Intro

Equirectangular projections are a method to represent the surface texture of a sphere as a flattened rectangular image. The horizontal and vertical lines running the curved longitude and latitude of a sphere are instead upwrapped and flattened out to be perfectly horizontal and vertical lines aligned to the straight edges of the equirectangular image. Usually the aspect ratio of this equirectangular image is 2:1.

Broadly speaking equirectangular projections are used for 360 degree workflows, be it photography, videography, or in the case of PIXERA, 360 playback of content. Frequently, but not exclusively, the Equirectangular Layer Mapping effect is used in virtual production workflows.

In this article we will cover the use of the Equirectangular reprojection of content within the PIXERA  for 360 playback. This approach utilizes a 3D workflow, 3D Screen Groups, and a 3D model of a sphere to help aid that workflow.

Project Setup

Download project files to follow along

Let's start in the Screens tab to begin set up of the Screen/Display objects.

LED Library

From the Screen's Library tab you can type in the name of a LED panel you like and then click and drag into the Workspace. Once in the Workspace use the Panel Array parameters in the Inspector of your selected panel. Adjust the Horizontal and Vertical parameters to build up a LED panel array and use the Panel Angle to add curvature to it the Display object.

Import Custom Model

If you want to use a Custom 3D Model instead of a pre-built Screen/Display object, then you can import it by navigating to the LED Panels section under the Library tab. Near the bottom of the list is a folder called Custom. Select this folder and import your custom model by pressing the + button at the bottom left of the panel. When you've imported it your model will be visible in this area.

Dragging and dropping into the center Workspace makes the mesh visible and editable. 

While you're here, select your 3D object and in it's inspector look for the Render Settings parameter dropdown. Within it set the parameter called Role in Venue to Screen. Doing so allows for each of these screens to be configured further and used to output content, rather than be used as visual background elements for pre-visualization.

It's recommended here to set your Canvas Resolution to your target output resolution. You'd access this by selecting the custom mesh and in the Inspector look for Canvas Resolution (it's near the top)

Assigning Outputs

Move to the Mapping tab. You'll see available systems within the Live tab. If you're looking to set up a Manager/Client system then refer to this article on further steps.

Pressing the i button at the bottom identifies outputs of your connected systems. 

To assign outputs to your many or single VP Screens you can drag and drop output assignments onto your screens.

Content Setup for 3D VP

Content creation for 3D Virtual Production is flexible for PIXERA. There are three different approaches to content creation which 3D Screen Groups accommodates:

1. Content type #1 is flat 2D content, like an image or video, that has a 3D Object applied to it via it's auxiliary box. This is the content type covered in this article
2. Content type #2 is Flat 2D content, but offset in Z-depth from one another allowing a powerful parallax effect to occur. For more on this approach please refer to the article on 2.5D.
3. Content type #3 is full 3D. Content of this category tends to lend itself well to Unreal Engine project files. For full 3D setup refer to our documentation on Unreal Engine setup.

This article's 3D VP Workflow is one that utilizes both a flat raster image, similar to that which was done in the 2D Virtual Production article, but introduces use of a 3D spherical object to create an equirectangular effect.

Start by importing both content pieces into PIXERA. Navigate to the Compositing tab and then to the Resources tab. Select the folder called Media and then with the + object, navigate to the raster image and import it. Next, navigate to the Models folder and use the + button to import the 3D Sphere.

3D Screen Group Setup

Next, let's take a look at the Compositing tab and then navigate to it's Screen Groups tab. If you're working in a fresh file you'll see a Screen Group automatically created, however by default it's configured to be a 2D Screen Group. Let's configure it to be ready for 3D VP Workflows.

Select the title of the Screen Group and rename it to something clear like “3D”. 

Perspective Mode

Ensure you're in Perspectives Mode by either pressing F4 to change Modes, or by selecting the icon in the top right of the Workspace.

Within the Inspector of the 3D Screen Group change it's Perspective Mode to 3D. 

When the Perspective Mode of your Screen Group is set to 3D, PIXERAs Eye-Point is automatically exposed as a 3D element within the Workspace which is used like a handle. This Eye-Point can now be driven with external Camera Tracking via PIXERA Control.

Within your Workspace four lines come off of the corners of your display and meet at a sphere which is referred to as the Eye-Point. If you have many Screen/Display objects in your Workspace when each Screen/Display object will have this Perspective frustum coming off of it's corners and merging at the Eye-Point. 

Take a moment to box-select the Eye-Point and move it around. Note that you may not see anything here since there currently isn't any content on this display.

If your project doesn't look something like what you see in the above screenshots then you may need to adjust the Auto-Alignment of your Screen/Display object's Perspectives (see below section titled “Auto-Alignment” for more information).

Layer Render Order

Setting the Layer Render Order swaps the display order based on either Sort by Depth, which refers to the relative spatial arrangement of your content in the 3D workspace or Sort by Layer Order which layers content based on how you've stacked your Layers within your Timeline. If Sort by Layer Order is selected then the Layer nearest to the top of the Timeline will render over content Layers near the bottom of the Timeline. If Sort by Depth is selected then content which is placed in -300 on the Z parameter will render behind content placed 0 or 300 in the Z parameter.

Perspectives Follow Screen Position

This toggle's use is more visible when your Screen Group's Perspective Mode is set to 3D.

When this Eye-Point moves, so does the Perspective by which your screens are rendered. When Perspectives Follow Screen Positions is not checked, the Eye-Point's Perspective of the Screen which moved does not update, effectively leaving the Perspective in it's place. When this box is checked on the Perspectives will automatically update with the Eye-Point position.

This isn't strictly a Virtual Production specific feature, as it is often something used with projects which utilize Moving Screens. For the most part it's safe to keep this checked if you intend to continuously adjust the Eye-Point, which would commonly be the case of Camera Tracking is being used in your project.

Maintain Closest Corner

Maintain Closest Corner is a toggle to attempt to align Perspectives based off of their Screen's location in 3D space from one another.

Auto-Alignment

Twirl down your 3D Screen Group. Next, select all Screen/Display objects which you've moved into this Screen Group. With all Screen/Display objects selected look to the Inspector on the right-hand side. Under the Perspective parameter dropdown is another parameter within called Auto-Alignment.

When you select Snap to Screen there are five available options. Since we're in a 3D Screen Group, these options are pre-set configurations of each Screen/Display object's Perspective relative to the Eye-Point. By selecting all of your Screen Group's Screen/Display objects and also change this parameter you'll change all Screen/Display objects together. 

To better illustrate what each option under Snap to Screen does to a Screen/Display object's Perspective, enter into into Inner Compositing or press D on your keyboard. If you see red outlines with your screen/display name over it, then you've successfully entered into Inner Compositing.

In some cases one of these options will be perfectly fine for your project. In other cases one of these alignment options may be a starting place which requires more manual work. There isn't a best orientation for your Perspectives, since it's entirely dependent on what you're looking to accomplish with them.

Note that these pre-sets were created with curved LED walls in mind, whose perspective alignment relative to what is rendered on their output is more complex than that of a flat Display.

Snap to Bounding Box

This pre-set aligns your selected Perspectives to the world space bounding box of the Screen/Display object.

Snap to Vertices

This pre-set aligns Perspectives based on the mesh vertices of the Screen/Display object. 

Snap to Vertices with Projection

This pre-set uses the vertices of the Display/Screen object to re-project the Perspective onto the curved LED object. 

Snap to UV Coordinates

This pre-set aligns Perspectives based off of the UV coordinates of each screen/display object. Typically flat plane meshes will have their UV coordinates start at (0,0) at the top left corner and (1,1) at the bottom right corner.

Snap to Bounding Box in View

This pre-set aligns Perspectives based off of the total bounding box of the screen/display object if it is in View of the Eye-Point.

Layer Setup

Now that our project basics are setup, our outputs mapped, our Screen Group prepared, and our content imported let's take a look at the Layer setup. Ensure you're in the Compositing tab to start.

Drag the Equirectangular raster image from the Resources tab onto the Timeline to create a new Layer. Rename this Layer to “3D”.

Presence Parameters

Select your “3D” Layer on your Timeline and look to the Inspector on the right hand side of PIXERA. Our Presence parameters should look as such:

Next, in your Resources tab navigate to your 3D Sphere object under the Model folder. Click and drag it into the auxilliary box of your “3D” Layer.

Once your content is mapped to the sphere, it's recommended to lock the Width, Height, and Depth of your layer together. After that, experiment by setting X and Y positions and rotate along different axes to adjust your view.

Now that the fundamentals of your setup are in place, hop into Inner Compositing by clicking the box and arrow icon at the top left corner of the 3D workspace pane in PIXERA.

Within Inner Compositing use your mouse wheel to scroll in and out. You should see something like this:

To fix this navigate to Screens > Project > Preview Camera and then look to it's inspector for a Near and Far parameter. Play with the values here to change how Inner Compositing looks for the Preview Camera of your 3D workflow. For this 3D workflow you are able to see something within Inner Compositing.

Compositing Considerations

With this workflow specifically there are a few places to be aware of for further configuration.

Create Perspective Screen Texture Coordinates

On occasion a single-pixel artifact may appear at the very edge of your display output. If this occurs navigate to your 3D Screen Group within the Compositing tab. Twirl down your Screen Group and then select each of your displays/screens. With each display/screen object selected then look to the Inspector on the right-hand side of PIXERA.

Look for the parameter group called Perspective Texture Coordinates and then twirl it down. Check Create Perspective Screen Texture Coordinates.

If this checkbox alone doesn't fix your issue, then look to the parameter below it called Overscan. Set this to a value greater than 1.0 to extend the viewing window of the Perspective beyond the bound of the screen.

Refer to the below table for what the Overscan value does:

Conclusion

With this application you can now drive your VP volume using 3D content! 

Your next steps could add in a Studio Camera to move the Eye-Point for Camera Tracking. If you're looking for 2D Equirectangular Virtual Production workflows please refer to this article. If you're looking to utilize Unreal Engine with this workflow then please refer to this article.

PIXERA 25.2 R 12 | 6. Feb 2026 | T.M., A.D., R.J.