What is a cubemap?

A cubemap is a type of media created using 3D Computer Graphic software. Cube mapping is the process of projecting images onto the six sides of a cube, giving the overall scene a feeling of depth (hence the 3D). Stereo panoramic cubemaps come in two varieties: 12 x 1 (48K x 4K) and 6 x 2 (24K x 8K).

Many computer software companies like Autodesk, Lumion, OTOY, OctaneRender, and VRay render cubemaps.

Who uses cubemaps?

Many people building virtual 3D environments have heard of or are actually using cubemaps. This could include game designers, graphic designers, engineers, architects, and more.

Why should I use InstaVR to publish my cubemaps?

Cubemaps are very powerful tools for immersive storytelling. InstaVR allows you to do main things with your cubemaps: augment them and distribute them.

Augmenting cubemaps includes adding Navigation between scenes, overlaying 2D hotspots (images, video, text, audio narration), and including calls-to-action.

Publishing cubemaps is important for distributing your work and getting feedback from others who might not have easy access to your renderings. With InstaVR, you can package up your cubemaps into a complete app – including app icon, home screen, and splash screen – and distribute across platforms such as iOS, Android, Google Cardboard, Gear VR, HTC Vive and web embed. Gear VR and HTC Vive are particularly important publishing platforms for cubemaps, as the high quality of images are extremely immersive in those Head-Mounted Devices.

How do I get my cubemap media into a format useable in InstaVR?

The process is fairly straightforward. You’ll run your cubemap renders through Autodesk A360 to create panoramas that you can upload into InstaVR. We wrote a blog post that outlines the steps for you: https://www.instavr.co/articles/general/how-to-create-a-vr-app-using-autodesk-a360-and-instavr