Facebook Tweaks Their VR for 360 Streaming

If you follow tech news, you are probably aware that Facebook bought Oculus VR, the virtual reality headset. As you may expect, they are in the process of enhancing it. According to InfoWorld, Facebook is gearing up for 360 degree video, and the issues that will occur. As internet speeds get faster, companies will be able to do more with streaming technology. The truth is, if you are just watching content, your connection does not need to be terribly fast.

Oculus Rift

There a few hurdles that facebook needs to address, for providing the best user experience. If you are only going to stream videos, the connection speed required is approximately 1 MBPS to achieve a framerate of 24 Frames Per Second (FPS). That is the speed that a movie camera uses to achieve fluid motion. However, streaming for VR will increase the speed by a massive amount. The entire world needsĀ  to be created around the user, no matter which direction they look.

Quality is another issue for the engineers. If users are going to be immersed in the VR world, image quality must be detailed and easily scaled. The goal is to make the images look as realistic as possible. Though humans do not need perfection in virtual reality to display emotions, they want to make it look as good as it possibly can.

Device reaction will also come in to play. Will it be able to handle the load and the file size needed to provide a wonderful experience? Of course, that depends on the equipment. Most modern day gaming computer have the ability to handle 3D experiences, but the cost is still high for those machines.

Once the technology and internet connection advance further, there is sure to be a real boom in the amount of internet traffic. Fortunately, in many countries, it is illegal to throttle bandwidth based on usage. No matter what, the virtual reality world is coming quickly, and Facebook is just the company to do it.