Explore The Jakku Desert From The New Star Wars Movie With Facebook’s First 360 Video

The social network's first step into virtual reality.

By | 25 Sep 2015, 08:00 AM

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Cover ImageCover image via Telegraph

Facebook has unveiled an immersive 360-degree feature that allows viewers to pan around the scene of a video in full circle, six months after Youtube's addition of a similar feature

Youtube's designated 360-degree video channel.

Youtube's designated 360-degree video channel.

Image via Youtube

The social network company, which acquired Oculus Rift earlier this year, first announced the feature at its F8 developer conference

Image via DailyMail

wired.com

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The company demonstrated the new video format for attendees at the F8 conference by showing off a 24-camera-view of the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The plan, Zuckerberg says, is to eventually get this kind of "immersive, 360-degree video experience" into your Facebook News Feed.

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Now, Facebook is showcasing the new feature in spectacular fashion, by releasing an exclusive interactive 360-degree video that takes viewers on a trip along a desert seen in the new Star Wars movie trailer

thestack.com

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The video takes us through a 'baked' route past a crashed Star Destroyer on the planet Jakku, but within the confines of that A-B journey it is possible to tilt and pan and take a casual look at what you're passing, in a manner similar to what's seen in the opening space battle shot in the most recent Star Wars outing, 2005's Revenge of the Sith. On the desktop the panning is facilitated by mouse movement or by the arrow keys on the keyboard, and in mobile view by finger movement.

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Speed across the Jakku desert from Star Wars: The Force Awakens with this immersive 360 experience created exclusively for Facebook

Posted by Star Wars on Thursday, September 24, 2015

In addition to Star Wars, Facebook will also be partnering with GoPro, Vice, Saturday Night Live and Discovery Channel to churn out more 360-degree videos

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For publishers, this means you can now upload 360 video to Facebook. Star Wars, Discovery, GoPro, LeBron James & Uninterrupted, NBC's Saturday Night Live, and VICE are among the first publishers to share 360 video on our platform, and starting today, people around the world will be able to discover and experience 360 videos in News Feed. From an exclusive 360 experience from the upcoming movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens that brings fans inside the beloved universe, to Vice's on-the-ground reporting from Afghanistan, 360 video is a stunning way to enable your fans to explore new stories, places and experiences.

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Facebook's 360-degree videos currently work on the web and on Android devices – the company said it anticipates rolling out support for Apple iOS in the coming months.

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Posted by LeBron James on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The videos have big implications for the company's virtual reality ambition. Eventually, Facebook users will be able to view videos through the Oculus Rift.

Image via Eclypsia

theverge.com

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Though Facebook led the project, the team worked closely with its colleagues at Oculus, which is grappling with similar issues as it develops its virtual reality platform. "Facebook and Oculus are sharing. The team that's working on this, the team that's working on this stuff in VR, is very fluid in terms of the engineers, the product managers, the designers, sharing backgrounds and skill sets. It's been a very positive collaboration." said Chris Cox, Facebook's chief product officer.

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A full-fledged VR (Virtual Reality) app is also rumoured to be in the works

theverge.com

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That's not to say the next step is a full-fledged virtual reality version of Facebook, though the company is building VR versions of its apps. But when viewed on a headset like the Oculus Rift, these videos can at least approximate VR. And even when viewed on a phone or the web, 360-degree video is like VR in at least one way: both illustrate how products are evolving to let us share more of our experiences with one another, thanks to technology that is richer with information and uses more of our senses.

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Speaking of VR, the SAYS team had the chance of venturing into the wild through the Oculus Rift. It was pretty scary…

says.com

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In conjunction with the launching of History Channel's ALONE.

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