Apparatus and method for generating an image data stream

An apparatus for generating an image data stream representing views of a scene, e.g. for a Virtual Reality application. The apparatus comprises a receiver (203) receiving a gaze indication indicative of both a head pose and a relative eye pose for a viewer. The head pose includes a head position and the relative eye pose is indicative of an eye pose relative to the head pose. A determiner (205) determines a, typically small/ narrow, visual attention region in the scene corresponding to the gaze indication. Specifically, a region around a gaze point may be identified. A generator (209) generates the image data stream to comprise image data for the scene having a higher quality level/ data rate for the visual attention region than outside of the visual attention region.