Looking to visit real world places in virtual reality, or perhaps model some of them within your own virtual reality game or experience? Matterport has you covered. In an effort to become the world’s biggest repository of real world locations for VR, it is making its library of 250,000 real world, photogrammetry-stitched spaces available to all through its new CoreVR platform.
CoreVR will be accessible initially through Matterport apps for Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR (Powered by Oculus), the company says, adding that support for additional VR platforms will come in the future.
Matterport already claims to have the world’s largest library of 360-degree real world locations, so it is not too much of a stretch to imagine those spaces being used for virtual reality. It hails this move as a “major leap forward for the VR ecosystem,” suggesting it should rapidly accelerate development of certain experiences.
This capture process was a simple one, with Matterport using a rotating Pro 3D camera of its own design, which quickly captures 360-degree, 3D imagery for environment making.
Update 10/6/2016 by Jeremy Kaplan: This article was based upon an incorrect report by RoadtoVR, which stated that developers would have access to the library for $19 per environment. Matterport Camera owners will pay $19 starting in January 2017 to convert 3D Spaces to VR. Consumers can access the library today for free.
