Frequently Asked Questions
Set up the settings as desired, and then click on the “IMAGE” text at the top of the group of image settings. A drop down menu will appear. Click on the save icon for the first entry, which will be loaded by default for new videos. Additional presets can be added for convenience.
Hold the grip button and move the thumbstick/trackpad (or hold the grip button and trigger button and twist the controller like a doorknob). Alternatively, there is an “Auto Hide Menu” toggle in the user settings. When enabled, the menu will automatically be hidden when making video image adjustments with the grip button.
HereSphere relies on ExoPlayer for playback, so some nonstandard video formats like 10bit h264 videos aren’t supported. Alternate playback methods might be added in the future to improve playback compatibility.
The more accurately the videos are calibrated with the projection settings, the more stable and accurate the autofocus feature will be. You can increase the autofocus accuracy in the user settings. Certain scene compositions may make the autofocus algorithm behave poorly. These include areas with very little contrast (like blank walls), areas of occlusion with bright lights in the background, and areas with symmetrical or repeating patterns. Setting a narrow range for the min and max autofocus distances will help the algorithm filter out incorrect results.
For websites that implement the HereSphere API, visit the website in the web browser and then hit the Web Stream button in the upper left corner to load a library of their video streams. For websites that don’t support the HereSphere API, you can stream directly from download links on the web page. Support for WebXR might be added in the future to play VR videos directly from the web browser, rather than having to click on a download link.
Near the top left of the seekbar, there’s an icon that looks like a play button with radio waves. Click on that to icon to access the synchronized peripherals menu. If you’re using a wifi peripheral, input the connection key to connect to your device. The Quest 2 version also supports some bluetooth peripheral devices. Enable the synchronized peripheral toggle, and then press the scan bluetooth devices button to connect to supported bluetooth peripherals.
HereSphere will look for specific file name suffixes to set the projection settings when opening a new video. Each suffix needs to start with an underscore, hyphen, or space. If no file name suffixes are found, HereSphere will fallback to autodetecting the correct projection settings.
3D Stereoscopic: “_LR” (left-right), “_RL” (right-left), “_3D” (left-right), “_TB” (top-bottom), “_BT” (bottom-top), “_3DV” (top-bottom), “_2D” (mono)
Equirectangular 180 FOV: “_180”
Equirectangular 360 FOV: “_360”
Fisheye 180 FOV Linear Lens SBS: “_F180” or “_180F”
Fisheye 190 FOV Linear Lens SBS: “_FISHEYE190” or “_RF52”
Fisheye 200 FOV iZugar MKX200 Lens SBS: “_MKX200”
Fisheye 220 FOV iZugar MKX22 Lens SBS: “_MKX22”
Fisheye 220 FOV VRCA220 Lens SBS: “_VRCA220”
Equiangular Cubemap: “_EAC360” or “_360EAC”
If “_180” or “_360” is found, but no stereoscopic suffixes are found, then the player will set the stereoscopic mode to mono. If a stereoscopic suffix is found, but no equirectangular, fisheye, or equiangular cubemap suffix isn’t found, then the player will set the projection type to perspective (flat screen). You can add “F” to the end of a 3D stereoscopic label (such as _LRF) to specify the video uses two full aspect ratio frames, so the player won’t stretch the aspect ratio of the 3D video.