What Is a 6DOF Video?
To learn the definition of 6DOF videos, first of all, you have to know the meaning of 6DOF.
About 6DOF
6DOF standards for six degrees of freedom. Sometimes, it can also refer to six degrees of movement, which means the six mechanical degrees of freedom of movement of a rigid body in three-dimensional space. Especially, the body is free to change position as left/right (sway), up/down (heave), and forward/backward (surge) translation in 3 perpendicular axes, combined with changes in orientation through rotation about 3 perpendicular axes, usually termed pitch (transverse axis), roll (longitudinal axis), and yaw (normal axis).
What Is a 6DOF Video?
6DOF videos are stereoscopic 360 videos that also shoot depth and allow for six degrees of freedom in navigation within the captured environment. Therefore, they are also called 6DOF VR videos.
6DOF in Game Controllers
Six degrees of freedom also refers to the movement in video gameplay.
FPS (first-person shooter) games offer 5 degrees of freedom in general including slide left/right, up/down (jump/crouch/lie), forward/backward, pitch (look up/down), and yaw (turn left/right). If the game permits leaning control, then some regard it as a 6th DOF. Yet, since a lean is a limited partial rotation, this may not be completely accurate.
Sometimes, the term “6DOF” is used to describe games that enable freedom of movement, but don’t actually meet the full criteria of 6DOF. Some examples are Dead Space 2, Homeworld, and Zone of The Enders.
While the true 6DOF games allow independent control of all 3 movement axes and all 3 rotational axes. They are Elite Dangerous, the Descent franchise, Shattered Horizon, Miner Wars, Overload, and so on.
Software-based tools such as Eyeware Beam and motion-tracking hardware devices like TrackIR are used for 6DOF head tracking. This device usually finds its place in flight simulators and other vehicle simulators that need looking around the cockpit to locate enemies or obstacles in gameplay.
A motion controller for PC called Razer Hydra tracks the position and rotation of 2 wired nunchucks, providing 6DOF on each hand.
Besides, a 6DOF computer input device named SpaceOrb 360 was released in 1996 and originally manufactured and sold by the SpaceTec IMC company, which was first purchased by Labtec, which itself was later bought by Logitech. Now, they provide the 3Dconnexion range of six degrees of freedom controllers that primarily target the professional computer-aided design (CAD) industry.
Moreover, the controllers sold with HTC Vive offer 6DOF information by the lighthouse that uses TOF (Time of Flight) technology to determine the position of controllers.
Video Games with 6DOF
The following is a list of video games in which the player has a full 6 degrees of freedom over the vehicle being controlled.
- Adrenix
- Blade Force
- Descent
- Descent II
- Descent 3
- Elite
- Elite Dangerous
- Everspace (franchise)
- Forsaken
- Frontier: Elite II
- FRONTIER: First Encounters
- Hellion
- Miner Wars 2081
- Outer Wilds
- Overload
- Retrovirus
- Shattered Horizon
- Ships That Fight Underground
- Space Engineers
- Starbase
- Terracide
- Vendetta Online
- Zero 5
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Helen enjoys the process of turning video clips and photos about herself into beautiful videos. Then, she will share the videos on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The most exciting thing is to see the increasing number of views of her videos. Helen is willing to share her ideas about making wonderful videos from scratch. Thus, she writes articles for MiniTool Technology.