, I don't expect in the short term to see that improve any... as the market just does not exist and for the market to exist it has to be built on something else. It costs more to produce and film using proper 3D cameras, it also takes more care since a lot of film making 'tricks' are based on the it being 2D. To be quite honest, I don't really care to go to a theatre to watch a movie anyway... I would only do it to be social with a group of friends, otherwise I will wait until I can watch things at home.
I'm not sure Apple will convince an enormous number of people to try a VR headset that weren't already VR curious. But as a value-added benefit, Hollywood already has a back catalogue of 3D movies they are still rotoscoping for other markets.
Traditional shooting with two cams to create stereoscopic video has been abandoned because a lot of serious studios have mastered stereoscopic conversion and have custom software that will output 99% of the data that LR cam setup does. In the begining it was all cheese and bubblegum quality but producers were riding the train of digital 3D so they didn't care if conversion was half-arsed. As the demand increased various studios have created outrageous pipelines for stere conversion that were so much faster than LR cam post production and as equally good. What you have seen as a bad effect is just lazy conversion by someone who doesn't understand 3D watching experience properly. And that's ok, not everyone has to be an expert in everything but that's why there are people for certain jobs to hire instead.
Just keep in mind I am talking about 3D movies with some common sense budgets. I am not talking about Avatar 2 which used Sony's custom 3D camera for filming and bunch of other state of the art 3D setups that are unobtainium even for people with money to burn.
Anyway here is what was the biggest secret of digital era 3D movies. Movie projectors at the time sucked when reproducing a stereoscopic footage because of framerate limitations. It took theaters long time to get up to date projectors and by then 3D has faded away again. Back in late 2000s the proper way to watch 3D movies was your flaghsip Sony LCD TV with active glasses belive it or not. With motionflow cranked up to eleven (interpolating up to 120hz) image was buttery smooth for both eyes. Miles ahead at what was offered in majority of theathers back then. If you are a fan of 3D movies go grab a flagship 55" oldschool 1080p LCD Sony with local dimming array from 10 years ago, make sure goggles work and blast that bluray once again.
Edit: XBR-Z9D was the last flagship to offer 3D features with active glasses. I have no experience with it but if you are willing to spin the wheel there is one 75" available for $6,500 used online. If you are a 3D movie buff why not.
I still have my Samsung 65" from 2014 with active glasses(never a strain/headache) and lots of 3D discs and files on puter. A buddy has a projector(100" screen)with active glasses and the 3D is awesome. TVs had far too much cross talk and etc...but when the 3D movie is a good one, it's nice. I've seen some post production films that should've been a crime to release.
Anyway, 6k for that tv, lol. Naw, a projector for half that would be far better than any tv.
Regardless of 3D movie, one of the Vision Pro features is to take spatial videos and photo. This is what I imagine would draw more people interest. I love the idea of revisiting the past moment, not just through static video or photo, but "reexperiencing" / "reliving" it. This is a "futuristic concept" many thoughts would not be possible so soon, but it is here now and I am excited about it.
Sure, but those are special cameras that are super expensive and are not meant for common use (only in filming industry or science) - often with low quality results. Regardless of my doubt that your level of "creepiness" is the same as mine, it is intriguing how Apple bring 3D photography and videography into masses. This open many unique possibilities such as social media in 3D format. But more than that, I am pretty sure many of us have important memories that we wanted to relive them again but unfortunately there were no ways to do that besides the still images or normal videos. Your first child, your wedding party, your graduation, etc. For me, reliving such moments are far from creepy.
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No, 3D photography has been around for many decades, using consumer grade cameras using 35mm film. (Film of course is much higher resolution than digital.) But people haven’t embraced it. Not even in existing VR systems. So I really think the whole appeal of 3D content on this system is highly likely to suffer the same fate. People will play with it for a few hours and then put it down, never to pick it up again. Because the world is already in 3D. The allure of photographs and movies is that they’re abstracted from reality, not of a piece with it.
There is an expectation that the iPhone Pro models (either this year, or the following year at the latest) will add one more lense on the iPhone... of course for better results the second lense should be on the other side of the top of the camera... but in either case the expectation (of some professionals) is that Apple will have the ability to record in 3D from your iPhone as well... worst case scenario - it just provides more information that can be incorporated into the photo regardless of whether it is used for a 3D image or 2D. I would be more interested in the ability to merge two different imaging streams into something that can be used to record a slow-mo (slower motion - more frames per second) ability. (not like the specialized camera but more of anything is always better). I don't expect someone to grab the Vision Pro and put it on - just to take pictures at home. 3D Video on your iPhone would likely get the attention of vloggers and travel video stuff on YouTube 3D. StreetView 3D would be nice.