Google VRView with Jekyll
25 Jul 2017Google VR view allows developer to host VR content very easily with various platforms, including Android, iOS and Web. The content being hosted can be image or video, mono or stereo. Developer is also able to embed hotspot to allow user interaction with the VR content. More importantly, the VR view repository is open-source on Github.
In this post, I embedded some sample VR view widgets on my Jekyll page hosted on Github. All you need is a Google Cardboard to experience the 3D immersive world!
Showcase
Mono 360 Image
Image courtesy: Google VRView example
Stereo 360 Image
Image courtesy: Google VRView webpage
If you are using a browser on PC, the mono and stereo 360 images are rendered in the same way. Differences come when you are using a browser on a phone, and by clicking the Cardboard button on the widget. The script will redirect you to the Cardboard viewing mode.
Mono 360 image is rendered on a sphere, and pixel will be placed at the same focal distance. With stereo 3D image, the vergence of your eye will give you binocular vision.
VRView on Jekyll Blog
Enabling VRView content on your Jekyll blog is very straight-forward.
1. Build a local version of VRView
Clone the repository of Google VRView, and compile as instructed.
2. Copy the vrview folder into your jekyll folder
3. Declare the place holder for vrview content in your blog file
<div id="vrview-image-mono"></div>4. Add scripts to load desired content into the vrview widget
<script>
window.addEventListener('load', onVrViewLoad);
function onVrViewLoad() {
var vrView1 = new VRView.Player('#vrview-image-mono', {
image: '/public/image/vrview-taj-mahal.jpg',
is_stereo: false,
width: '100%',
height: 360
});
}
</script>The VRView Player class has some parameters that you can play with, for example, video looping, stereo mode control. The detailed list can be found on Google VR view website.
5. Build and experience!
Because Github page allows CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing), the content you upload to your Github repo can be accessed, for example, the video in vrview.
How about Video?
A little bit tricky! Sometimes it does not play.
Video courtesy: Google VRView example
Another Trick
VRView is able to handle requests as well.
Image Request
This is another mono 360 image, available with vrview examples:
http://longqian.me/vrview?image=../public/image/vrview-chichen-itza.jpg
Video Request
The following link will play the same video as in the previous section.
http://longqian.me/vrview?video=../public/video/congo_2048.mp4&is_stereo=true
Player parameter can be appended to the URI with & symbol, and multiple parameters can be concatenated.
Bloging should be COOL in the VR era.
Thanks for reading! 