I am enamored with 360 but it has major issues. Viewing it is not pleasurable and the major platforms are not going out of their way to make it better. I have also found that 360 dedicated platforms simply do not get enough traffic to survive. This has always held me back from diving full in to creating 360 content despite how much I enjoy it. The 360 videos simply have  a hard time creating pacing that is compelling for a viewer compared to a normal video.

 

In my most recent post on YouTube I posted a 28 second time lapse. YouTube settings are the lowest quality possible despite this making 360 videos nearly unwatchable. Then even after changing your settings the app doesn’t recognize it for a couple seconds. This may be mere moments and a tiny step in the process but it adds friction. When I showed my videos to family and friends I felt that friction. Considering my experience with the typical viewers retention on normal videos I imagine this causes a massive jump from 360 videos. I wish YouTube would adjust the quality settings automatically when it was a 360 video so it was at least semi watchable.

 

I am considering ways to help escape this challenge and creating dynamic scenes that the viewer has time to adjust settings and watch the action.