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Squarepusher • ‘Stor Eiglass’ • YouTube 360

Warp Records · Youtube · 71 HN points · 1 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention Warp Records's video "Squarepusher • ‘Stor Eiglass’ • YouTube 360".
Youtube Summary
Squarepusher’s ‘Stor Eiglass – a VR experience from Marshmallow Laser Feast, Rob Pybus & Blue Zoo.
For the fully immersive complete virtual reality experience:
Android / Google Cardboard Version: http://smarturl.it/stor-eiglass-play
IOS: http://smarturl.it/stor-eiglass-ios

**Best Viewed in Chrome Browser**
(use mouse or keyboard keys W/A/S/D to change perspective) or view via the YouTube app for Android (move device around to view different angles)


The track is taken from ‘Damogen Furies’ out 20 April,
Bleep – http://smarturl.it/damogen-bleep
iTunes – http://smarturl.it/damogen-itunes
Amazon – http://smarturl.it/damogen-amazon

To mark the release of ‘Stor Eiglass’, the latest track from Squarepusher’s ‘Damogen Furies’ album, bleeding-edge artists Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), Blue Zoo and Rob Pybus have come together to create not just a standard music video, but a virtual reality (VR) promo that can be experienced via a VR headsets, mobiles, tablets and Youtube’s new 360º platform. Read more at http://warp.net

CREDITS:
Artist: Squarepusher
Label: Warp Records
Performed and Composed: Tom Jenksinson
Director: Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF)
MLF Creative Director / Video Director: Robin McNicholas
Co-Director: Rob Pybus
MLF Exec Producer: Adam Doherty
MLF Producer: Mike Jones
Animation Studio: Blue Zoo
VR Development: Blue Zoo
Illustration: Rob Pybus

http://www.squarepusher.net/
https://www.facebook.com/squarepusher
https://twitter.com/SQUAREPUSHER
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.
Nice! There's also a Squarepusher video that uses the same mechanic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Olt-ZtV_CE
May 15, 2015 · 71 points, 38 comments · submitted by anigbrowl
fragmede
Youtube 360 is a rarely used feature.

There are a few videos, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RPurvYriHI or https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=ClAuhgFQpLo

If you're interested in making one yourself, here are the specs on the metadata needed, direct from Google, on how to make one: https://github.com/google/spatial-media/blob/master/docs/sph...

comex
Works in Chrome; in Safari and Firefox, YouTube shows the original, distorted video without even a message to the effect that it's not the intended experience. Both of these browsers support WebGL, of course, so I doubt there is any technical reason only Chrome is supported. Why am I not surprised that this is nevertheless the case?
nosuchthing
Works best with the Youtube app.
Daiz
Just a note: Seeing as this is achieved by only showing (distorted) portions of the encoded video, using the 4K option is actually beneficial even if you don't have a 4K screen.

Here's a sample of what the encoded video looks like when viewed in a normal video fashion: http://i.imgur.com/SZmUMSF.jpg

Scaevolus
You can also use their embedded player to watch it distorted: https://www.youtube.com/v/6Olt-ZtV_CE

Does anyone know which projection this is?

texeltexel
By the screenshot, I would say it is a cylindrical projection of a sphere - the top row and bottom row represent just a single point of the sphere
andybak
More interestingly - stick your phone in a cardboard VR rig and just look around...
mijoharas
I hadn't heard about this yet, but apparently it's been around for a couple of months. Here's an article I found - http://www.roadtovr.com/youtube-now-supports-360-video-no-vr...
shibby
Everton FC published something similar to show their stadium pre-match - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNUotXTKpk
hartror
It is like someone videoed a VRML world.
ZeroGravitas
You can drag with your finger to look around on the Android Youtube app.
wildpeaks
Just so you know, the video is blocked in Germany.
rocketeerbkw
Looks like this only work in chrome?
cpcallen
Not even in Chrome: I just see the whole distorted image. Even tried disabling various extensions that might be interfering, but to no avail.
mijoharas
I think I read that it needs to be a recent chrome. I can only confirm that it works as expected on ubuntu chrome `Version 42.0.2311.135 (64-bit)`
vinbreau
I couldn't get it to work in any of my browsers. There simply is no changing the view. I tried the latest Chrome and Firefox. The view is always static.
jasonkostempski
Looking down is NSFW :)
mijoharas
I hadn't heard about this yet, but apparently it's been around for a couple of months. Here's an article I found - http://www.roadtovr.com/youtube-now-supports-360-video-no-vr...
choppaface
is this "3D video" ?
choppaface
Seriously, do people consider this 3D video?
throwaway69420
wheres the fucking rift version
vel
Thanks so much for posting! I was the lead 3D artist on this. Will be happy to answer any questions. This took us a total of 6 weeks between me, our unity dev and Rob Pybus (the illustrator). Hopefully the gear VR version gets approved today or tomorrow as that's the best way to view it if you can get hold of one in the wild!
bigbugbag
I have 6+ different web browsers on my computer (firefox, opera, arora, rekonq, qupzilla,…) why is this video looks like a distorted psychedelic pile of vomit in all of my browsers ?

I usually like warp records and squarepusher, with this video both their reputation have taken a serious hit. Do you think it is a smart move alienating fans who care for their privacy ?

stronglikedan
From the description: "Best Viewed in Chrome Browser"

Using Chrome, it works as intended for me.

unvs
Nice work! Was Hariton Pushwagner a concious inspiration, or is it just coincindentally similar?
vel
Our illustrator Pybus's work- http://pybism.com/ is a sort of blend of Pushwagner and Moebius through his own acid absurdist style. I'm sure Rob draws on all sorts of inspiration in his work- I can't say for sure if it was a conscious inspiration.

As for myself, I was drawing inspiration from (other than pybus) PS1 era games and artists like David O'Reilly, John Karel, Eran Hilleli and brianbrianbrianbrian.com basically everyone who embraces the low poly (we had a strict budget for how many triangles the gear VR's Note 4 could handle) Thanks!

mijoharas
I have a question. I haven't read much about this type of youtube video until now. How do you upload one to youtube, and is it just a cylindrical projection of a sphere as texeltexel suggested? how do you produce it, in practical terms?
vel
Our dev wrote a script that exported cube maps out of unity 30 frames a second. I then stitched those together in using the spherical projection node in nuke. We have the resolution up to 12k (6x 2k maps). Ideally in the future we'll have ~8k 360 so that you have a HD image wherever you look but 4k is the max for youtube and is really pushing what an average machine can decode without stutter. Thanks!
mijoharas
Thanks for your response. sounds interesting.
throwaway7767
I don't have access to my oculus right now, but how does that work? Is there a unity demo executable to download somewhere?
vel
We're waiting on oculus at the moment to approve the gear VR build, They've been great but we've been having a few last minute problems with it. Hopefully if all goes it'll be on the store soon.

In the meantime the android and iphone apps have a cardboard mode so you if you've got a cardboard you can have a budget vr experience.

If you've got a DK2- hopefully we'll put out a build on that next week. Although I'm not sure how we'll release that.

Thanks

anigbrowl
Oh, this is a nice surprise. Just wanted to say good job - I was watching it and thinking 'Hmmm, it's like Money for Nothing for a new generation.' That video inspired a lot of people to get interested in computers and I'm sure yours will too.
vel
Oh dude, what a nice comment! I don't think it'll make any sorta dent like that in the world but thanks.

About money for nothing- isn't it funny how the cg looked so naff about 10 years after it came out? Yet now when I watch it- it looks kinda cool! I hope we look back on this sorta low fi era cg as fondly as 8 bit. Those guys back then just made the best they could with those tools.

bishop74
This is great stuff !! Did you actually get a chance to meet Tom Jenkinson as part of your work ?
vel
Thanks Unfortunately I did not. The creative director Robin and Pybus met with him a couple of times. They relayed what everyone knows of him really, in that he's a very subversive and intelligent guy. He decried our era electronic music- and I think that's what he wanted to challenge with his album. This guy is a serious avant garde electronic pioneer- his new album was built entirely using his own software, which is pretty unique and crazy thing when you think about it.
bishop74
I have to agree with you on all accounts about Jenkinsson. I knew he was building his own patches with Reaktor but was not aware that he built his own software, which is indeed unique and crazy.
skrebbel
Yes, a question. Please don't take it as criticism, because it isn't.

With WebGL out there and all that, and Flash player being quite decent at flatshaded vector art as well, isn't a distorted youtube video with a browser-specific trick among the very worst ways to deliver this content?

I really love the art by the way, great work!

vel
Thanks man!

A webgl version would have been great but as we were already targeting 360 youtube, android, google cardboard, iphone and gear VR I think another platform would have broken our dev! I would personally love to do more unity based webgl stuff- there's so much potential there for interactive animation. Like most things, In the end it just came down to money and time.

I agree though, It isn't really ideal that people are forced to use chrome and I think some people will see the undistorted version, not realise what it's meant to be and write it off. Which is a shame. It's early days for 360 video and I hope in a few months time I hope it's easier to see.

This is the first project I've done where viewing it on a phone is arguably the best experience (sorry Mr Lynch), you look silly waving your phone around but it's a bit of fun in the end of the day!

skrebbel
Ahh right, so "Youtube 360" is an actual thing and it's made for phone first. Ok that makes more sense :-)

Thanks!

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