How To Display VR And 360° Content On WordPress Sites?

Virtual Reality is here and is making people successful in changing the world!

But did you know, first mention of VR was in 1950’s science fiction. Stanley G. Weinbaum’s 1935 short story “Pygmalion’s Spectacles”describes a goggle-based virtual reality system.

Since then the research on Virtual Reality never stopped.

Virtual Reality got more popularity on March 25, 2014, when Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion.

It’s been in the news since then.

Virtual Reality is not only restricted to the gaming industry, but is also expanding exponentially in every possible industry, especially in e-commerce business.

Virtual Reality is now available on all WordPress sites!!!

You can create and publish different types of Virtual Reality media on your WordPress powered sites such as 360° photos, 360° videos, and panoramas.

Yet, one thought must be coming in your mind, It did come in my mind while writing this blog.

How do we create our own Virtual Reality content?

The easiest and simplest method is to download the correct camera app for your smartphone.Best example would be Google Street App View, lets you point out the camera all around you to create a 360 photo.

Ricoh Theta a dedicated hardware to take 360° photos with a single click.

Embedding 360° photos and Virtual Reality Content On Your WordPress.Org Sites

For embedding VR content on your WordPress.org site all you have to do is install WP-VR-VIEW plugin.

WP-VR-view is a plugin that allows you to display Photo Sphere images and 360 video on wordpress pages, posts, etc. Website visitors will be able to navigate through your panoramas. Smartphone users can use Google cardboard to look through in Virtual reality way.

Get your VR content on WordPress.org site in just 3 steps

1. Install the WP-VR-View plugin
2. Insert your VR content
3. And, Publish!

Supported Platforms

Web – modern versions of chrome,Firefox, Safari, IE 11 and Edge

Native – iOS 8 and higher , Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) and higher

Shortcode parameters

video – url to 360 video .mp4 file (required if you add video)

img – url to photosphere image (required if you add photosphere)

pimg – preview image URL

Short codes examples:

[vrview img=”Insert your VR image URL here”]

[vrview video=”Inster your 360 video .mp4 file URL here”]

Embedding 360° photos and Virtual Reality Content On Your WordPress.Com Sites

if you want to present it in 360 or cinema (panorama) mode, and publish it using the “vr” shortcode:

[vr url=path-to-photo.jpg view=360]

OR

[vr url=path-to-photo.jpg view=cinema]

For 360° Videos

[vr guid=videopressguid view=360]

To be able to view this content WordPress.com is using WebVR an open-source tool for letting browsers display VR content.

This Virtual Reality media would be available on mobile, desktop and through actual virtual reality headsets.

The experience would differ according to how you are visiting the site, if you are visiting through a desktop browser, you’ll be able to drag and click around a photo or a video.

If you are wearing a virtual reality headset, you would get a proper experience, as the image or video would move according to your body movement.

For mobile experience, it would be combination of both, WordPress will be able to tap into your phone‘s gyroscope so that the photo or video will respond to how you move the device around.

The main aim for WordPress is to make the publishing of 360° photos and 360° videos as simple as publishing text, photos or videos to the web.

For future WordPress.com is continuously working on expanding the VR embedded support. And improving experience on a browser. We would witness this in the coming versions.

According to WordPress, it hosts approximately 409 million viewers each month, so there’s a huge audience base for this new Virtual Reality photos and videos.