TogetherVR: A Framework for Photorealistic Shared Media Experiences in 360-Degree VR

Virtual reality (VR) and 360° video are reshaping the media landscape, creating a fertile business environment. In the past years, many new 360° cameras and VR headsets entered the consumer market. Distribution platforms are being established and new production studios are emerging. VR is a hot topic in research and industry, and many new and exciting interactive VR contents and experiences are emerging. The biggest gap we see in these experiences is the lack of social and shared aspects of VR usage, as today’s VR applications tend to be an isolated endeavor. In this paper, we present TogetherVR, a web-based framework for the creation and evaluation of social and shared VR experiences in which users can communicate with a high degree of presence and in photorealistic video quality. We further elaborate on three multiuser VR cases: watching TV together in VR, social collaboration in VR, and social VR conferencing in a mixed reality setting.