A guided flight you read instead of hear
360° flights over Polish cities. The captions are part of the 360° picture, in three places around you.
A frame from a film; the caption is part of the 360° picture: “The Castle That Left a Tower” · Opole
Author: Andrii ShramkoHow the captions work
The captions are part of the picture. You do not need to switch them on. They work the same on YouTube, in DeoVR and in a VR headset.
The same caption appears in three places around you, a third of a turn apart. One copy stands next to the place the guide is talking about, so you read and look at the same spot.
A caption has at most 2 lines of up to 37 characters. The pace is about 145 words per minute.
The captions show exactly what the guide says aloud. Place names stay in Polish, as on the street signs. You can watch with sound, without sound, or both.
Two more frames from the films. Each caption stands next to the place it talks about.
Why every film has captions
I found out that people who cannot hear want to watch films like these, but they cannot follow a narrator's voice. Reading works better for them. So I decided to make the whole series with captions, from the very first film.
Honestly: what is not there yet
The captions and the narration are in English. The narration is a synthetic voice.
There is no sign language yet — neither Polish Sign Language (PJM) nor International Sign. We want to make it together with a Deaf person, not without one.
There is no audio description.
Captions in 360° films are still rare — in this series, every film has them. Researchers have studied how to show captions in 360° video for years, and there is still no single answer: most video formats cannot store where a caption should stand. That is why we burn the captions into the picture.
- BBC R&D, 2018 — Exploring Subtitle Behaviour for 360° Video (White Paper WHP 330)
- ImAc, an EU Horizon 2020 project — Recommendations for immersive accessibility services (white paper, 2020)
- W3C Immersive Captions Community Group, 2024 — report on captions in 360° video
- World Health Organization — Deafness and hearing loss (fact sheet)
Worldwide, about 430 million people need rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss (WHO fact sheet, 3 March 2026).
Films — every one with captions
360°Open captionsThe Island That Kept Working
Houses standing in the water, the red-brick Rother Mills and a dye works that washed clothes in petrol.
360°Open captionsThe Suburb Named for a Lock
Wooden lock gates, poplars along the water and a district named after a canal lock.
360°Open captionsThe Long Wait for the Tram
Townhouses of the old Prinzenstrasse, bends of the Brda and a district that came through the war undamaged.
360°Open captionsCastle Hill, Remade and Renamed
A church on the site of a royal castle, and Długa Street, whose townhouses were built with its bricks.
360°Open captionsThe Street That Outlived Its Rulers
A banker's yellow villa, the Deluge Fountain and the townhouses around Freedom Square, seen from above.
360°Open captionsWho Runs the Square
A market run by its own traders, two churches and a square where horses were once sold.
360°Open captionsWhat Prussia Left
A bridge with lamps on tall posts, the red-brick railway headquarters and the street that leads in from the station.
360°Open captionsThe Market That Stayed
The huge Hotel Brda block, a market the city never moved, and a street of railwaymen, clerks and teachers.
360°Open captionsThe Church Disguised as a House
Gothic roofs of the Old Town, Artus Court and a church built to look like an ordinary house.
360°Open captionsBuilt by Bakers and Barbers
Art Nouveau façades on Gdańska Street, a nuns' church with gun slits and a hotel with a red dome.
360°Open captionsThe Town That Kept Its Polish Voice
The island where Opole began, the philharmonic hall, the Nike monument and a cathedral with a Piast chapel.
360°Open captionsThe Rival Bank of Toruń
The red-brick ruins of Dybów Castle, the Piłsudski Bridge and the left bank of the Vistula facing the Old Town.
360°Open captionsKites over the Polders
Dragons, octopuses and sharks in the sky over Żuławy: a kite festival at Jeziorna Osada seen from above.
360°Open captionsThe Island Where Opole Began
An island between the Oder and the Młynówka: the Penny Bridge, the Piast Tower, Domek Lodowy and the amphitheatre stage.
360°Open captionsThe River Road to Berlin
Bydgoszcz by night: Opera Nova lit up, Mill Island, the Rother Mills and the old granaries on the Brda.
360°Open captionsThe River That Spared the Old Town
A red-brick cathedral with twin towers, the little church of St Sebastian and the Oder that flooded Zaodrze.
360°Open captionsThe Town of Craftsmen
The chessboard streets of the New Town, its Gothic churches and a railway bridge with towers at its ends.
360°Open captionsThe Capital of Polish Song
Kora Square by the station, the white Main Post Office with its round tower and the sign about the capital of Polish song.
360°Open captionsThe Town That Took the Castle
Walls and gates on the Vistula side, the Swedish Granary, the Crane Tower and the ruins of a castle taken by townspeople.
360°Open captionsThe Canal Dug in a Year
A flight low over the old canal, past brick locks and the trees of the Planty park in Okole.
360°Open captionsPorridge, Post and a Leaning Tower
The town hall, Artus Court, Copernicus House and the Leaning Tower: the heart of Gothic Toruń from above.
360°Open captionsThe Castle That Left a Tower
The tower left from the Piast castle, the Yellow Footbridge over the Młynówka, the town hall and a butterfly fountain.
360°Open captionsBuilt Where the Walls Came Down
The Horzyca Theatre, Jordanki with its "cracked" concrete and the New Town churches where the walls once stood.
360°Open captionsThe Hill That Kept Changing Hands
Copernicus Square with its fountain, the church "na Górce", the Museum of Opole Silesia and the Nike monument.
Without a VR headset
On a phone, swipe across the picture or turn the phone — the YouTube app works best. On a computer, drag the picture with the mouse. The captions are there either way.
On a phone: swipe across the picture or turn the phone itself — it works best in the YouTube app.
On a computer: drag the picture with the mouse to look around.
In a VR headset: open the film in DeoVR or YouTube VR.
Watch and rate the captions
Three short questions: were the captions easy to read, was the pace right, what should we change. Your e-mail is optional.
Thank you — your message has arrived
Andrii Shramko will reply to the e-mail address you gave.
A screening for your group
A deaf club, a school, a Polish Association of the Deaf (PZG) circle or another association — write to us and we will agree the details together.
Thank you — your message has arrived
Andrii Shramko will reply to the e-mail address you gave.
Questions
Are there 360° VR videos with captions for deaf people?
Yes. Every film in this series has open captions burned into the 360° picture — 24 films so far, guided flights over Polish cities. Nothing needs to be switched on.
How do you read captions in a 360° video in a VR headset?
The same caption stands in three places around you, a third of a turn apart, so one is always in view. One copy sits next to the place the guide is describing.
Where can I find deaf-friendly 360° tours of Poland?
On this page: every film below has captions. Each city also has its own site, and all the films are on YouTube and DeoVR.
Are the captions in Polish?
Not yet. The captions are in English, like the narration; place names stay in Polish. If you need Polish captions, tell us in the form — it helps us decide.
Is there sign language in the films?
No, not yet. We want to make a sign-language version together with a Deaf person.
Andrii Shramko
Engineer and filmmaker, living in Bydgoszcz. I have been filming 360° in motion since 2015.
What you can check
- My 3D scan illustrates the NVIDIA Omniverse documentation, credited to Andrii Shramko
- World Labs: my scene “Poland”, 106 million splats — the largest in their Spark 2.0 article
- “Touching the Sky” — a VR film by Red Bull × Meta, 2025 (making-of on Red Bull TV)
- Immersive Warsaw 2026: speaker, “The Camera Doesn't Exist Yet”, 5 November 2026, Kinoteka
- Lublin's Old Town as a 3D scene: 259 million splats, 13 levels of detail — the largest scene on my profile
- ShramkoGSFPV: a drone simulator in the browser, flying over real 3D scans — open source
I almost always work with a team — that is why I write “we”. We will agree how to work together when we meet.