Exactly. I wasn’t sure how to describe it, but that’s what I was getting at with the commentary about the VR Sistine Chapel and that kind of thing. You get the relative scale of the items, and their distance from the viewer. Something like a mountaintop might be good as well, in that you’d get that “presence” that implies that you’re really high, and can see a really long way, that just seeing a 360 degree panorama doesn’t give you.
The Louvre probably wouldn’t be a great subject; flat paintings don’t lend themselves to VR nearly as much as things like buildings, plazas, and other large things. Sculptures maybe, but you could just as easily present them without having to duplicate the room they’re in.
OTOH, a VR version of something like the Pantheon in Rome would be pretty cool, as would just about any huge cathedral or similarly huge building. Or maybe something like the Empire State Bldg. observation deck, if everything was rendered in 3D and appropriately rendered and what-not.
Just heard some discussion today about the Louvre actually and why it would be a cool VR experience. the guy talking about it mentioned going to see the Mona Lisa and how he couldn’t get within 10 feet of it because of the crowd, plus it was covered by a glass case and it was actually a pretty small painting. He left pretty disappointed.
Imagine being able to view an accurate 3D reconstruction of it where you could get in close, see the brush strokes, the detail, etc. That could be a great learning experience, possible a transcendent experience for an artist interested in such things.
VR isn’t there yet though. The headsets just aren’t of high enough resolution.
[quote=“Kinthalis, post:39, topic:773257”]
This is a commercial for the Vive, it might help convey what VR is all about a bit better:
[/QUOTE]If the S7 looked like that, that might be fun.
And if it is, they should show that in the commercial! 
That’s what I was imagining. Close up views without danger of damage to the images.
Plus, no crowds, or expensive trip to Paris.
Ahh, yes the Vive is more a premium VR experience. The S7 isn’t really going to compare 
You need a powerful PC plus the headset is $700.
I haven’t tried Gear VR, but google cardboard sucks compared to something like the Vive, and yet cardboard was still really cool to try.
It’s a compelling medium, but as said, it’s still very much early adopter days for the tech.
That’s actually what I was trying to get at, more or less. With current resolutions, there’s nothing to be gained from looking at a painting in VR vs. on a monitor, as in many cases you can’t get close enough even in person to see the 3D detail, even when they’re not quite so segregated as the Mona Lisa. For example, if you go to the Contarelli chapel in the Cathedral of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, you can get close to several Caravaggio paintings, but you can’t get that close, which is true of many famous paintings.
Something like sculpture, friezes, architecture, etc… that have 3 dimensions are well suited to VR. Even seeing multple angles often doesn’t do them justice, and nor does it give you a good indication of their size. For example, Donatello’s bronze *David *is quite a bit smaller than you might think, but pictures don’t really show that, while VR would.
I would strongly recommend against VR. This man almost died while using it.
With the Google Cardboard Camera, you can take your own 360-degree pictures. Just hold up your phone and slowly turn in a circle. You can later view the picture in a VR headset and see your travel shots in full surround 3D (which it creates by offsetting the images presented to your right and left eyes).
I’ve only used Google Cardboard, with a cheap $5 viewer I picked up in a drugstore, so I haven’t gotten the full VR experience. But I’m still pretty impressed, oohing and ahhing over the basic content I’ve watched. Like some of these movies.
is it just me or is “cardboard” just about the stupidest possible name for an amazing high tech whatever-the-heck-it-is?
“Google cardboard” in the context of VR makes me think of some hokey paperboard disposable red/green 3D glasses *a la *the 1950s. Put them on, hold your phone at arms length, look at the screen, and be prepared to be laughed at for your naiveté. That’s the only thing that name makes me think of. Or maybe, just maybe, a Viewmaster disc. Those were cardboard too. Cutting edge overwhelming awesome? Not!
Their marketing department easily has 1000x more clue about cool than I do. What am I missing about their choice of name?
They are literally made from a bit of cardboard.
That’s basically what the idea is – the “cardboard” name carries the connotation of a super-cheap bare-bones way to let people experience 3D VR on their phones, without having to pay hundreds of dollars for the more expensive equipment (the ones that actually have fancy names, like Vive or GearVR).
I found it very useful for visualizing protein structures; being able to see the depth directly gives me, at least, a much better idea of the protein’s surface than just viewing the same image on a flat screen.
That’s exactly what Google Cardboard is. It’s a cheap cardboard viewer, often given out for free - New York Times mailed one to every subscriber last year. And by promoting it as a cheesy cheap viewer, they avoid being compared to high-end VR systems like the HTC Vive. Also, they have recently come out with the Daydrem View VR viewer, which is more advanced (comparable with the Samsung Gear VR, except it comes with a remote control which makes it much more user-friendly).
And it’s funny you should mention Viewmaster, because they now make a similar and very popular phone-based VR system.
It’s actually $800 ($799) for the HTC Vive, and for that you get high quality optics, 70 different motion and position sensors including infrared lasers mounted in the room that track the wearer’s position, and wireless controllers. Plus you need a really powerful computer to drive it. I’ve never tried Google cardboard but I’ve used the Vive and there’s no way a smartphone in a cardboard box is going to come anywhere close to that kind of immersive VR experience.