Want to effortlessly  show 360° videos in VR? With the Look&Play software you can. Look&Play offers a  user-friendly, flawless experience for the user and the host. No physical interaction with the VR device is needed, choose which 360° video you want to see and you will automatically return to a waiting room once the video finishes.

This guide contains the following steps:

  1. Devices
  2. Licences
  3. Installing the Look&Play app
  4. Preparing content for preloading
  5. Preloading content for Look&Play
  6. Using Look&Play

 

  1. Devices

Look&Play is compatible for the Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR and Android devices. For the Gear Samsung VR you need one of these Samsung smartphones:

  • Galaxy Note9, S9, S9+
  • Galaxy Note8, S8, S8+
  • Galaxy S7, S7 edge
  • Galaxy Note5
  • Galaxy S6, S6+, S6 edge
  • Galaxy A8, A8+, A8 Star

 

Foir Android devices a general rule of thumb is that your device needs to have a gyroscope and enough computing power to play a VR video.

  1. Licenses & redeem code

In order to download the Look&Play app on your Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR you need a redeem code. To use the Look&Play software you need a license code. You will receive these once you have contacted us through this email: info@vrowl.nl. Provide the start and end date and number of devices you wish to use. We will create an account for you.

 

  1. Installing the Look & Play app

You need the redeem code to install the Look&Play app. To install the app on your Oculus Go follow these steps:

  1. Download the Oculus app on your smartphone. For the Oculus devices it does not matter which smartphone you use.
  2. Connect your smartphone with your Oculus Go.
  3. Go to the settings in the Oculus app and click on “Redeem code”.
  4. Fill in your redeem code and click on “send”.
  5. Put on your Oculus Go, go to “Library” and then “Not Installed”. You will see Look&Play here.
  6. Download Look&Play.
  7. Fill in your license code to start using Look&Play.

To install the Look&Play app on your Samsung Gear VR follow these steps:

If you use the Samsung Gear VR for the first time you first need to install the software. If it is not your first time using the Samsung Gear VR, skip to step 5.

  1. Connect your smartphone to the Samsung Gear VR using the USB connector.
  2. You will hear a voice prompt to disconnect the smartphone from the Samsung Gear VR to proceed the installation of the Samsung Gear VR software.
  3. Proceed the installation of the Samsung Gear VR software.
  4. The Oculus Gear VR app will be loaded on your smartphone.
  5. Go to the settings in the Oculus Gear VR app and click on “Redeem code”.
  6. Fill in your redeem code and click on “send”.
  7. In the ”Library” of your Oculus Gear VR  app go to “Uninstalled”. You will see Look&Play here.
  8. Download Look&Play.
  9. Fill in your license code to start using Look&Play.

To install the Look&Play app on other Android devices follow these steps:

  1. Open the Google Play store on your Android device.
  2. Search and install Look&Play.
  3. Fill in your license code to start using Look&Play.

 

  1. Preparing content for preloading

Before you can preload your content in the Look&Play software take the following steps for all devices.

  1. Create a folder on your computer  called “VREvent”.
  2. Create another folder in “VREvent”. You can name this folder however you want.
  3. Insert the 360° videos you wish to use in this second folder. For the videos pay attention to the following details:
    1. The name of the video will be visible in Look&Play, so name your video properly: “VR Owl Video.mp4”. In Look&Play .mp4 will automatically be hidden.
    2. Names of the video cannot contain characters like #@% etc. You can use spaces and underscores _.
    3. You can use both stereoscopic and monoscopic videos.  For stereoscopic videos add “_TB” for top-bottom stereo and “_LR” for left-right stereo. For example, “VR Owl Video_TB.mp4”.  “_TB” will not be visible in Look&Play.
    4. To add spatial audio (.tbe), give the file the same name as the video for which you want to use the audio. For example, “VR Owl Video.mp4” and “VR Owl Video.tbe”.
    5. Recommended resolution for the 360° videos is 3840 x 1920.
  4. You can use icons for each 360° video. These icons will be visible once you are in the waiting room of Look&Play. To insert an icon for a 360° video give it the same name as the video for which you want to add an icon. For example, “VR Owl Video.mp4” and “VR Owl Video.png”.   We recommend using a PNG file for the icon. Insert these icons in the second folder you created.
  5. To make the waiting room match your preference, insert a 360° photo in the second folder. This photo needs to be named “background.jpg”. You can use a JPG or PNG file.

 

  1. Preloading content for Look & Play

To install the cotent for Look&Play follow these steps for the Oculus Go:

  1. Connect your Oculus Go to your computer.
  2. Put on the Oculus Go and allow access.
  3. Go back to your computer and go to the folder of “This PC”
  4. Click on “VR-Headset”
  5. Click on the “Internal shared storage” folder
  6. Drag your “VREvent” folder in the “Internal shared storage” folder.
  7. Your content is now uploaded to your Oculus Go.

 

To install the content for your Samsung Gear VR follow these steps:

  1. Connect your smartphone to your computer.
  2. Allow access on your smartphone.
  3. Go to folder of “This PC”.
  4. Click on the  smartphone your using.
  5. Click on the internal storage folder of your smartphone.
  6. Drag your “VREvent” folder in the internal storage folder.
  7. Your content is now uploaded to your smartphone and therefore you can view it with your Samsung Gear VR.

To install the content for your Android device follow these steps:

  1. Connect your smartphone to your computer.
  2. Allow access on your smartphone.
  3. Go to folder of “This PC”.
  4. Click on the  smartphone your using.
  5. Click on the internal storage folder of your smartphone.
  6. Drag your “VREvent” folder in the internal storage folder.
  7. Your content is now uploaded to your smartphone.

 

  1. Using Look&Play

After completing these steps you can start the experience by opening the Look&Play app on your device. You will start in the waiting room where you can see the 360° videos you added.  To start a 360° video, simply look at one of the videos for a couple of seconds. After the 360° video is finished you will return to the waiting room where you can restart the process.

Hopefully this guide helped you through the process of using Look&Play. If you ran into any problems or have additional questions, please contact us via info@vrowl.nl