Tuesday, May 9th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

Andrew Hazelden releases KartaVR 3 for Fusion


Dover Studios co-founder Andrew Hazelden has released KartaVR 3.0, the latest version of his plugin for stitching and compositing 360-degree VR footage in Fusion.

The update adds the option to view projects directly inside Blackmagic Design’s compositing software from an Oculus Rift headset, and the option to stitch 360-degree video in Fusion based upon a PTGui project file.

A versatile toolset for creating, editing and exporting 360-degree video content
Previously known as Domemaster Fusion Macros, KartaVR is a collection of over 100 nodes and 40 scripts for creating VR content inside Fusion, along similar lines to Mettle’s After Effects tool SkyBox Studio.

The software converts 360-degree footage between formats commonly used in VR headsets and other DCC software, incluging latlong, cylindrical, angular fisheye, domemaster, and various cubic formats.

It also enables users to “apply panoramic masking, retouch images, render filters and effects, edit stereo 3D media, create panoramic 3D renderings, and review 360-degree media in Fusion’s 2D and 3D viewers”.

The plugin comes with integration scripts for common pipeline tools including After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Affinity Photo and Designer, and image-stitching tools PTGui and Autopano.

New in KartaVR 3: direct Oculus Rift support, image stitching from PTGui project files
New features in version 3 include the option to stitch 360-degree footage in Fusion from a PTGui project file.

KartaVR 3 also adds the option view composites directly within Fusion from an Oculus Rift head-mounted display, and to interact with Fusion’s 3D workspace.

It works only with the early Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 systems, and on any Windows, Linux or Mac system with HDMI video output. The feature doesn’t yet support head tracking, but you can adjust the camera manually.

For other head-mounted displays, users can export renders to disk, or via external viewing tools, but you can’t view the composites directly inside Fusion.

Pricing and availability
KartaVR is available for Fusion and Fusion Studio 7 and above, running on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The software costs $995 for a cross-platform licence.

Read a full list of features in KartaVR 3 on Andrew Hazelden’s website