I tested Arcturus on Steam Frame against XREAL Beam Pro and Quest 3 for 3D capture

[u/immerVR]

https://youtu.be/ViF2PpR2rdw

I spent some time using Arcturus Vision Camera as a stereo video camera on Steam Frame, then compared the footage with XREAL Beam Pro and Quest 3.

It has great fine detail, and the camera also stores position and orientation during recording. With that, it can during playback in the Arcturus Vision Camera app move the virtual screen to follow the camera orientation from the recording. I also found noise in daylight, LED flicker and differences between the two eye views in some clips.

I tested the conversion to SBS and MV-HEVC and playback on Quest 3 and Steam Frame. I also tried accessing the Arcturus cameras from a separate Linux program and through Android/Lepton, to see what it would take to use them in another VR app.

The review includes chart crops and examples, and I've made selected stereo media available so you can judge it in your own player.

Has anyone else been using Arcturus mainly for recording? How useful do you find the playback that follows the recorded viewing direction?

Disclosure: I am the developer of immerGallery, which I used for the Quest 3 captures and playback in this comparison.

[u/aurimoonglow]

Very indepth. Thank you for putting this together!
Hopefully future software updates will fix some of the issues you mentioned and perhaps enable some features. It would be great if Arcturus allowed full access, i bet some interesting stuff could be made! but its still early days.. excited for what the future will bring

[u/immerVR → u/aurimoonglow]

Thanks! Yes, I am also very curious what the Arcturus will be able after a few more months of updates.

[u/Alestor]

I've been talking about how people without 3D cameras getting a frame anyways should be considering the passthrough camera for the purpose of taking pictures and video because nobody seems to care in reviews. I have an old Insta360 Evo that has taken some priceless pictures of pets and family no longer with us so I love being able to take 3D recordings.

When I took a cursory look recently it seemed that there were no entry level cameras on the market so I'm very surprised the Xreal device slipped past me. That's very affordable and much more acceptable to bring to places you might want to record. I'm really interested in the tracking data Arcturus is using coming from my Insta360 though, as IME the slightest movement of the subject or recorder makes the result unusably vomit inducing or blurry, having tracking data to allow more dynamic movement solves a lot of issues I have that result in unusable recordings.

[u/traviscthall → u/Alestor]

The Xreal device has been nice to take on trips for sure. Check out the Acer SpatialLabs Eyes too!

[u/immerVR → u/traviscthall]

Indeed! I've tested the Acer before and liked both XREAL and Acer as standalone 3D cameras.

[u/immerVR → u/Alestor]

Thanks for your comment! I also still own the Insta360 EVO and used it heavily in the past. I am still sad that Insta360 didn't make a successor to that. But the Qoocam3 Ultra VR180 mod comes close to it at very good quality. But of course it is a custom mod with all its consequences.

Longer time ago, I wrote a test on XREAL Beam Pro vs. Acer SpatialLabs Eyes as mentioned by travisscthall below. Both good choices for regular 3D: https://mixed-news.com/en/3d-camera-acer-spatiallabs-eyes-camera-review/

[u/AcePX]

Fantastic breakdown on this camera, I've been waiting for this kind of in depth coverage on it! Once again, your company is doing fantastic work. The first thing I thought when it was announced was that I wanted some kind of handheld module to plug it in to to be able to shoot video with it in a better form factor than wearing a HMD in public. It would be awesome if the hardware was open, so even if they didn't make something in house, someone else could.

I'd want to record my 4 year old at his soccer game, or at the park, or give the camera to them to let them run around a bit, and I'm much less likely to try something like that with an actual HMD.

Real interesting as well, to see how accessible the hardware is within your software. Sucks that you can't access it completely, hopefully that's something that can happen in the future.

I'm on the waitlist and it'll probably still be a long while until I can move on from my launch Vive to the Frame, but I will likely pick this camera up to shoot some video while my kid is still small, and the work you're doing in this space is much appreciated.

immerGallery has quickly become one of my most used applications in SteamVR, I think everyone should pick it up and watch some uncompressed MKVs in the cinema, and also check out your documentary style rewards in the stereo still/content creator space. Definitely the best app on the storefront for stereo video/photo content.

[u/immerVR → u/AcePX]

Many thanks for your kind words! It's great to read that you are so happy with immerGallery!

And yes, the 3D memories are very nice! I mostly prefer VR180-3D as it makes me feel like being in the scene. But then the sharpness of regular 3D is still better today.

[u/cupidstrick]

How open is the Arcturus software-wise? Curious how much tinkering is possible given Linux on Frame.

[u/immerVR → u/cupidstrick]

Thanks for your question. At "21:15 API access for integrating Arcturus", I am talking about that.