Apple Immersive Video and VR180
Stereo video of 180° and wider is projected onto a surface that surrounds the viewer's gaze. The calculations of a flat screen (screen width, screen parallax, screen plane) do not apply directly; parallax is measured as an angle. Format and device information on this page is as of November 2026.
How it differs from a flat screen
On a flat screen, parallax is given as a fraction of screen width and the zero parallax plane is the screen. In wide-angle stereo video, angular parallax is used for each viewing direction. For a point at distance Z seen by two parallel cameras, the angular parallax is:
where: θ is the angular parallax, b the interaxial, Z the distance of the point from the camera, e the interocular distance, Zp the perceived distance
- Zero parallax is at infinity. A point at infinity has zero parallax; the whole scene is perceived in front of the viewer, at its own distance. If the interaxial equals the interocular distance (b = e), the scene appears at its real scale (orthostereoscopy).
- Near objects: angular parallax grows in inverse proportion to distance. Objects that come very close to the camera quickly reach parallax that cannot be fused comfortably; see Comfort zones.
- Toward the edges: as the viewer turns sideways, the two cameras line up along the viewing direction. At angle φ the effective interaxial is about
b · cos φ; depth decreases toward the edges of the image and vanishes at 90°.
VR180
Google's 180° stereo video format. The image circle is at most 180°; the two eyes are placed side by side (left and right). The projection is described in the file by a mesh, so the image of a fisheye lens can be carried without resampling.
With visionOS 26, Apple introduced its own format for 180° video (APMP); it uses a half-equirectangular projection.
Apple Immersive Video
Apple's immersive stereo video format for Vision Pro. According to Apple's developer page:
- more than 50 megapixels per eye, 90 fps,
- a target field of view beyond 180°, up to 230°,
- not equirectangular but a projection specific to each lens; the lens geometry is carried in a separate lens file.
The camera made for this format is the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive: 8160 × 7200 pixels per eye, up to 90 fps, two sensors (23.66 × 20.88 mm), a stereo lens wider than 180°.
Calculations on this site
The formulas of the calculator and the library are for rectilinear lenses and flat screens. For images of 180° and wider, angular parallax is used instead of screen parallax, and zero parallax at infinity instead of the screen plane; the distortion of wide-angle projections is also taken into account separately.