Facebook showcased its Spaces and VR capabilities earlier this year during the company's F8 conference. However, now, Facebook is adding the live streaming feature in its virtual reality applications. Spaces users can now use the camera on their phones to live stream VR videos to people who are outside VR. This feed will be two dimensional but will show the viewer exactly what the live streamer is looking at inside the virtual reality.
Facebook Spaces can now be used to live stream VR videos
On Wednesday, July 12, Facebook revealed on its official blog that it had finally launched a service in its Spaces app which would allow live streamers to share their VR experiences with other people live.
This is a ground breaking feature which can potentially be used for a lot of things and the company said that it is excited to find out what the Facebook community uses it for in the future. Like a normal live stream, viewers will be able to leave comments and react to the video being posted.
Facebook revealed that this feature is being introduced to allow people who do not have the Oculus Rift headsets yet to experience and share the virtual reality content that their friends or relatives would e streaming. The functionality would also allow friends living in different parts of the world to meet up with one another using the VR experience.
Spaces will also allow users to physically drag comments that are being posted on the VR live streams to any location that they wish.
Another nifty feature will let the streamer choose the environmental features in the background from where they want themselves to be shown to be streaming the video. This means that if someone wants the live stream to reflect that they are standing on a beach, then they would have to select the appropriate setting and start the live stream from Spaces.
Viewers of the stream would see the oceanic background, even though the streamer may be inside his home.
Adapting Spaces into AR
Facebook said that, in the future, the same features and functionalities at play here could be used to create a unique Augmented Reality experience as well. The only difference would be that, in those cases, the streamers video would be projected on real environments rather than on the virtual ones that are supported currently.
However, one drawback of the Spaces app, for now, is that it will not work on any other headset apart from the Oculus Rift. The headset is not as popular as many of the similar products available in the market currently. Facebook revealed that it will not work on the Gear VR, which is the most popular virtual reality headset in use today.
