Broad platform VR options

[jscottsmith]

I have a client who is determined to get interactive VR. In researching options for him, I've searched and read all relevant post on the forum. While a lot of the things currently in the works look cool, I can't wait or be committed to expensive hardware.

Is there an approach that would allow PC-based (like the old QTVR thing, but supporting all major OS's), web-based, Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, and Oculus? I'd like as many options as possible, but the lesser expensive ones take precedence. Roughly the order I listed them.

Part 2:
It's tough to find info that is current, since cameras have changed through the versions. What is the preferred method for creating VR content? (Type of camera, aspect, resolution, etc.)

It would be great if I could render a stereo pair for use in things like Cardboard and Gear, and just use one of them for the PC/web versions. Is that realistic or not?

[Goldorak]

360 stereo er panos should work in almost any player. The new stereo cube map format is the best quality for VR (images/video or interactive), but it has limited support outside of OTOY and Oculus apps on Gear VR at the moment. We are working on a free desktop ORBX player and eventually an HTML5 player (click on the OctaneVR demo to see ORBX.js in action).

[jscottsmith]

I don't see stereo cube map. I'm on 2.21.1. Is that why? Is it a single render?

[jscottsmith]

Also, can you describe "360 stereo er panos" a bit? My last test was a spherical camera with 360x180 fov. It worked in my viewer, but I'm guessing that's not the right approach.

[Rikk The Gaijin]

To render the stereo cubemap you need to go into the Resolution settings (the icon with the monitor and the axis arrows) and in the preset menu select Virtual Reality > 18432 x 1536 (GearVR stereo cube map)
If the render view doesn't display anything while render, go to Preferences > Application and set the Viewport to Software.