Bixorama is a Windows app for converting 360° photos

A 360° photo contains the full environment as seen from a single point: 360° horizontally and vertically. They are also called VR photos, virtual reality photos, panorama photos or panoramic photos.

Creating 360° photos used to be time-consuming involving fish eye lenses, tripods and stitching, but can now be done much easier with smart equipment like this:

• RICOH THETA
• PANONO
• LG 360 CAM
• KODAK PIXPRO
• SAMSUNG GEAR 360

With Bixorama you can convert, modify, generate, preview and publish your 360° photos.

LDR & HDR

Import and export your 360° photos in LDR (8 bit unsigned integer per colour component) and HDR (16 bit unsigned integer or 16 bit 'half' float per colour component).

JPG, PNG, DDS,...

Import and export your 360° photos in many formats including JPG, PNG, DDS and MOV.

WIC

Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is fully supported. Import EXR, RAW and tons of other formats. Learn more

Converting your your 360° photo is as easy as choosing FILE > Import 360° photo followed by FILE > Export 360° photo. Bixorama supports 13 formats:

1) Equirectangular

Most 360° cameras produce JPG files in this format. This projection is also called an angular map: the horizontal position is the longitude and the vertical the latitude.

Bixorama can import and export equirectangular photos in the JPG, PNG, DDS, BMP, TIFF and GIF file formats. With the right codecs installed, Bixorama can also load PSD, EXR, HDR, RAW and many more formats. Learn more

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2) DirectX DDS

DDS is the DirectX texture format. It is used in 3D apps like BluffTitler for reflection mapping and skyboxes. DSS stores the 360° photo as 6 squares, representing the 6 faces of the cube.

Bixorama also supports regular 'flat' DDS files for other projections including equirectangular.

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3) QuickTime VR MOV

Apple's QuickTime stores the 360° photo as 6 squares, optionally subdivided in smaller squares.

QTVR used to be the most popular 360° format on the internet. Nowadays most sites use an HTML5 equirectangular player. Use Bixorama to convert QTVR to equirectangular.

4) Horizontal cross

The 6 faces of the cube are laid out as a horizontal cross.

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5) Vertical cross

The cube faces are laid out as a vertical cross. Notice that the back face is rendered upside down.

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6) Strip

The face order is: front, right, back, left, top, bottom.

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7) Strip XYZ

The face order is: right, left, top, bottom, front, back. This layout is used by the NVIDIA DDS Photoshop plugin

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8) Single files

This imports and exports the 360° photo as 6 single files, representing the 6 faces of the cube.

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9) Sphere map

This projection is used in 3D apps for reflection mapping.

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10) Mirror ball

This is not a true 360° photo because it only contains half the world. When you import this format, the front is mirrored into the back.

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11) Heart

This cute looking projection is a tribute to the French mathematician Oronce Finé who wasn't afraid to work out crazy ideas.

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12) Interior strip

This is used by the Special/Interiormap effect of BluffTitler. The face order is: back, right, front, left, top, bottom. The 1st face, used for the windows/silhouettes, is special because it is viewed from the outside. It is mirrored horizontally for easy editing.

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13) Interior square

This is used by the Special/Interiormap effect of BluffTitler. The back face is not part of this composition. The front face (back wall) must be exactly 1/3 of the full texture.

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Batch processing

Bixorama can automatically convert multiple 360° photos to the same format, or to the same resolution, by choosing FILE > Batch processing.... Unmark the Reset all modifications when loading a new 360° photo checkbox in the options dialog to apply the modifications.

Bixorama 360° player

Bixorama's own player is powered by HTML5, jQuery and WebGL. It accepts equirectangular pictures and videos and works on desktops, tablets and phones. Swiping is supported on touchscreens. Device rotation and orientation tracking is supported on phones and tablets.

Choose FILE > Export 360° photo > HTML... to export as HTML.

Try the Bixorama player

Other 360° players

Bixorama can export your 360° photos in the equirectangular format. This is the format most 360° players (HTML5 and apps) can handle!