> ## Knowledge Base Index
> Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.metareal.com/sitemap.xml
> Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further.
> Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash).

# 360 panoramas

## What is a 360 panorama?

360 panoramas is short hand for 360° x 180° spherical panoramas. 

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/4ca5bfd6a96ccc00/79cbd2cd-3c11-40a1-ab10-59f7de_12hni7y.png)

Unlike typical photos, 360 panoramas let you capture the entire scene so you can look around, up, and down, making them ideal for creating immersive virtual tours.

## How to generate 360 panoramas

We would recommend giving this [guide to panoramic photography](https://www.guide-photo-panoramique.com/) a read.

## Supported formats

Supported image formats are PNG and JPG, and they have to be 360 equirectangular panoramas (360x180 degrees) with a 2:1 aspect ratio.

## Resolutions

We support any resolutions up to 8K x 4K, they are all powers of 2 resolutions, so it's 8x4K, 4x2K, 2X1K etc... (though we don't recommend lower than 4x2K because the loss of quality is very noticeable).
  
For example, the resolution of Ricoh Theta V is 5376×2688, and it will be automatically resized to 8192x4096 when you upload to Metareal Stage. However, if you want to make an image sharper or crisper, you'd better edit an image manually before you upload to the server.

If you upload a panorama that's higher than 8k, it will be downgraded to 8k still. 

Images are stored as either 4k or 8k images, whichever is nearest, regardless of the upload resolution. This is required for fast display using the GPU and for efficient streaming.