What is a VR180 image?

It is a 180 degree field of view written as a square equirectangular image: 180 degrees across and 180 degrees up and down. Headsets and YouTube's VR180 mode know how to unwrap it, which makes a normal photo feel like a window you can look through.

Is the stereo version real 3D?

No. A single photo has no second viewpoint, so the depth is estimated and the two views are synthesised from it. It reads as depth, but it is a rendering, not a capture — moving your head will not reveal new parallax.

Why is the area outside my photo black?

The output covers 180 degrees, while the photo only fills the window you chose (60, 90 or 120 degrees). Everything outside that window is empty sphere, and empty is black.

DepthSnap/ Tools / Photo to VR180

Put a photo on a 180° sphere

A normal photo is a flat window. Wrapped onto a 180° sphere it becomes a VR180 image your headset can open — and if you want, this page can give it estimated depth so the scene has layers. Everything happens in the tab.

Drop a photo here, or click to choose one

Window size Depth stereo (top & bottom)

No photo yet. Nothing leaves your device.

What you get

A square image for the mono version, or a top-and-bottom pair (two squares) for the stereo one — each one a full 180° equirectangular frame. Headsets and YouTube's VR180 mode unwrap it into a window you can look around. The preview above is a red/cyan composite, so you can judge the depth on a normal screen before putting anything on your face.

What this is not

It is not a 3D capture. One photo has one viewpoint. The depth is estimated and the two views are synthesised from it — convincing for a still, but moving your head will not reveal new parallax the way a real stereo camera would.
It cannot fill 180° with a 60° photo. The window you choose is how much of the sphere your photo covers; the rest is empty sky, and empty is black. A wider window stretches the photo across more sphere, which softens the edges — that trade is why the setting exists.
It does not invent the sides. There is no outpainting: what was not in the frame stays black.

Using the result

Check it first: open the PNG in the 360 viewer and drag around. That is the same unwrapping a headset will do.
In a headset: open the file in a player with a VR180 mode, or a 360 viewer that accepts 180°. Stereo files use the top-and-bottom layout, top half for the left eye.
On YouTube: upload it as a video and mark it 3D → VR180 with top-and-bottom for stereo.

Limits, stated plainly

Still images only. Video VR180 is a per-frame job.
Output is 1024–2048 px per side, scaled from the photo. Larger inputs are downscaled once before the depth pass.
Depth fades at the window edge because the parallax is expressed in window coordinates; treat the outer 10% as approximate.
Faces very close to the camera can smear, the usual failure of single-image depth.

Why does the mono version exist at all?

Because sometimes you only want the framing: dropping a photo onto a 180° sphere makes it feel like a wall-sized window in a headset even without depth. It is also the honest option when the subject has no usable depth structure.

Can I combine this with the panorama tool?

You can: export the mono VR180 here, then run it through the 360/VR180 to 3D tool, which has its own depth pass. Doing it twice is wasted work though — the stereo option here already does it.

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