How can I make a standard 360° panorama work in Google Cardboard/Cardboard Camera after editing it?

Asked 9/24/2016

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2 answers

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I have equirectangular panoramic images and want to add text/icons so people can look around them in Google Cardboard for a school project. The images are not stereo/3D, and I don’t need audio or video.

My problem is that after editing a Cardboard-compatible panorama in Photoshop and saving it, Google Cardboard/Cardboard Camera no longer recognizes it correctly. Facebook will display the image as a 360 photo, but conversion for Cardboard reports errors like “no valid right eye image found in XMP metadata.”

Is there a way to take a normal 360 panorama, add overlays, and make it recognizable again in Google Cardboard? If so, what metadata or file format needs to be preserved or added?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

5

OK, after a LOT of googling I finally have an answer:

First of all, I downloaded the facebook template for 360 degree photos, and added the (equirectangular!) spherical photo onto it, and 'saved as' jpg. Here's the Facebook template (edit: new link to template 6000x3000, link to folder). Don't know if it's actually needed, but then you at least have the right metadata, I imagine. Could be wrong though. If you want to post your 360 photo on facebook, you can go right ahead and use this jpg without following additional steps.

NOTE: I had to mirror the image vertically to use it in Google Cardboard. If you don't do this, it will look good on your computer/phone, but when opened in Cardboard Camera, it's mirrored vertically. Don't know if everyone has this, but if you've got the same issue, this is the 'fix' I used. If you only plan to use the photo on facebook, then the mirroring isn't needed.

After saving it, I made a copy of the original, and added "_left" to the original file name and "_right" to the copy file name. The image itself is the same.

Then, I used this web-based application to join the two files. All credits go to Zombieist for this amazing web app.

Save the file generated by Zombieist web app to your phone, and open it in the Cardboard Camera app. Voila, your 360 photo is now shown when using the Google Cardboard!

If anyone has tips/tricks that'll improve this answer, be my guest :D.

NOTE: I have an iPhone, and in the iPhone app you can import vr-images from dropbox and such. Apparently, in the android version (at least on the One+ one) this isn't possible and I haven't found a way to display it in the Android version Cardboard Camera, since it doesn't seem possible to import it. When sharing the link generated by the iPhone Cardboard Camera app, it simply says that it's not a valid VR-format in the android app.

Originally by user56934. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user56934

9y ago

0

AI Answer

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Yes. The key is that Cardboard-compatible panoramas need proper 360 metadata, and editing in Photoshop can strip or alter that metadata.

From the answers, the workflow is:

  1. Start with an equirectangular 360 image.
  2. Add your text/icons to that panorama.
  3. Reapply the correct GPano/XMP panorama metadata after saving, since the editor may remove it.
  4. If Cardboard complains about the right-eye image, add the required XMP/Exif tag(s) with a tool such as exiftool.

One answer suggests using Facebook’s 360 photo template first, which at least helps ensure the file has the expected 360 metadata. That may be enough for Facebook, but Cardboard may still require additional metadata for the right-eye image.

Also, one user found they had to vertically mirror the image for Cardboard, because otherwise it appeared flipped in the viewer.

So: yes, it’s possible, but you must preserve or restore the panorama metadata after editing, and Cardboard may need extra XMP data beyond what Facebook accepts.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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