Displaying 360 degree spherical media in VR

So far, we've done a decent job of reproducing 2D and 3D traditional screens in VR, but let's take things a step further and do something we can't easily do in the outside world. One of the most compelling and common uses of VR is to display immersive 360 degree video that surrounds the viewer. Even in mono, this can create a fairly deep sense of presence in users, and can be produced fairly easily using an ordinary camera and stitching software, or a dedicated camera that's been purpose-built to create spherical images.

 

Displaying spherical media, for the most part, works exactly as it does on the flat screen, but of course we'll need new geometry for our screen.

Finding 360 degree video 

First, let's find a video to play. A few good options live here: https://www.mettle.com/360vr-master-series-free-360-downloads-page/.

The Crystal Shower Falls link takes us to a Vimeo page that allows us to download the video. For our test here, the 1080p version...