control panel

MainFragger

Control Panel Obscures Video

I don't understand why, when there is black space above and below most videos, the video control panel chooses to display ON/IN FRONT OF the video you are trying to watch. A lot of players do this this way, and it seems wierd to me. I mean, as long as there is empty space above or below a video, why would I want my control panel to obscure part of what I am trying to watch?

Andy

MainFragger

There are several reasons why this is the case.

If it is a 180/360 video, the menu will still have to cover the video because there is no space left outside the video. It will be confusing if the menu looks different given different VR format, especially if you could switch back and forth between them.
There are lots of things on the menu, if we were to put everything around the screen, you would have to turn your head a lot to do the setting, which can be quite annoying.
Reason number 2 will magnify significantly when using it as a Cardboard app.
When you are using the menu, you are most likely not going to watch the video anyways.

Andy

MainFragger

I get that you can't help it with 180/360 videos. But unless I magnify my video to fill the whole screen (which is some cases, you can't even do), there is usually a bit of black space below the video. It doesn't need to be all around the video, just below it. It would be nice if I could move the menu independent of the video to put it where I find it least distracting.

Andy

MainFragger

We do have plans to make the menu transparent so that it will distract you less from your content, but I think it will still take quite a while until we get there :)
Please be patient with us ~

Andy

RedEye

Yeah I’m disappointed how 360 videos are unwatchable thanks to that pesky control panel popping up.

How about an option to disable it in settings?

Andy

RedEye

Hi,

I'm not sure what you mean here.
The control panel should hide itself after a while, or it can be hidden when you click outside of the panel.
Could you please tell me more about this issue>?

Andy

RedEye

What I (and I think the OP is) referring to is not the control panel itself, but the prompt for the control panel. The circle icon that you hover over to open the panel up. It’s quite distracting for 360 content, and I wish there was an option for “I’m cool with my settings, let the video play without the prompt” or just have the user click the google cardboard button to open the panel without having to look anywhere specific.

Andy

RedEye

Ahh! Sorry I didn't realized you guys were talking about iOS Cardboard.
Okay I understand now.
I will look into this issue and find a workaround with the staring circle.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Sorry for being stupid :)
Andy

RedEye

Sounds great! Thanks for being patient with my response when I had forgotten I made the post, lol.