Effective technology to visualize virtual environment using 360-degree video based on cubemap projection

Abstract

The paper dealt with the task of increasing the efficiency of high-quality visualization of virtual environment (VE), based on video with a 360-degree view, created using cubemap projection. Such a visualization needs VE images on cube faces to be of high resolution, which prevents a smooth change of frames. To solve this task, an effective technology to extract and visualize visible faces of the cube is proposed, which allows the amount of data sent to graphics card to be significantly reduced without any loss of visual quality. The paper proposes algorithms for extracting visible faces that take into account all possible cases of hitting / missing cube edges in the camera field of view. Based on the obtained technology and algorithms, a program complex was implemented, and it was tested on 360-video of a virtual experiment to observe the Earth from space. Testing confirmed the effectiveness of the developed technology and algorithms in solving the task. The results can be applied in various fields of scientific visualization, in the construction of virtual environment systems, video simulators, virtual laboratories, in educational applications, etc.