Immerse your audience in 360 Virtual Reality experiences
What is 360 VR?
360 VR is 360-degree video experienced through a virtual reality headset like Meta Quest or HTC Vive.
Well-crafted 360 VR experiences drop viewers right into the action. Simulating realistic scenarios, viewers can feel what it’s like walk in that person’s shoes or learn skills without consequence to real customers. With a virtual reality headset, viewers can be transported to another place and time.
(We know there are a lot of different VR terms and buzzwords, here’s our 💡VR cheat sheet.)
💡 Our VR Cheat Sheet - click here to get clued up with our glossary 👉🏼
Cheat Sheet: A 360 / VR / AR / MR / XR Glossary of Terms
Whenever a new technology starts breaking into the mainstream, there’s a whole raft of terminology to get to grips with. So to start, here’s a breakdown of exactly what we mean by these three VR-related terms:
→ 360 video – this is video recorded on a 360 camera and stitched together so that viewers can look around in all directions.
→ 360 VR – this is 360 video experienced through a VR headset such as Meta Quest. The headset will let you look all around you and interact with the video, while usually standing in the same place, and feels incredibly immersive compared to regular video, transporting you to a place.
→ VR (Virtual Reality) – Wearing a VR headset such as a Meta Quest allows the viewer to be surrounded by a world of video or graphics. It often involves building a computer-generated ‘world’ that lets viewers walk around, but with Stornaway can offer 360 degree video experiences.
→ AR (Augmented Reality) – AR enhances your view of the real-world by overlaying graphics and information, accessible through devices like smartphones or AR glasses. The most commonly recognised uses of this have been Pokemon Go and Snapchat filters.
→ MR (Mixed Reality) – you may not have heard this one yet. Mixed reality is like AR – but is more of a mix of AR and VR. Viewed through a headset like the Meta Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro, MR lets you see the room around you through cameras on the outside of the headset – and overlays videos and graphics onto it in ways that can let you interact with them more than simple AR. Think ‘Minority Report’.
→ XR (Extended Reality) – in the UK, often confused with Extinction Rebellion! This is an industry term to cover all the above: 360, VR, AR, and MR. Like all jargon, it’s confusing to those who don’t know it, but helpful to those who do – letting industry people talk about all these technologies without having to list them all and drown in alphabet soup.
Why more companies are using 360 VR
Total immersion
Bring your audience into your story. Literally. Immerse audiences in engaging experiences.
Emotive storytelling
They say a picture tells a thousand words – so how many words would 360 VR tell?
Conjure an atmosphere
Drop your audience into real-life scenes and scenarios to create a true sense of space.
Who will benefit from 360 VR?
Examples of 360 VR span virtually (pun intended) every industry. But the real winners are organisations in:
🧑🏫 Learning and Training
VR trainees absorb knowledge faster and are more confident in applying their new skills.
📅 Events and Culture
Visit places that don’t exist in real life. Because some locations are too far away, don’t still exist or just haven’t been built yet.
🗺 Tourism
Don’t tell, show potential travellers how amazing that dream travel destination really is.
🏡 Architecture & Property
2D blueprints and static photos don’t give a sense of space. 360 VR videos really do.
How Stornaway.io makes 360 VR experiences even better
👉 Make it interactive
Add clickable buttons to allow viewers to control transitions between places and videos.
🔀 Connect mixed mediums
Create a project using a mix of media. Bring 360 video, 16:9 video, stills and even mixed reality together within the same project.
🔈 Share with ease
Publish as an app through our Unity plugin, ready to play in your VR headsets quickly and easily.
👨💻 No coding required
Creators using Stornaway can deliver a 360 VR experience without learning a single line of code.
🕹 Advanced level VR
Link 3D virtual worlds, real or computer generated, and walkaround virtual reality with 360 VR.
Now available: 🎧 Binaural Sound
With our binaural sound feature, you can immerse your viewers like never before. With more people than ever using headphones to listen to videos, you can make use of this feature to create a richer sense of space – using the full 360 degrees to spatial locate specific sounds.
Huge for creating a fully immersive experience – and essential for any virtual and augmented reality projects.
Get it all planned out. Which Stornaway plan is right for you?
We have a plan for all occasions, even a free trial to get you started.
We’ve got everything you need to get started on your own 360 VR project. From helpful guides and tutorials to inspiring use cases made right here in Stornaway.
Common 360 VR FAQs
What is 360 VR?
In a nutshell, 360 VR is 360 video experienced through a VR headset like Meta Quest. The VR headset will read your head movement to allow viewers to look around the space in 360 degrees.
To really know your stuff, here’s our quick glossary of VR-related terms 💡
How do I make 360 VR media interactive?
Interactive 360 VR adds clickable buttons that allow viewers to control their experience and move from one 360 video clip to another seamlessly. Stornaway is an interactive video platform that makes adding buttons, hotspots and transitions a fun and enjoyable experience.
How can I distribute my 360 VR content?
To watch your 360 VR project through a VR headset, you’ll need to export the project as an app. Stornaway’s Unity plugin makes this an easy, code-free experience, for full details on how to do this, head to our VR & Unity page.
And if it all seems like too much, we’re here to help
If you hit any snags along the way, our team can get you back on track.