Today I spent daydreaming about travel. As I sat behind my keyboard, toiling away at today’s tasks, I’d take a peek at my lock screen or background for a minute. These images, like many people, are of fun places I’d love to go and visit one day. Unfortunately, the state of my bank account keeps me locked firmly at home.
What’s a nerd to do?
I’ll tell you what. I charged up my Quest and made a playlist of all kinds of places! While it’s no replace for the real thing, there is a lot of VR content surrounding exploring these unique and colorful places. From a boat tour in Venice, to the peaks of Machu Picchu, I spent my evening enjoying one place after another.
You can find plenty of experiences like this on YouTube. What can’t you find on there? If using a browser, be sure after you search to choose Filters -> Features -> 360 degrees. Once you choose one of these videos you can fullscreen them and choose to watch it as VR 360 from the bottom. If the video is split into two smaller videos, like playing Mario Kart with a friend looks, this is a stereoscopic video. These are even better because there is an image for each eye. This gives it depth and leads to an even more immersive video. Just make sure to grab a seat before you dive into any 360 videos, it can be easy to lose your balance if the scene moves unexpectedly.
Videos like that are a bit more rare, however, as the cameras for them are still quite expensive. Don’t worry though! GoPro and others have put out a number of 360 cameras and they keep reducing in price as more people buy them. This also has the awesome effect of giving us more content to explore! And if you’re the adventurous type yourself, maybe pick up a GoPro Fusion 360 or similar. Try making something cool to show off to the rest of the community!
So what should you watch? Where should you explore? That is all up to you! If you’re interested, I’ve put together a playlist of a few videos that I enjoy. It’s where I’m putting most of the ones I like so definitely keep an eye on it as it grows. Happy exploring!
