The Sphere • Hacker News Board

Re: The Sphere

#21

Post by porphyra » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 7:13 AM UTC

thanatos519 wrote: post #15

I just want to know what they feed it. Can I send them an NxM mp4 as a pitch? I know a lot of people who take acid in Vegas and I think a crazy fractal animation would look great on this device.

The image on the screen is 16K (16,384x16,384) driven by 25 synchronized 4K video servers. [1]

They have a dedicated camera with an amazing custom big sensor (77.5 mm x 75.6 mm with a 18024 x 17592 px resolution).

[1] https://theasc.com/articles/sphere-and-the-big-sky-camera

Re: The Sphere

#22

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 7:38 AM UTC

oceanplexian wrote: post #17

U2 was fantastic, and they really took advantage of the format but Postcards from Earth was awful. They didn’t correct a lot of the video so you’d have things like pillars and objects like trees that were curved. And the cheap tickets are at least $100. The other problem was that the story, [Spoiler Alert] has an environmentalist theme but it was being told on the world’s largest LED screen in a giant air conditioned…

[deleted]

Re: The Sphere

#23

Post by timvdalen » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 8:40 AM UTC

Everything I had heard about this so far suggested to me that this was a full half-sphere wraparound display, interesting to see that it's not!

Re: The Sphere

#24

Post by aleph_minus_one » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 10:44 AM UTC

leptons wrote: post #18

wayeq wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One complaint was the lack of bathrooms. burying the lead here!

It seems like there are bathrooms. https://www.thesphere.com/plan-your-visit/maps

> It seems like there are bathrooms.

> https://www.thesphere.com/plan-your-visit/maps

By the way: In Firefox (127.0.2), Clicking the "View Map" button next to some map just opens an empty tab.

Re: The Sphere

#25

Post by jimbobthrowawy » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 11:26 AM UTC

I didn't know the display on the inside was only 16K, that seems pretty low for the size of the thing.

Seems like the author got the best non-VIP seat he could too. I wonder how the worst seat (or non-seat, like an isle) in there fares for immersion.

Re: The Sphere

#26

Post by adrianhon » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 11:39 AM UTC

jimbobthrowawy wrote: post #25

I didn't know the display on the inside was only 16K, that seems pretty low for the size of the thing. Seems like the author got the best non-VIP seat he could too. I wonder how the worst seat (or non-seat, like an isle) in there fares for immersion.

Author here: Postcard from Earth only allows people to sit in more central seats, whereas music performances let people sit and stand much closer to the edges. In other words, it’s probably not that bad if you’re in the worst seat, though definitely not as good.

Re: The Sphere

#27

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 11:43 AM UTC

jimbobthrowawy wrote: post #25

I didn't know the display on the inside was only 16K, that seems pretty low for the size of the thing. Seems like the author got the best non-VIP seat he could too. I wonder how the worst seat (or non-seat, like an isle) in there fares for immersion.

FWIW I saw U2 there in decent but not great seats, and I thought it was amazing. There is a scene where they "deconstruct Las Vegas", so at the end you're just left with a vista of the Nevada desert, and it was so realistic and bright that I felt like I was outside.

Re: The Sphere

#28

Post by taneq » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 11:54 AM UTC

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #7

What he's describing seems quite similar to the term "presence" in VR.

> Add in monocular cues of depth perception like motion parallax and lighting, and you get a startling level of presence, especially if viewers can’t move.

Sounds like they're talking about the same thing. :)

Re: The Sphere

#29

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 11:54 AM UTC

Had a friend that went there, a couple of months ago. He had the cheap seats, even though he could have easily afforded the VIP.

He said it was amazing.

Like the early IMAX, though, I'll bet making media for this sucker will be eye-wateringly expen$ive.

Re: The Sphere

#30

Post by loufe » Thu, Jul 04, 2024, 12:00 PM UTC

google_expat wrote: post #5

It has been renamed from "The Sphere" to the even more pretentious "sphere(tm)".

Is it a matter of pretention or rather them rebranding to open the doors to having more than one "Sphere(tm)"?

IIRC the idea for a Sphere(tm) was dropped for London, but keeping "The" in the title, to their credit, does give them impression it is the "one and only".