Since the introduction of the new Video Player component in Unity 5.6, we’ve had a lot of questions about how to integrate 360 video into a Unity project. Over the past months we have slowly been refining our suggested workflow and working on a high quality shader to make it happen. Today, we are pleased to announce that we are ready to share our work in the form of a beta shader ready for use in any Unity 5.6 or later project.

The concept is simple and straightforward. Take any supported video file (like an .mp4) containing either 360 or 180 equirectangular or cubemap content, import it as an asset, and play it through a Video Player component. The key is to target the Video Player to a Render Texture of the same dimensions as the video. Then, connect that texture to a Material set to use the new Skybox/PanoramicBeta shader and use that as your Scene Skybox Material.



Voila! You now have a Skybox being driven by your panoramic video! Turn on the Virtual Reality Support Player Setting and throw on a VR headset and you’ll immediately be surrounded by your video in full 360.

If you have 3D 360 content, you can take things a step further for the ultimate immersive experience by using the Skybox Panoramic shader’s 3D settings.

Full project details and documentation available at our GitHub project page.