fovo - non linear projection rendering

[s0real]

i was reading about this at the weekend. it seems like a very useful concept for interiors, especially in tight spaces that can be difficult to render in first person.
the end result looks more natural to me than a linear render, although perhaps the examples shown in the proof of concept video are a little extreme?

concept video is here; https://vimeo.com/303900082

to be able to render out a 160 degree FOV and for it to appear "natural" would be great.

any thoughts?

"FOVO is a new graphics rendering process that is designed to emulate human vision rather than cameras. It replaces the core linear perspective projection method used in current imaging technologies with a more flexible and more natural non-linear projection method."

https://www.fovotec.com/

[^Lele^]

It looks similar to the physcam cubic distortion.
I wonder if an accurately made texture/.lens file wouldn't manage this.

[piotrus3333]

.lens file will do just fine. looks quite similar to panini projection on first glance.
try this (not so extreme fov):
https://we.tl/t-2ggO8c5g0D

[^Lele^]

In fact, i got very close to their shown results with a simple spherical-warped camera.
Unlike for their samples, here the space shown is *exactly* the same.
See attached images, both have 160 degrees of FoV.

[^Lele^]

.lens file will do just fine. looks quite similar to panini projection on first glance.
try this (not so extreme fov):
https://we.tl/t-2ggO8c5g0D

Cross posted, trying the vrlens file, ty for that!
Mh, i don't seem to be able to make the lens file work, with or without it my render stays the same.

[piotrus3333]

my .lens file:

[^Lele^]

Ah, you are very right, it does work.
I was looking for a lot more frontal compression, and so i didn't notice: my bad.

[piotrus3333]

on second glance - fovo seems to be panini-like plus separate stretching for top and bottom (car interior: bottom is stretched).
that would be awkward for interiors - no more straight vertical lines.

[^Lele^]

Indeed, they take great care in showing trasformations with straight cameras (and in the car shot, the area shown is not exactly the same, some of the bottom part is missing.).
My sample above works just fine so long as the camera is parallel to the ground, but raise it looking up, and good grief.

[s0real]

ah yes, i wondered if the same or similar could be reproduced using a lens distortion.
i was imagining they had created something that allowed you to render more of the sides of objects (kind of like seeing around corners)

https://vimeo.com/371920562

there is another video here showing interiors and some realtime first person walkthroughs in unity or similar

looks like they have some vignette blurring around the edges as well to focus the view.
maybe it's more of a realtime approach they're looking at rather than static renders.

does a lens file in vray apply the changes to the viewport?

[piotrus3333]

wonky mess haha. architecture is tricky with high fov.
anyway - any fancy projection helping with wide shots is more than welcome in vray.
I did mentioned it few years ago but the idea was left without much support - maybe it will get some now.

[^Lele^]

Yeah, that walkthrough is the one i was mentioning above, with the very straight camera. Notice they do not look up or down.

[s0real]

there's a parallel camera projection modifier within max isn't there? although i haven't used it for years as i seem to remember it didn't play nicely with Vray...?

[s0real]

is there a way to preview the output using a vrlens file in the viewport or with RT?

[piotrus3333]

interactive render should be enough for this.
viewport in max? not 2018 and older. newer - I don’t think so.