The 2:1 panoramic projection mapping the full sphere to a flat rectangle — the lingua franca of 360° video.
Equirectangular projection (also called lat-long or spherical projection) maps a complete 360°×180° sphere onto a flat rectangle with a 2:1 aspect ratio. Longitude maps to the horizontal axis, latitude to the vertical. The result is the same projection used in world maps — heavily distorted at the poles, accurate at the equator.
Many producers now master in equirectangular at 8K×4K or 16K×8K, then derive dome and VR outputs from the same source. Tools like ffmpeg, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve can convert between the two formats.
Equirectangular is increasingly used as the universal master format because it covers the full sphere — content can be cropped and reprojected for any dome geometry, VR headset, or flat screen. Cosm venues with hyper-hemisphere apron extensions (going below the springline) benefit from full-sphere equirectangular masters.
See also: Domemaster → · Fulldome → · Resolution →
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