Pixvana unveils 10K resolution VR video player, platform

We've just reported that during Valve's recent Steam Dev Days event, cloud-based VR video company Pixvana announced their new solution for publishing and streaming 360-degree video at up to 10K resolution.

Pixvana's new 10K resolution goodness will be streaming up to 10K video from the cloud, directly to your VR headset, under something called Pixvana SPIN. Pixvana is aiming to make 360-degree videos much better quality, developing multiple new technologies since they emerged from nowhere last December.

Part of their 10K arsenal is a new Field Of View Adaptive Streaming (FOVAS) technology that will increase video quality while reducing the bandwidth required for super high-res 360-degree content. Pixvana claims that they can deliver up to 100 megapixels worth of image quality within your field of view while reducing the required data by up to 70%. Pixvana's co-founder and CEO Forest Key explains: "FOVAS is like swapping your old standard definition set for a 4K TV".

This technique has Pixvana segmenting the video into multiple tiled views, with Road to VR reporting: "the company is simultaneously pushing an Open Projection Format (OPF) that will index user-created video streams into the correct, multi-tiled format optimized via their SPIN publisher. The visualization below shows a 10K 360 SPIN video encoded with 30 individual tiles". They continue, adding that when a viewer moves their head to a new part of the video, the high-quality stream is "seamlessly switched so that the highest possible quality image is presented, at a greatly reduced bandwidth".

Valve's Sean Jenkin teases: "Pixvana has shown the best-looking VR video we've seen to date. An open standard for 360/FOVAS content which scales to high-quality VR headsets and lets creators of all sizes publish anywhere without requiring proprietary tools or formats is great for consumers and content creators and reflects Valve's commitment to an open VR ecosystem. We look forward to making Pixvana's technology and compatible content available on Steam".

Pixvana says that a preview version of their SPIN Player is coming soon, with the publisher set for early 2017. We should see the 10K-capable player to hit Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Daydream.