Methods and systems for using 2D captured imagery of a scene to provide virtual reality content

A system comprising:

• at least one physical computing device that:
• acquires, from a plurality of capture devices physically disposed at different vantage points in relation to a scene that includes one or more objects, surface data for the one or more objects, the surface data including a distinct set of two-dimensional (2D) color data and depth data for each capture device included in the plurality of capture devices, each distinct set of 2D color data and depth data representing a distinct unmeshed view of the scene from a respective vantage point of a respective capture device included in the plurality of capture devices;
• acquires metadata for each distinct set of 2D color data and depth data;
• generates a separate color data stream and a separate depth data stream for each distinct set of 2D color data and depth data captured by each capture device included in the plurality of capture devices;
• packages each separate depth data stream and each separate color data stream associated with each capture device included in the plurality of capture devices into a transport stream such that the transport stream includes data representing each distinct unmeshed view of the scene from each respective vantage point of each respective capture device;
• and
• provides the metadata and the transport stream for streaming to a media player device;
• wherein each distinct unmeshed view of the scene is not combined together with any other distinct unmeshed view of the scene captured by any other capture device included in the plurality of capture devices prior to the packaging of each separate depth data stream and each separate color data stream into the transport stream.

A system comprising:

• at least one physical computing device that:
• acquires, from a first capture device physically disposed at a first vantage point in relation to a scene that includes one or more objects, a first distinct set of two-dimensional (2D) color data and depth data for the first capture device, the first distinct set of 2D color data and depth data for the first capture device representing a first unmeshed view of the scene from the first vantage point of the first capture device at a point in time;
• acquires, from a second capture device physically disposed at a second vantage point in relation to the scene that includes the one or more objects, a second distinct set of two-dimensional (2D) color data and depth data for the second capture device, the second distinct set of 2D color data and depth data for the second capture device representing a second unmeshed view of the scene from the second vantage point of the second capture device at the point in time;
• acquires metadata for the first distinct set of 2D color data and depth data and the second distinct set of 2D color data and depth data;
• generates a separate color data stream and a separate depth data stream for each of the first distinct set of 2D color data and depth data and the second distinct set of 2D color data and depth data;
• packages each separate color data stream and each separate depth data stream associated with the first capture device and the second capture device into a transport stream such that the transport stream includes data representing the first distinct unmeshed view of the scene from the first vantage point of the first capture device and the second distinct unmeshed view of the scene from the second vantage point of the second capture device;
• and
• provides the metadata and the transport stream for streaming to a media player device;
• wherein the first unmeshed view and the second unmeshed view are not combined together or with any other unmeshed view of the scene prior to the packaging of each separate depth data stream and each separate color data stream into the transport stream.