veri

A Virtual Reality Web Video Player

This javascript library makes it easy to play VR videos from a browser. You can use it to play VR videos in HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Samsung Gear. It provides the functionality which is often useful with VR videos, such as headset movement detection; ambisonic audio interface; hand-held controller interface and rendering; rendering of 3D OBJ objects over the video layer, or inside the VR scene; crosshairs support, with animated buttons, or animated crosshairs.

When embedded in an HTML page, Veri will set up a WebGL canvas and a THREE.js WebVR environment which renders a VR video. It can play stereoscopic videos (side-by-side and top-to-bottom) as well as monoscopic videos.

To view the video you will need a browser which supports WebVR. For HTC Vive this means you will need to download a special build of Chromium. For Oculus Rift you will need a WebVR version of Mozilla, and on Samsung Gear you can use the Samsung Internet browser. See WebVR Info for more information on that.

For a regular PC or Mac with no headset attached, you can still view 360 videos, or add the WebVR API Emulation extension which shows you what would be seen on the headset.

For more information see the veri Home Page

Worked Example

For basic usage, you must include the veri library and a video element:

<script src="../dist/veri.js"></script>
<video
id="veri"
crossorigin="anonymous"
autoplay
loop
src="https://threejs.org/examples/textures/MaryOculus.webm"
style="display: none; width: 100%; height: 100%; background: black;" />

Then you setup the VR options and start playing:

var veri = new Veri();
 
veri.setup({
    controls: "auto",
    vrEnabled: true,
    stereoscopic: "left-to-right",
    initializeCanvas: true,
    camera: {
        fov: 90,          // wider -> narrower  (10..100)
        aspect: window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight,
        near: 0.1,
        far: 1000
    },
    renderer: {
        width: window.innerWidth,
        height: window.innerHeight
    },
    light: {
        position: Veri.vec3(2, 2, 2)
    }
});
 
veri.start();

For True VR

True VR experiences require a VR headset, such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or Samsung Gear. This implies two camera perspectives will be rendered. The implementation is based on WebVR and Three.js.

Full Functionality List

The VR plugin supports the following:

• setup a THREE js canvas
• setup a scene: camera, lighting, walls
• setup VR (requires VR hardware)
• setup stereoscopic VR, which provides depth
  • side-by-side frames supported
  • top-to-bottom frames supported
• setup a monoscopic 360 video
• crosshairs - a small object at the center of the field of vision for pointing to targets in the VR scene
  • default circle animation
  • supports sprite animation
    • buttons can be animations
    • the crosshairs can be animated
• setup interaction objects using an overlay. Objects are 3D objects and their textures, provided in OBJ file format.
  • overlay fixed in the camera's reference frame
  • overlay fixed in the video's reference frame
• interaction handling
  • device-driven movement (rotation of mobile device, movement of headset)
  • panning with mouse drag for 360 video
  • zoom in/out with mouse wheel for 360 video
  • limit interaction space to avoid overlap with control bar on top and bottom
  • keyboard control
• RayCasting - detect which object was clicked in the scene
• audio implemented by jsAmbisonics
  • positional audio sources
  • ambisonic audio sources
• general event emitter functionality

The following are not yet supported:

• iPhone 360 video
• debugging helpers
  • show axis
  • show fps

Complete annotated list of configuration options

veri.setup({
 
    // controls:
    // "auto" will auto-detect.  Can be set to "device", "mouse"
    controls: "auto",     // auto-detect
 
    // vrEnabled:
    // if set to true, and VR hardware is found, then the
    // the video is rendered on the VR hardware, using WebVR
    vrEnabled: true,
 
    // polyfillWebVR:
    // if set to true, WebVR is poly-filled-in
    // to control from URL query string, set this to
    // !!window.location.search.match("polyfill")
    polyfillWebVR: false,
 
    // stereoscopic:
    // can be set to "side-by-side" if the eye frames
    // are next to each other, or "top-to-bottom"
    // monoscopic videos don't set this.
    stereoscopic: "side-by-side",
 
    // debug:  (OPTIONAL)
    // here you can request display of axis or fps
    debug: {
        showAxis: false,
        showFPS: false
    },
 
    // camera:
    // position and camera settings.  For more information refer to THREEjs.
    // camera direction is only relevant when vrEnabled is false.  When it is
    // set to true the vr-input device controls already provide a direction.
    camera: {
        pos: Veri.vec3(0, 0, 0),
        fov: 35,          // wider -> narrower  (10..100)
        aspect: window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight,
        near: 0.1,
        far: 1000,
        direction: Veri.vec3(0, 0, -1) // the lookAt vector3
    },
 
    // Animated Crosshairs
    //
    // provide a list of targets that the crosshairs can activate
    // each target must have a name and direction.  The direction is
    // specified using Veri.rot3 (syntactic sugar for THREE.Euler),
    // reduced to theta (vertical angle) and phi (horizontal angle)
    //
    // hitRadius - radians offset which is considered
    //     part of the target
    //
    // hitTime - time in milliseconds until the target is considered "clicked"
    //
    // sprite - optional sprite for animation.  Must be a "power-of-two" image,
    //     meaning the width and height must be powers of two, though not necessarily
    //     identical to each other. Includes attributes:
    //     src - url
    //     columns, rows - columns and rows in the sprite
    //     count - number of actual images in the sprite.
    //     objWidth, objHeight - size of invisible rectangle used to project the sprite.
    //     width, height - if the images are not exact fractions of the sprite
    //            width and height, specify them here.
    //
    //     If sprite is not specified
    //     then a small ring is used to indicate selection progress
    //
    // Note: use the event emitter to determine crosshairs state.
    crosshairs: {
        type: "animated-crosshairs",
        debug: false,
        targets: [ {
            name: "play",
            direction: Veri.rot3(0, -100)
        }, {
            name: "stop",
            direction: Veri.rot3(0, -80)
        }],
        hitRadius: 10,
        hitTime: 6000,
        sprite: {
            src: "../resources/sprite/circle.png",
            distance: 300,
            columns: 8,
            rows: 8,
            count: 60,
            objWidth: 60,
            objHeight: 60,
            width: 60,
            height: 60
        }
    },
 
    // Animated buttons
    //
    // Rather than having an animated crosshairs, in this case the
    // buttons themselves start animating when a static crosshairs enters
    // the button area.
    //
    // Provide a list of animated targets that the crosshairs can activate.
    // Each target must have a name and direction, a hitRadius, a hitTime,
    // and the corresponding sprite descriptor.  The sprite has its own
    // direction but it typically matches the target.
    //
    // sprite - describe the actual crosshairs image.  Not really a sprite
    //
    // Note: use the event emitter to determine crosshairs state.
    crosshairs: {
        type: "animated-buttons",
        debug: false,
        targets: [{
            name: "start",
            direction: Veri.rot3(0, -100),
            hitRadius: 16,
            hitTime: 6000,
            sprite: {
                // same as above, but also include a direction
                direction: Veri.rot3(0, -100)
            }
        }],
        sprite: {
            src: "resources/img/crosshairs.png",
            distance: 380,
            objWidth: 50,
            objHeight: 50,
            columns: 1,
            rows: 1,
            count: 1
        }
    },
 
    // renderer:
    // specify width and height
    renderer: {
        width: window.innerWidth,
        height: window.innerHeight
    },
 
    // sphere360: (OPTIONAL)
    // specify parameters for the rendering sphere.  
    sphere360: {
        radius: 500,
        hide: false
    },
 
    // audio: (OPTIONAL)
    // supports both positional and ambisonic audio encoded in B-format
    // attributes:
    //     src: url of the source audio file
    //     type: can be "positional" or "ambisonic"
    //     positional: provide a position vector (for positional type)
    audio: {
        type: "positional",
        src: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/20091104_Alisa_Weilerstein_and_Jason_Yoder_-_Saint_Sa%C3%ABns%27_The_Swan.ogg",
        position: Veri.vec3(0, 0, -10)
    }
 
    // objects: (OPTIONAL)
    // specify a dictionary of objects which should be rendered.  These typically
    // would be the buttons that the user can click or tap on.  Each object should
    // provide:
    //     resource: a relative path for the OBJ file
    //     movesWithCamera: true if the object must remain fixed in the camera's frame
    //         as the camera moves about
    //     position: if the object does not move with the camera, this is a fixed
    //         position in the scene space.  If it does move with the camera, this
    //         becomes a 3-vector relative to the camera.
    //     color: provide a hex color
    //     handler: function that should be called when the object is clicked.  The name
    //         of the object will be passed to the handler, so the same handler can be
    //         specified on all of the objects if desired.
    objects: {
        stopButton: {
            resource: 'resources/obj/s-stop.obj',
            position: Veri.vec3(-1, 0, -5),
            color: 0xc8955c,
            movesWithCamera: false,
            handler: clickHandler  
        },
        goButton: {
            resource: 'resources/obj/s-rev-fwd.obj',
            position: Veri.vec3(1, 0, -5),
            color: 0xc8955c,
            movesWithCamera: false,
            handler: clickHandler
        }
    },
 
    // light: (OPTIONAL)
    // this is only needed if objects are provided, to light up those objects.
    light: {
        position: Veri.vec3(2, 2, 2)
    }
});

Events

click - emitted when the user clicked on an object.

veri.on('click', function(objName) {
        console.log('you clicked on ' + objName);
});

frame - emitted on every frame, it contains a Vector3 which reflects the camera direction. For example, you can use this to check if the viewer is currently looking at a specific angle range.

Sample code to check angle:

veri.on('frame', function(camera) {
    var directionOnXZPlane = camera.projectOnPlane(Veri.vec3(0, 1, 0));
    var quaternion = (new THREE.Quaternion()).setFromUnitVectors(cameraCenter, directionOnXZPlane);
    var euler = (new THREE.Euler()).setFromQuaternion(quaternion);
    var angle = euler.y;
});

ready - emitted when the 3D scene is built.

veri.on('ready', function(objName) {
    console.log('vr setup complete');
});

targetEnter - crosshairs have entered a named target.

veri.on('targetEnter', function(target) {
    console.log('looking at ' + target);
});

targetExit - crosshairs have exited a named target.

veri.on('targetExit', function(target) {
    console.log('no longer looking at ' + target);
});
 

targetStay - crosshairs are still inside a named target.

veri.on('targetStay', function(target) {
    console.log('still looking at ' + target);
});

targetSelected - crosshairs have stayed inside a named target enough time so that the target is now selected ("clicked").

veri.on('targetSelected', function(target) {
        console.log('crosshairs selected target: ' + target);
});