How to View Nearly Any Stereoscopic (3-D) Image in VR, with ImmerGallery – The Stereoscopy Blog

I thought in honor of the father of virtual reality, Sir Charles Wheatstone, on the 150th anniversary of his death, I’d share a post on how to view almost any stereoscopic image on a Meta Quest VR headset, using an app I’ve enjoyed over the last year, and been very impressed with, ImmerGallery. I think this guide will be useful for those working in the cultural heritage sector who are looking for ways to share and engage people with their collections, as well as for collectors and 3-D enthusiasts.

ImmerGallery is an application that allows stereoscopic images, both modern and legacy, to be displayed on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest 3S VR headsets, and soon SteamVR. It is available on the Meta Store as a limited free demo, or a full version for a one-time fee; in the UK it’s £23.99, and in the US it’s $29.99. I will state here that I discovered this app myself and am in no way affiliated with the company that developed it, I am very enthusiastic and impressed with its capabilities and possibilities. For more detailed information about the application, its development, the company, other products, or if you have any questions, please visit the ImmerVR website.

ImmerVR provides a list of compatible cameras and formats for ImmerGallery on their website. I’ve just selected a few that I think might be of interest to stereoscopic photographers, including:

• Acer SpatialLabs Eye Camera (ASEC-1)
• Apple Spatial Photo (.heic) Apple Spatial Video (1080p)
• Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D
• Kandao QooCam EGO
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-3D1
• Samsung Galaxy Phones with “3D Capture”
• XREAL Beam Pro
• Any 2D camera, smartphone, tablet or 2D image (.jpg) – because it can also convert mono images to stereoscopic 3-D.

Compatible file formats:

• .jpg / .jpeg
• .png
• .mpo
• .webp
• .bmp
• .heic (2D and 3D spatial)
• .quarrel
• .gif (static)
• .jps (3D low field of view side by side stereo jpg)

The .jpg or .tiff format can be an important format, as it means you can also scan historic stereoscopic photos, use software to digitally clean and align them, remove as much ‘stuffing’ as possible, then save them in VR headset storage for viewing in ImmerGallery in stereoscopic 3-D. There is even free desktop software to help you prepare stereoscopic photos scanned this way, please see this post on StereoPhoto Maker for a step by step guide on using it. The only disclaimer I would add is to be careful if you search for historic and modern stereos in headsets. Often, the switch in depth from hyper to not-so-hyper 3D images causes a roller coaster ride in your brain and stomach.

Once you have the image files on your PC or Mac, you can then transfer them to your Meta headset to ImmerGallery’s ‘Local’ folder.

I’m on a Mac, and I’m using Android file transfer to do this. I connected the Meta Quest to the Mac via USB, turned on the headset, clicked ‘USB detected – allow connected devices to access files’, opened the Android File Transfer app on the Mac, and dropped the files from the Mac into the ‘Pictures’ album on the headset. Now they are ready to open in the ImmerGallery app.

Here’s another helpful video from ImmerVR to show you how to do this, and it’s for PC:

Now, hopefully you can enjoy your stereoscopic images in VR with ImmerGallery!

Enjoy.

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