Gnomonic projection, or rectilinear projection, together with stereographic projection, are two most commonly used projection in rendering 360 degree videos, or other VR applications.

Recently, I found the inverse converting function from screen coordinates to the two projections can be unified within a single function.

It’s not really surprising since both projection uses spherical lens, and the transition from rectilinear to stereographic projection has been used in many VR moviews.

Demo

Interaction

Click and move your cursor to alter the central point.
Press space to compare the gnomonic projection.
Press enter for the equirectangular projection.
Press 1 for zooming in, which creates a very similar effect as reference [6], if you click the center.
Press 2 for zooming out, creating the “little planet” effect in photography.
Press 3 for a slight fish-eye lens.

Background

According to Wikipedia: The stereographic projection is a particular mapping that projects a sphere onto a plane. The projection is defined on the entire sphere, except at one point: the projection point. Where it is defined, the mapping is smooth and bijective. It is conformal, meaning that it preserves angles. It is neither isometric nor area-preserving: that is, it preserves neither distances nor the areas of figures. Intuitively, then, the stereographic projection is a way of picturing the sphere as the plane, with some inevitable compromises. Because the sphere and the plane appear in many areas of mathematics and its applications, so does the stereographic projection; it finds use in diverse fields including complex analysis, cartography, geology, and photography. In practice, the projection is carried out by computer or by hand using a special kind of graph paper called a stereographic net, shortened to stereonet, or Wulff net.

A gnomonic map projection displays all great circles as straight lines, resulting in any straight line segment on a gnomonic map showing a geodesic, the shortest route between the segment’s two endpoints. This is achieved by casting surface points of the sphere onto a tangent plane, each landing where a ray from the center of the sphere passes through the point on the surface and then on to the plane. No distortion occurs at the tangent point, but distortion increases rapidly away from it. Less than half of the sphere can be projected onto a finite map. Consequently, a rectilinear photographic lens, which is based on the gnomonic principle, cannot image more than 180 degrees.

Open-sourced Code

/** 
 * Cubemap to Stereographic / Gnomonic / Rectilinear / Equirectangular unwrapping by Ruofei Du (DuRuofei.com)
 * Link to demo: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ldBczm
 * starea @ ShaderToy, License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 
 * https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
 * 
 * The conversions to stereographic and gnomonic projection are very similar, so I merged them together.
 * One intuition is both of the projections use spherical lens.
 * The only difference is written in line 50. 
 * Hopefully my commented code is useful for your research & fun! Please comment if you used it for your works :-)
 *
 * Interaction:
 * Click and move your cursor to alter the central point.
 * Press space to compare the gnomonic projection.
 * Press enter for the equirectangular projection. 
 * Press 1 for zooming in, which creates a very similar effect as reference [6], if you click the center.
 * Press 2 for zooming out, creating the "little planet" effect in photography.
 * Press 3 for a slight fish-eye lens.
 *
 * Reference: 
 * [1] Stereographic projection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereographic_projection
 * [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Stereographic Projection." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StereographicProjection.html
 * [3] Gnomonic projection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomonic_projection
 * [4] Weisstein, Eric W. "Gnomonic Projection." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GnomonicProjection.html
 * [5] Equirectangular projection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equirectangular_projection
 * [6] Bourke, Paul. "Using a spherical mirror for projection into immersive environments." SIGGRAPH Asia 2005.
 *     http://paulbourke.net/papers/graphite2005/graphite.pdf
 * [7] Little Planet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_planet
 *
 * My related ShaderToy project:
 * [1] starea. Cubemap to Gnomonic Projection. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4sjcz1
 *
 * Similar projects in ShaderToy
 * [1] hornet. Projection: Stereographic. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Xsl3D2
 *
 * [1]'s code is super efficient but does not allow varying central point.
 *
 * Last updated: 4/4/2017
 *
 **/
const float PI = 3.1415926536;
const float PI_2 = PI * 0.5; 
const float PI2 = PI * 2.0; 
const int KEY_SPACE = 32;
const int KEY_ENTER = 13;
const int KEY_1 = 49;
const int KEY_2 = 50;
const int KEY_3 = 51; 

float localRadius = 0.15; 

// Forked from fb39ca4's keycode viewer tool @ https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4tt3Wn
float keyPressed(int keyCode) {
	return texture(iChannel1, vec2((float(keyCode) + 0.5) / 256., .5/3.)).r;   
}

// Main function, convert screen coordinate system to spherical coordinates in stereographic / gnomonic projection
// screenCoord: [0, 1], centralPoint: [0, 1], FoVScale: vec2(0.9, 0.2) recommended, localRadius
vec2 calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale, in bool stereographic) {
    vec2 cp = (centralPoint * 2.0 - 1.0) * vec2(PI, PI_2);  // [-PI, PI], [-PI_2, PI_2]
    
    // Convert screen coord in gnomonic mapping to spherical coord in [PI/2, PI]
    vec2 convertedScreenCoord = (screenCoord * 2.0 - 1.0) * FoVScale * vec2(PI_2, PI); 
    float x = convertedScreenCoord.x, y = convertedScreenCoord.y;
    
    float rou = sqrt(x * x + y * y), c = stereographic ? 2.0 * atan(rou / localRadius / 2.0) : atan(rou); 
	float sin_c = sin( c ), cos_c = cos( c );  
    
    float lat = asin(cos_c * sin(cp.y) + (y * sin_c * cos(cp.y)) / rou);
	float lon = cp.x + atan(x * sin_c, rou * cos(cp.y) * cos_c - y * sin(cp.y) * sin_c);
    
	lat = (lat / PI_2 + 1.0) * 0.5; lon = (lon / PI + 1.0) * 0.5; //[0, 1]

    // uncomment the following if centralPoint ranges out of [0, PI/2] [0, PI]
	// while (lon > 1.0) lon -= 1.0; while (lon < 0.0) lon += 1.0;
	// while (lat > 1.0) lat -= 1.0; while (lat < 0.0) lat += 1.0;
    
    // convert spherical coord to cubemap coord
   return (bool(keyPressed(KEY_ENTER)) ? screenCoord : vec2(lon, lat)) * vec2(PI2, PI);
}

vec2 calcSphericalCoordsInStereographicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {
	return calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale, true); 
}

vec2 calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {
	return calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale, false); 
}

// convert cubemap coordinates to spherical coordinates: 
vec3 sphericalToCubemap(in vec2 sph) {
    return vec3(sin(sph.y) * sin(sph.x), cos(sph.y), sin(sph.y) * cos(sph.x));
}
    
// convert screen coordinate system to cube map coordinates in rectilinear projection
vec3 calcCubeCoordsInGnomonicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {
	return sphericalToCubemap( calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale) );
}

vec3 calcCubeCoordsInStereographicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {
	return sphericalToCubemap( calcSphericalCoordsInStereographicProjection(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale) );
}

// the inverse function of calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection()
vec2 calcEquirectangularFromGnomonicProjection(in vec2 sph, in vec2 centralPoint) {
    vec2 cp = (centralPoint * 2.0 - 1.0) * vec2(PI, PI_2);
	float cos_c = sin(cp.y) * sin(sph.y) + cos(cp.y) * cos(sph.y) * cos(sph.y - cp.y);
    float x = cos(sph.y) * sin(sph.y - cp.y) / cos_c;
    float y = ( cos(cp.y) * sin(sph.y) - sin(cp.y) * cos(sph.y) * cos(sph.y - cp.y) ) / cos_c; 
    return vec2(x, y) + vec2(PI, PI_2); 
}

// Forked from: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MsXGz4, press enter for comparison
vec3 iqCubemap(in vec2 q, in vec2 mo) {
    vec2 p = -1.0 + 2.0 * q;
    p.x *= iResolution.x / iResolution.y;
	
    // camera
	float an1 = -6.2831 * (mo.x + 0.25);
	float an2 = clamp( (1.0-mo.y) * 2.0, 0.0, 2.0 );
    vec3 ro = 2.5 * normalize(vec3(sin(an2)*cos(an1), cos(an2)-0.5, sin(an2)*sin(an1)));
    vec3 ww = normalize(vec3(0.0, 0.0, 0.0) - ro);
    vec3 uu = normalize(cross( vec3(0.0, -1.0, 0.0), ww ));
    vec3 vv = normalize(cross(ww, uu));
    return normalize( p.x * uu + p.y * vv + 1.4 * ww );
}

void mainImage( out vec4 fragColor, in vec2 fragCoord ) {
	vec2 q = fragCoord.xy / iResolution.xy;
    
	// Modify this to adjust the field of view
    vec2 FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29); 
    if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_1))) {
        FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 0.5; 
    } else if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_2))) {
        FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 2.0; 
    } else if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_3))) {
        FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 3.0; 
        localRadius = 3.0; 
    } 
         
    // central / foveated point, iMouse.xy corresponds to longitude and latitude 
    vec2 centralPoint = iMouse.xy / iResolution.xy;
    
    // press enter to compare with recilinear projection
    vec3 dir = bool(keyPressed(KEY_SPACE))
        ? calcCubeCoordsInGnomonicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale) 
        : calcCubeCoordsInStereographicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale);
    
	vec3 col = texture(iChannel0, dir).rgb;
    
    // test if the inverse function works correctly by pressing z
    if (bool(keyPressed(90))) {
    	vec2 sph = calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale);    
        sph = calcEquirectangularFromGnomonicProjection(sph, centralPoint);
        col = vec3(sph / vec2(PI2, PI), 0.5); 
    }
    
    col *= 0.25 + 0.75 * pow( 16.0 * q.x * q.y * (1.0 - q.x) * (1.0 - q.y), 0.15 );

    fragColor = vec4(col, 1.0);
}

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/**

* Cubemap to Stereographic / Gnomonic / Rectilinear / Equirectangular unwrapping by Ruofei Du (DuRuofei.com)

* Link to demo: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ldBczm

* starea @ ShaderToy, License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

* https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

* The conversions to stereographic and gnomonic projection are very similar, so I merged them together.

* One intuition is both of the projections use spherical lens.

* The only difference is written in line 50.

* Hopefully my commented code is useful for your research & fun! Please comment if you used it for your works :-)

* Interaction:

* Click and move your cursor to alter the central point.

* Press space to compare the gnomonic projection.

* Press enter for the equirectangular projection.

* Press 1 for zooming in, which creates a very similar effect as reference [6], if you click the center.

* Press 2 for zooming out, creating the "little planet" effect in photography.

* Press 3 for a slight fish-eye lens.

* Reference:

* [1] Stereographic projection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereographic_projection

* [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Stereographic Projection." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StereographicProjection.html

* [3] Gnomonic projection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomonic_projection

* [4] Weisstein, Eric W. "Gnomonic Projection." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GnomonicProjection.html

* [5] Equirectangular projection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equirectangular_projection

* [6] Bourke, Paul. "Using a spherical mirror for projection into immersive environments." SIGGRAPH Asia 2005.

* http://paulbourke.net/papers/graphite2005/graphite.pdf

* [7] Little Planet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_planet

* My related ShaderToy project:

* [1] starea. Cubemap to Gnomonic Projection. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4sjcz1

* Similar projects in ShaderToy

* [1] hornet. Projection: Stereographic. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Xsl3D2

* [1]'s code is super efficient but does not allow varying central point.

* Last updated: 4/4/2017

**/

const float PI = 3.1415926536;

const float PI_2 = PI * 0.5;

const float PI2 = PI * 2.0;

const int KEY_SPACE = 32;

const int KEY_ENTER = 13;

const int KEY_1 = 49;

const int KEY_2 = 50;

const int KEY_3 = 51;

float localRadius = 0.15;

// Forked from fb39ca4's keycode viewer tool @ https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4tt3Wn

float keyPressed(int keyCode) {

return texture(iChannel1, vec2((float(keyCode) + 0.5) / 256., .5/3.)).r;

}

// Main function, convert screen coordinate system to spherical coordinates in stereographic / gnomonic projection

// screenCoord: [0, 1], centralPoint: [0, 1], FoVScale: vec2(0.9, 0.2) recommended, localRadius

vec2 calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale, in bool stereographic) {

vec2 cp = (centralPoint * 2.0 - 1.0) * vec2(PI, PI_2); // [-PI, PI], [-PI_2, PI_2]

// Convert screen coord in gnomonic mapping to spherical coord in [PI/2, PI]

vec2 convertedScreenCoord = (screenCoord * 2.0 - 1.0) * FoVScale * vec2(PI_2, PI);

float x = convertedScreenCoord.x, y = convertedScreenCoord.y;

float rou = sqrt(x * x + y * y), c = stereographic ? 2.0 * atan(rou / localRadius / 2.0) : atan(rou);

float sin_c = sin( c ), cos_c = cos( c );

float lat = asin(cos_c * sin(cp.y) + (y * sin_c * cos(cp.y)) / rou);

float lon = cp.x + atan(x * sin_c, rou * cos(cp.y) * cos_c - y * sin(cp.y) * sin_c);

lat = (lat / PI_2 + 1.0) * 0.5; lon = (lon / PI + 1.0) * 0.5; //[0, 1]

// uncomment the following if centralPoint ranges out of [0, PI/2] [0, PI]

// while (lon > 1.0) lon -= 1.0; while (lon < 0.0) lon += 1.0;

// while (lat > 1.0) lat -= 1.0; while (lat < 0.0) lat += 1.0;

// convert spherical coord to cubemap coord

return (bool(keyPressed(KEY_ENTER)) ? screenCoord : vec2(lon, lat)) * vec2(PI2, PI);

}

vec2 calcSphericalCoordsInStereographicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {

return calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale, true);

}

vec2 calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {

return calcSphericalCoordsFromProjections(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale, false);

}

// convert cubemap coordinates to spherical coordinates:

vec3 sphericalToCubemap(in vec2 sph) {

return vec3(sin(sph.y) * sin(sph.x), cos(sph.y), sin(sph.y) * cos(sph.x));

}

// convert screen coordinate system to cube map coordinates in rectilinear projection

vec3 calcCubeCoordsInGnomonicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {

return sphericalToCubemap( calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale) );

}

vec3 calcCubeCoordsInStereographicProjection(in vec2 screenCoord, in vec2 centralPoint, in vec2 FoVScale) {

return sphericalToCubemap( calcSphericalCoordsInStereographicProjection(screenCoord, centralPoint, FoVScale) );

}

// the inverse function of calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection()

vec2 calcEquirectangularFromGnomonicProjection(in vec2 sph, in vec2 centralPoint) {

vec2 cp = (centralPoint * 2.0 - 1.0) * vec2(PI, PI_2);

float cos_c = sin(cp.y) * sin(sph.y) + cos(cp.y) * cos(sph.y) * cos(sph.y - cp.y);

float x = cos(sph.y) * sin(sph.y - cp.y) / cos_c;

float y = ( cos(cp.y) * sin(sph.y) - sin(cp.y) * cos(sph.y) * cos(sph.y - cp.y) ) / cos_c;

return vec2(x, y) + vec2(PI, PI_2);

}

// Forked from: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MsXGz4, press enter for comparison

vec3 iqCubemap(in vec2 q, in vec2 mo) {

vec2 p = -1.0 + 2.0 * q;

p.x *= iResolution.x / iResolution.y;

// camera

float an1 = -6.2831 * (mo.x + 0.25);

float an2 = clamp( (1.0-mo.y) * 2.0, 0.0, 2.0 );

vec3 ro = 2.5 * normalize(vec3(sin(an2)*cos(an1), cos(an2)-0.5, sin(an2)*sin(an1)));

vec3 ww = normalize(vec3(0.0, 0.0, 0.0) - ro);

vec3 uu = normalize(cross( vec3(0.0, -1.0, 0.0), ww ));

vec3 vv = normalize(cross(ww, uu));

return normalize( p.x * uu + p.y * vv + 1.4 * ww );

}

void mainImage( out vec4 fragColor, in vec2 fragCoord ) {

vec2 q = fragCoord.xy / iResolution.xy;

// Modify this to adjust the field of view

vec2 FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29);

if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_1))) {

FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 0.5;

} else if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_2))) {

FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 2.0;

} else if (bool(keyPressed(KEY_3))) {

FoVScale = vec2(1.0, 0.29) * 3.0;

localRadius = 3.0;

}

// central / foveated point, iMouse.xy corresponds to longitude and latitude

vec2 centralPoint = iMouse.xy / iResolution.xy;

// press enter to compare with recilinear projection

vec3 dir = bool(keyPressed(KEY_SPACE))

? calcCubeCoordsInGnomonicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale)

: calcCubeCoordsInStereographicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale);

vec3 col = texture(iChannel0, dir).rgb;

// test if the inverse function works correctly by pressing z

if (bool(keyPressed(90))) {

vec2 sph = calcSphericalCoordsInGnomonicProjection(q, centralPoint, FoVScale);

sph = calcEquirectangularFromGnomonicProjection(sph, centralPoint);

col = vec3(sph / vec2(PI2, PI), 0.5);

}

col *= 0.25 + 0.75 * pow( 16.0 * q.x * q.y * (1.0 - q.x) * (1.0 - q.y), 0.15 );

fragColor = vec4(col, 1.0);

}

VR+AR+CG+CV+HCI

Unified Gnomonic and Stereographic Projections

Demo

Interaction

Background

Open-sourced Code

Example Results

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VR+AR+CG+CV+HCI

Unified Gnomonic and Stereographic Projections

Demo

Interaction

Background

Open-sourced Code

Example Results

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Clock

World

Random Posts

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Slideshow

Recent Posts

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Meta