About fulldome

Fulldome is an artform that uses a curved dome-shaped screen to display imagery – which may be film, animation, live gaming or any other forms of digital art. This imagery surrounds the audience, giving them the impression they have entered a different reality.

Fulldome is also a broad term for the kind of venue this art is displayed in, which may be a planetarium, or culture-focused immersive screen venue such as the Sphere in Las Vegas – probably the most famous fulldome venue in the world. 

There are now around 3000 fulldome venues globally, making it the largest network of immersive spaces in the world. In addition to this, pop-up domes of various sizes are available for temporary use and can be installed indoors or outdoors. 

Fulldome is most closely compared with either four-wall projection venues, or with virtual reality headsets. 

Here’s how they are similar and how they differ:

Four-wall projection / black box spaces

Both fulldome and four-wall projection, or ‘black box’ spaces, use imagery projected on surfaces in a physical space to give the impression that the viewer is somewhere new. 

But unlike the various four-wall projection spaces around the world, fulldome venues of all kinds have a consistent shape. This makes touring work between fulldome venues much easier at a technical level than touring between differently-shaped four-wall projection rooms, which can differ significantly in their proportions. Adaptation of work can be a long and costly process, so this makes touring dome pieces more cost effective at production stage. 

This kind of broad consistency between domes is what makes them the largest network of immersive spaces in the world. 

Virtual reality

Both fulldome and virtual reality use imagery and sound to place the viewer into a new reality. 

Fulldome artists creating experiences for the dome can use the same game engine software as virtual reality creators use, and it is possible under some circumstances to adapt work from virtual reality to dome. 

But, unlike VR headsets, fulldomes can show content to multiple people at once with a smaller overall footprint and more social connection. This means no queues for VR headsets, and more people being able to view an experience overall. VR headsets can also present accessibility issues for some users with disabilities, while fulldome can be a much more accessible format.

Fulldome is an incredibly versatile medium, and content can include (but is not limited to) film shot with 360 degree cameras, handmade animation, CGI animation, worlds built using game engine software, and immersive audio. 

Artists might use only the screen to create the experience, or they may use the space as a backdrop for other artforms such as live music, theatre, dance, and storytelling. 

Dome screens can also be used as environments for immersive training, lectures, meditation, gaming, and a huge variety of other uses. 

So while the space-themed films in planetariums are the most prevalent kinds of fulldome content, other kinds of fulldome art have been created for decades. 

The world’s longest-running international festival in Jena has been running for 20 years, while cultural fulldome labs and venues such as Vortex in Los Angeles and SAT in Montreal were created to push different uses, technologies and experiences in dome from 2010 through to today.

Newer innovation in fulldome technology includes telepresence, haptic flooring, spatial audio, and motion tracking.

While some of the newest immersive dome venues in the world use curved LED screens to show digital content, the vast majority of dome venues in the world use projectors. 

Differences between LED and projection domes are mainly around brightness and contrast. Projection domes with an appropriate projector system can give audiences a high quality visual experience without LED screens. 

Whether a fulldome venue uses a projector or an LED screen, the same kinds of content can usually be shown in both. 

When considering whether to use LED or projection, fulldome venues considerations include cost, maintenance, and structural feasibility. This means that even though newer venues are using LED screens, there are still likely to be many projection domes for the foreseeable future.