The Default Google Cardboard app can display any photospheres taken on the "kitkat/nexus" camera app, but its also fun to go out and see places you have not yet been. First thing i wanted to do was load other panorama images, but even photospheres friends sent me never showed up.

So I delved deeper.

Step 1: Getting Panos

There are lots of ways to get 360 degree panoramic images. you can find them on google+ you can find them on google image searches. you can find them on websites like sphereshare.net, Some of of my favorites were of a panorama stitched from one of the moon landings, and a selfie done by the mars rover (with an edited in amazing sky.... Some of them are as easy as right clicking and downloading, some are trickier, (not the time or place to go into stealing images if you can't find it out in the open to download, consider finding/writing the creator to ask for a copy.)

You are welcome to snag some I've collected, only about 1/3 are my own photos, so if you own the rights to any of them and want me to take them down, just let me know. http://pages.swcp.com/~adric/pano/

Then once you have the panoramas, you need to get them to your phone, you can transfer them to a folder via usb, you can email them to yourself and save them on the phone, you can find them via apps like sphereshare app, and download them (may require paid version)

Step 2: Step One Try Just Renaming the File to PANO_wherever.jpg

In preparation for our hackerspace getting some cardboard vr kits from Instructables I started dabbling with how it loaded photospheres.

I hunted online and found the following information.

Any photosphere you take on your own phone should work and just automatically show up. Photospheres can be tricky to download at full resolutions(and with the needed data intact). And then one needs to know if they still have the exif data(meta data in the file, you can’t often see, that tells cardboard that it is a photosphere and where to start…. try renaming the photograph to PANO_whatever.jpg and emailing it to yourself. save it on the phone

Open google cardboard and go to the photospheres option and click through the images to see if it worked.

But the name format is only part of it. it will work for genuine photospheres generated by someones kitcat camera app, but if it was made otherwise, or uploaded to some place that strips meta data, there are some exif/metadata tags that are probably missing. So I delved deeper.

Step 3: Adding XMP/exif Metadata.

If The file is named PANO_blahblah.jpg but still not working.

There is an Android app, Photosphere XMP Tagger that I found that will attempt to put the right metadata on a copy of your photospheres(those already on your android phone) and I have found it works pretty well on any actual photospheres. (and even on some other types of panoramas, although if they are not full 360 it often makes for a very odd view. )

Install the app from the google play store, go to your photo gallery, find the photo you want to add the tags onto. and use "Share menu" and then the tagged image is saved as "***_XMP.JPG" in the same folder.

Test it with the cardboard app, if its on your sdcard or phones memory it should just find it, (often the newest ones popup first) just magnet click through (or tap your screen)them all until you see it.

Or if you don't see it. go on to the next step.

Step 4: So If Its Still Not Working....

There are many other 360degree flat panoramas that you can find, but they don't work with just the tagging with the previous app. (im not totally sure why, perhaps still missing critical meta data.)

For those i found a web app, you should email or usb transfer the file from your phone (or if you still have it on a desktop do it there (ive had mixed luck doing this with the phone browser, although it should work)

http://photo-sphere.appspot.com/ (Defunct.. but here is a working link!)

http://virali.se/photo/sphere/ Click the button to upload the file.

Then you have some options, like setting where along the photo is "center" or "north"

Also you can set the dimensions, not all panoramas are all the way to under your feet, some have a dead space or are cropped, if you make it a full sphere it will be oddly distorted. so if its not a full 360, you might need to adjust those settings. (warning it will look like you're standing on a black hole, or there may be a line where the scenery does not match (behind you in the photosphere))

When done it will spit out a file to download, it will have some of the missing data tagged in. you can then email or usb transfer it to your phone, (make sure its properly named, with PANO_xxxxxxx.jpg and try it out, if it still wont work try the previous app on it again.

Step 5: Other Bits and Troubleshooting.

I ran into a image that was portrait not landscape, it was very wrong when wrapped into the photosphere. that one iIhad to rotate and then re-tag the image.

Here are some panos you should be able to just download onto your phone, i only take credit for those i made, and the adding of tags. if you find your works in here and you don't want me distributing them let me know.

http://pages.swcp.com/~adric/pano/

If you enjoyed this tip or you have any other better ways to do it. feel free to comment.