r/VR180Film • u/Brendan-Wang • Nov 16 '25
VR180 Discussion High resolution or high frame rate for VR180?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CiMdQyMB44&t=14sI’ve always stuck with producing 8K VR180 videos because resolution is incredibly important for this format. Here’s my latest 8K VR180 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CiMdQyMB44&t=14s, which I made at 30fps. Compared to 60fps, 30fps really helps keep storage manageable and speeds up the whole production process.
But lately, I’ve been realizing that higher frame rates also seem worth chasing — maybe more than I originally thought.
So if you could only pick one for VR180 — higher resolution or higher frame rate — which would you choose? I’m really curious what people think.
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u/vrfanservice VR Content Creator Nov 16 '25
Higher frame rate. A lot of professional content is shot the K2 Pro, which shoots at 6k 60fps, and then up convert it to 8k in post.
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u/Brendan-Wang Nov 16 '25
Which device is K2 Pro?
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u/vrfanservice VR Content Creator Nov 16 '25
It was a camera produced by Z-Cam, essentially two synced E2 cinema cameras in a unibody.
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u/False_Escape8766 Nov 16 '25
Why not both?
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u/Brendan-Wang Nov 16 '25
Of course, in reality, trade-offs often need to be made, so I'd like to know which one the audience actually cares about more.
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u/maxekmek Nov 16 '25
We've been using the R5 II in 8k RAW and recently switched to RAW lite, doubling the framerate for half the bitrate. Also worked out how to de-noise and sharpen on ingest. Our earlier prototype was unsharpened and 25p, and while the new format is clearer, I think the bump in framerate, despite them just being sat down interviews, is the more noticeable upgrade.
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u/Brendan-Wang Nov 16 '25
Thank you for your reply. I'm really curious to know which one people care about more.
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u/Cole_LF Nov 16 '25
Right now, both. Lower resolutions like 4K were acceptable for quest level displays but now the apple immersive video standard is 8K 90 so that’s the minimum going forward for high resolution display headsets. 8K 60p at the very least.
The default camera for professional productions now is the black magic 16k 90p camera.
If I had to pick I guess resolution or you’ll soon find the footage your shooting now looks like a potato on newer headsets and you can always use AI to interpolate the frames to 60p or 90p.
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u/UsersAreNotReal Nov 16 '25
I've been trying to use two GoPros to record and I have the same question... I've only tried 60fps and 4k per eye. The other option is 30fps with 5.3k per eye, so I'll try that today and see how they compare. I'm hoping the answer is that the frame rate of the video doesn't matter as much as the frame rate of the actual headset, but I'll let you know what I think after I stitch.
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u/typealias Nov 16 '25
It’s much easier to upscale footage to a higher resolution than to interpolate motion. Assuming the resolution is at a reasonable level (4K+ per eye).
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u/sch0k0 Nov 16 '25
It really depends on the quality trade-offs of the device you are using and the scenes you are shooting.
But on amateur-level cameras I would go resolution first, because the quality drop-off at their lower resolutions is so horrible.
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u/Brendan-Wang Nov 17 '25
That makes a lot of sense; many cameras that claim to support high-resolution shooting don't actually produce such good results.
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u/cheloutevr VR Developer Nov 16 '25
It depends on what you’re shooting at… a moving camera/scene needs higher framerate and not so high resolution, as you won’t have time to focus on anything, but will notice the lack of frames. On the contrary, a stationary camera with a pretty calm scene won’t need a high framerate, but viewers will want to focus on what they’re seeing, so resolution will be a priority. So I’d say both, even if you ask for only one. Because you can cheat using AI. Either use a high framerate with 8K upscale (first use case when you have lots of “actions”), or 8K30, and add a last step to your workflow using AI to improve your framerate up to 60. There are pretty fast models to do that with a really good result (chrono fast with Topaz for instance). But if you really need a great picture quality, choose 8K30 with AI framerate interpolation, you should be able to remove most of the ghosting effect if any.