Announcing Kolor Eyes, a 360° WebGL video player

[AlexandreJ]

Announcing Kolor Eyes, a 360° WebGL video player

by AlexandreJ » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:59 pm

Hi,

It's really with a pleasure that we are disclosing this new 360° video player today called Kolor Eyes.

What it is exactly ?
- a HTML 5 spherical video player, using the new HTML5 language like the <video> tags
- It's based on WebGL to be able to render video, transform the video at real-time frame rate even on full screen
- There is several projection mode possible, like Pannini, orthographic, fisheye, full dome, little world, etc
- You have all the controls that a standard virtual visit have ( top, down, left, right, zoom in, zoom out, etc ), but also standard videos controls to play / stop the video stream.

The url is here : http://www.gigastitch.com/kolor-eyes-1.0/

You need a WebGL compatible browser. We recommend Firefox 4. It works also on Chrome 10, but it is really not as good as Firefox 4.

I hope you will enjoy this technical demonstration.

Best,

Alexandre

[fma38]

by fma38 » Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:36 pm

Great!!!!

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:37 pm

You need a WebGL compatible browser. We recommend Firefox 4. It works also on Chrome 10, but it is really not as good as Firefox 4.

Safari as well as Firefox and Chrome on Mac don´t take it. So what is a "WebGL compatible browser"?

best, Klaus

[AlexandreJ]

by AlexandreJ » Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:46 pm

Firefox 4 works on any platform. Chrome 10 on Mac and linux, but it's slow. Chrome 10 on windows is just buggy.

[Gordon]

by Gordon » Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:57 pm

You need a WebGL compatible browser. We recommend Firefox 4. It works also on Chrome 10, but it is really not as good as Firefox 4.

Safari as well as Firefox and Chrome on Mac don´t take it. So what is a "WebGL compatible browser"?

best, Klaus

Hey Klause,

You cab get the latest Firfox beta for PC & Mac from here should work fine http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Best
Gordon

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:03 pm

You cab get the latest Firfox beta for PC & Mac from here should work fine http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Best
Gordon

Hey Gordon!

Thanks - i´ll try that.

best, Klaus

P.S.: works! Great!

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser on Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[fma38]

by fma38 » Fri Mar 18, 2011 6:03 pm

I can't make WebGL working with firefox 4 under linux. Is there somthing special to do to turn it on? The disable param in the config is False, so it should work...

[Destiny]

by Destiny » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:52 am

I am using an iMac.. tried downloading latest V of Firefox but it did not like it at all...

Real shame.. I was looking forward to seeing that...

D

[gkaefer]

by gkaefer » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:28 pm

Alexandre,

is it possible to use videos which do not cover 360x180 sphere?
the GoPro Sports cam I use for mountain biking and skiing has an

•Angle of View: 170º ultra wide angle in WVGA, 720p, or 960p mode
•Angle of View: 127º wide angle in 1080p mode

will it be possible to use Kolor Eyes with such videos and to limit the FOV to the size of the video?

gopro: http://gopro.com/cameras/hd-helmet-hero-camera/

Liebe Gruesse,
Georg

[Adrien F]

by Adrien F » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:39 am

Very nice!

I tested on two linux computers with chromium, it only worked with the one having a real GPU (nvidia). The other one having a built in Intel GPU chipset was blacklisted by the browser, I had to run chromium with the --ignore-gpu-blacklist option to run the viewer. But it complained about unsupported IR in fragment shaders and the video stream was all messed.

I guess web browser coming with WebGL support will restrict it to some GPU in a first time.

But again, very cool to finally see Kolor eyes in a public demo, with video support what's more!

[AlexandreJ]

by AlexandreJ » Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:36 am

is it possible to use videos which do not cover 360x180 sphere?

That's one of the ideas behind Kolor Eyes. You have your GoPro video and we provide you a way to look at it in rectangular projection directly without the need of any video retranscoding.

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:21 pm

is it possible to use videos which do not cover 360x180 sphere?

That's one of the ideas behind Kolor Eyes. You have your GoPro video and we provide you a way to look at it in rectangular projection directly without the need of any video retranscoding.

Great! Now i will try to rent such a camera . . . .

best, Klaus

[gkaefer]

by gkaefer » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:33 pm

is it possible to use videos which do not cover 360x180 sphere?

That's one of the ideas behind Kolor Eyes. You have your GoPro video and we provide you a way to look at it in rectangular projection directly without the need of any video retranscoding.

Great! Now i will try to rent such a camera . . . .

best, Klaus

price for the gopro is 219,-€ - 350,-€ depending on amount of addons, mounts, etc...
dont think you can rent it ;-)
http://www.camforpro.com/

Georg

[gkaefer]

by gkaefer » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:34 pm

is it possible to use videos which do not cover 360x180 sphere?

That's one of the ideas behind Kolor Eyes. You have your GoPro video and we provide you a way to look at it in rectangular projection directly without the need of any video retranscoding.

!!!! yes !!!!
releasedate, price? ;-))
Georg

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:59 pm

That's one of the ideas behind Kolor Eyes. You have your GoPro video and we provide you a way to look at it in rectangular projection directly without the need of any video retranscoding.

Great! Now i will try to rent such a camera . . . .

best, Klaus

price for the gopro is 219,-€ - 350,-€ depending on amount of addons, mounts, etc...
dont think you can rent it ;-)
http://www.camforpro.com/

Georg

I only know the camera ball/cube with 8 cameras: http://immersivemedia.com/products/capture.html

But GoPros is a good idea!

best, Klaus

[gkaefer]

by gkaefer » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:13 pm

Great! Now i will try to rent such a camera . . . .

best, Klaus

price for the gopro is 219,-€ - 350,-€ depending on amount of addons, mounts, etc...
dont think you can rent it ;-)
http://www.camforpro.com/

Georg

I only know the camera ball/cube with 8 cameras: http://immersivemedia.com/products/capture.html

But GoPros is a good idea!

best, Klaus

these cant be compared. gopro is a fun sports cam with dozens of options to mount it ...
... to your ski, sail of your paraglider or surfboard, to your helmet onto the planes wing (guarantee up to 200miles ;-)
... and the gopro is a dumb cam, no focus, no lens settings just switch on, pause, stop, play, record
the fov is 120 or 170 degree depending of the used format size.
PS: water proof until 60m

Georg

[kalain]

by kalain » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:56 pm

I am using an iMac.. tried downloading latest V of Firefox but it did not like it at all...
Real shame.. I was looking forward to seeing that...
D

Same for me on Firefox 4.0 RC2. Win XP (latest available version)

It says : Your browser does not seem to support WebGL.

Anything to set up on Firefox 4.0 RC2 ? (Win XP Pro)

[klausesser]

by klausesser » Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:55 pm

I am using an iMac.. tried downloading latest V of Firefox but it did not like it at all...

Real shame.. I was looking forward to seeing that...

D

I loaded the latest FF4 RC version on my MacPro. It works fine showing Kolor Eyes.

best, Klaus

[ygilquin]

by ygilquin » Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:01 pm

FIREFOX 4.0 SETUP FOR WEBGL

For people experiencing troubles trying to view Kolor Eyes with Firefox 4.0, there is sometimes a couple of flags to check in configuration. Here's the how-to-proceed. Open a new tab and go to url about:config, accept the prompt (you won't do anything unsafe here )

In filter field, enter webgl, screen should be refreshed with only webgl related properties. 2 properties have to be checked: webgl.disabled should be false and webgl.force-enabled should be true. To toggle value, just double click on the name of the property.

Once done, simply close the tab, refresh Kolor Eyes and enjoy !

Addendum
Some people also reported us trouble with firefox claiming WebGL is not supported. Some video cards are discarded by firefox (black listed), depending on a combination of the material, the operating system version and the video driver version. Here's the Mozilla wiki page giving details on this: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Blocklisting/Blocked_Graphics_Drivers

In this case you can enable native WebGL acceleration by ensuring following properties are enabled in about:config:
webgl.force-enabled
webgl.prefer-native-gl

Firefox also proposes a support screen reachable by entering about:support in the location bar. You will find in last section information about hardware acceleration status, video driver and WebGL rendering engine for your current installation of the browser. This may help you finding why you can't display WebGL content.

Finally here is the Firefox help page where you could find solutions to problems not listed here http://support.mozilla.com

Last edited by ygilquin on Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[ygilquin]

by ygilquin » Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:46 pm

I had to run chromium with the --ignore-gpu-blacklist option to run the viewer. But it complained about unsupported IR in fragment shaders and the video stream was all messed.

I think you've been where no one did before you ! Anyway, thanks for this test report and the nice words. Hope you're fine !

[kalain]

by kalain » Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:50 pm

In filter field, enter webgl, screen should be refreshed with only webgl related properties. 2 properties have to be checked: webgl.disabled should be false and webgl.force-enabled should be true. To toggle value, just double click on the name of the property.

It works now with these settings.

[jarane]

by jarane » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:45 pm

Hi everyone,
I downloaded the Webkit-SVN-r80833 for Safari to be able to view Kolor Eyes' demo.
Followed the instructions to add the command "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool YES" into Terminal.

Not only Safari did not open the file but now I can't see ANY .swf file on ANY browser in my computer.
Every time I get the message: "Flash Player (Safari Internet plug-in) quit unexpectedly." (both in Safari and Firefox)

Anybody has an idea how to revert this?

Thanks in advance,
E.C.

[vincen]

by vincen » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:36 pm

Not only Safari did not open the file but now I can't see ANY .swf file on ANY browser in my computer.
Every time I get the message: "Flash Player (Safari Internet plug-in) quit unexpectedly." (both in Safari and Firefox)

Did you try "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool NO" and restart Safari ?

Vincèn

[jarane]

by jarane » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:47 pm

Hi Vincen,
copied and pasted code from your post into Terminal, restarted Safari and nothing happened.
Then rebooted the computer(just in case) but nothing works

E.C.

[vincen]

by vincen » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:52 pm

copied and pasted code from your post into Terminal, restarted Safari and nothing happened.
Then rebooted the computer(just in case) but nothing works

Did you try to reinstall Flash Player from Adobe website ?

Vincèn