How it works · Path D
A volumetric performance starts out far too big for any internet connection. Getting it into your browser takes a different way of storing it, plus a player that never makes you wait between pieces.
A normal video stores one flat picture per frame. A volumetric video stores the whole scene: millions of splats, each with dozens of numbers. Do that 60 times a second and the file size grows very fast.
Two ideas do most of the work to bring it down:
Use the sliders to see how quickly the size drops from impossible to streamable.
You shouldn’t have to download an entire performance before it starts. So a long take is split into pieces. As soon as the first piece arrives, playback begins, and the next pieces download in the background while you watch.
When one piece ends, the player hands off to the next one without a gap, so the performance plays as one continuous take. You can keep moving the camera right through a handoff and you won’t notice it.
A Mirage performance belongs to the performer, and so does their likeness. It’s delivered in our own protected streaming format and only plays in our own player. There’s no file to download and repost somewhere else.
That matters to the creators we work with, and it’s a big part of why we build every step ourselves, from the capture to the player in your browser.