What is Google Daydream? What Google Phones Work with the Daydream Headset?
Google Daydream is a VR platform and mobile headset launched publicly on November 2016. Though similar to the Gear VR headset, Daydream is marketed as more stylish and comfortable, and includes a hand controller. Google initially limited headset compatibility to the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In July 2017, Google announced plans to broaden compatibility with 11 additional phones, and IHS Markit projects 2.2 million Daydream headsets will be sold in 2017. As Google continues to develop for phones that are compatible with Daydream, it is expected that a standalone VR headset from Google + Lenovo will be available soon. This will help Google to compete more directly with other standalone mobile headsets, such as Vive Focus and Oculus Go.
Why Publish to Google Daydream? What Use Cases is Google Daydream Good For?
Like Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream provides a robust mobile headset experience. The affordable $99 headset is significantly more immersive than the entry-level Google Cardboard, and is both lighter and more stylish than the Gear VR. If you have a presentation to a small group or are exhibiting at an event, the end user experience of InstaVR-generated apps run on Google Daydream headsets is quite strong. With many new Daydream compatible phones coming to market, we expect to see a large uptick in publishing to the platform. Also, the Google Daydream apps on the Daydream-specific section of Google Play is starting to expand and increase in quality, if you’d like to use your headset for additional non-enterprise uses.
How Does InstaVR Improve Google Daydream Publishing?
Beyond having a simple but robust authoring platform, InstaVR also has a number of features that make publishing to Google Daydream easy:
- One of the very few VR platforms currently publishing to Google Daydream. With our “author once, publish to many” approach, you can easily publish the same app to Google Daydream that you would for other platforms.
- InstaVR Google Daydream packages include Hand Controller interactivity. End users can engage with your Navigation Links and Hotspots through the Google Daydream hand controller, which appears visually in the packaged application.
- Publish to the new Google Daydream compatible phones as they hit the market. With a much broader range of compatible phones coming in 20017 & 2018, you’ll be able to publish across all of them from the InstaVR Console.
Authoring and publishing to Google Daydream is greatly accelerated using a platform like InstaVR. Plus, our write-once-publish-to-many approach means that same Google Daydream app can be available on regular Android phones, iOS, Google Cardboard, Web, Gear VR, etc with very little extra work. You can showcase your app on Google Daydream at a tradeshow, and then have users be able to access it easily at home on non-Google Daydream phones and headsets.
View the above video to see an InstaVR-generated Google Daydream app in action.
The Google Daydream headset can utilize either gaze-based or hand controller-initiated interaction. This offers you flexibility in how your user interacts with InstaVR created interactivity points such as Navigation Links, Hotspots, Calls-to-Action, etc. Because Google Daydream is both portable and stylish, it’s a good choice if you’re looking for a lighter and more elegant headset than that offered by Gear VR.
Pros
- Mobile, immersive platform that supports high resolution and long-form VR experiences
- Stylish and light feel, good for keeping on your head for long periods of time
- Easier distribution method for InHouse apps than Gear VR
Cons
- Separate Google Play Store that is very restrictive on what apps are distributed (vs. open nature of standard Google Play)
- Not quite as immersive feeling as HTC Vive or Oculus Rift
Yes, InstaVR Pro clients are limited to 500 GB/month of Streaming or Download bandwidth. For the vast majority of clients, this is plenty. If by chance you need more than that amount, we charge rates competitive to cloud suppliers AWS and Cloudflare, starting at $0.10 per GB .
A: Yes, you can do that by using InstaVR’s “Compose” feature that is accessible from the “Compose” tab of each scene. You can re-size, change bitrate and change profile video from the GUI, and our high cloud converter can do it instead of wasting time learning new video converter tools.
InstaVR supports 4K videos recommended by Oculus, such as
- Suggested Monoscopic Configuration: 4096×2048 video at 30 FPS, encoded with H.264.
- Suggested Stereoscopic Configuration: 3840×2160 video at 30 FPS, encoded with H.265/VP9 10-20mbps bitrate.
You can see https://developer.oculus.com/blog/introduction-to-360-video-for-gear-vr/ for more details.
In performance perspective, the iPhone 7s is less powerful than Galaxy S7 Edge so “3840×2160 video at 30 FPS, encoded with H.265/VP9 10-20mbps bitrate” is a very challenging resolution for iPhone S7.
A: Turn Distortion Correction OFF
Some 360 video players don’t apply “Distortion Correction”, so it looks clear. However, you’ll have a stretched unnatural view when putting on the VR headset.
InstaVR applies “Distortion Correction” by default, and it make the view little bit fuzzy but natural feeling, when putting on the device into headset.
If you don’t care about a natural VR experience, you can turn Distortion Correction off in “Branding” tab.