YouTube adds app for Oculus Go
The video site also updates its tools for people uploading virtual reality content.
YouTube updated its support for virtual reality Tuesday, adding the Oculus Go headset to its list of supported viewers and adding new ways to create or enhance VR uploaded to Google's massive video site.
At first, Google's virtual reality ambitions were a joke: It unveiled its first VR headset -- an ultracheap do-it-yourself kit made of cardboard un-ironically called Cardboard -- two months after Facebook dropped $3 billion to buy Oculus. But Google has invested aggressively since Cardboard kicked off Google's original virtual reality efforts. The company has since advanced its VR ambitions with its Daydream program, which includes its owns headset, Daydream View.
Adding more VR support on YouTube is one way Google tried to make virtual reality a little more accessible.
YouTube on Tuesday said its VR app is now available on Facebook's Oculus Go headset via the Oculus Store.
It also provided updates on ways to make VR-like content with its VR180 format it introduced last year. VR180 lets you capture video with a couple dual-lens cameras (rather than a typical VR camera rig with tons more). Then it replicates a 3D-effect in a VR headset.
YouTube also said it's launched a VR180 Creator Tool, which makes it easier to create VR180 content. The tool is available on MacOS, Linux, and now on Windows. With the latest editing tools from Adobe, creators can edit, add effects and publish content more easily. And YouTube added support for two more VR180 capable cameras from Kandao and Vuze.
To enhance spatial audio in VR uploaded to YouTube, the service also added support for head-locked audio, which lets you add narration and background music that will sound the same no matter where you look.
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