Simple question about panoramas, Why must they have ends? Options

[AndyG]

Thanks for the comments! To answer the questions...

Widening the applications of the program:

I think the most practical way to achieve this would be to use a very small external .xml file to load the .swf with the desired image, the image height and width, and where north is. The resultant (picture-less) .swf file size would then be tiny - less than 10k. The scripting in the Flash would need to be re-written to load the image and calculate the correct sizing/scroll rates from any particular image's data - but that's not difficult.

A user would need to amend the xml file for use with different images, however a simple edit & save in Notepad would suffice.

It would be much more work to completely automate this process: i.e. select a file from a list and let 'er rip.

Inward looking 360's:

This is similarly straightforward. Though for global views there'd be extreme distortion at the poles unless the image was treated. This would give me nightmares, I think: the maths is ok (with a bit of cheating) and I believe Flash is good at squeezing/stretching bitmap images (I've personally got no experience of that), but it would run much less smoothly unless the image sizes were small - which perhaps rather destroys the idea of the big panorama.

3d Views:

There's obviously no problem entering an anaglyphic panorama as a single image. And it would be ok to enter a separate left and right panorama - a semi-transparent image offset over another is ok in Flash. The only hassles I can see with that would be getting the transparency (alpha) and the offset right, but a slider/controller would sort that out.

Andy

[ngunn]

A user would need to amend the xml file for use with different images, however a simple edit & save in Notepad would suffice.

It would be much more work to completely automate this process: i.e. select a file from a list and let 'er rip.

Andy your efforts are really very much appreciated. Of course the ultimate goal would be full automation (or panoramas that are posted in this format in the first place) but if you assemble a semi-automated version and provide instructions at a really elementary level I will do my best to educate myself accordingly. That's assuming that whatever needs to be done by the user is permitted on our college network. In the meantime I look forward to viewing any more ready-made ones you decide to make and post here.

[jamescanvin]

I'll also add that I'm more than happy to add this feature to all the past and future 360 pans on my site (Including Lyell which is going to be one any sol now ) if Andy is happy to provide the code (with some fool proof instructions. ) Full credit and kudos would of course be given.

James

[ngunn]

James - that is wonderful news. The results will, I'm sure, set a new benchmark in fully user-friendly endless panoramas. I had not dared to hope that this would happen so soon. Let's hope it catches on.

[AndyG]

I'll also add that I'm more than happy to add this feature to all the past and future 360 pans on my site (Including Lyell which is going to be one any sol now ) if Andy is happy to provide the code (with some fool proof instructions. ) Full credit and kudos would of course be given.

...and absolutely not necessary.

The pans, James, are a pleasure to see, use and work with. You've done all the hard work (with the help, I suppose, of a few hundred million $'s from the US, and Doug's wonderful forum to bring them to the wider world!) Let me dig into the ones already in existance and I'll see what I can come up with over the next few days.

"Provide the code"? - ngunn, we really are talking paleolithicware here. It's not going to be difficult for anyone to make the endless pan they want. Download the player, download the pan you want, change a couple of lines in a file, save it, sit back and enjoy.

Andy, still spinning on homeplate.

[ngunn]

James, Andy - any more news on the endless panoramas front? Just curious, not impatient or anything.

If there is will you post here? (or send me a message) Though obviously not part of any technical discussion I wouldn't want to miss something nice coming out of it.

[charborob]

Andy,

I just saw your "endless panorama" today. Just fantastic! That's what panoramas were meant to be.

I've been lurking in the back for many months and just signed up recently, and I'm amazed at what you guys manage to do with the images. I'd like to join the fun, but my work and my family have priority. So thanks for doing what I can't. Keep it up!

[chuckclark]

"Presumably there is insufficient interest in panoramas generally among the wider public for the big software companies to provide it as a standard facility."

Above is meant to be a forum "quote." I've yet to fully absorb the posting format.

Once upon a time, a century ago or so, the Panorama was the hottest thing going, the biggest urban attraction before the era of the moving picture. And the panorama was indeed "connected at the ends," in giant viewing rooms to which a couple would stroll of an evening. World-wide travel was difficult, and this was a way to compensate. If I have my history straight a fellow named Frederick Catherwood produced in New York City Panorama viewing rooms on the order of 100 feet in diameter showing Jerusalem, for example, and, another, Mayan ruined cities.

Atlanta still has something you can still go to called the Cyclorama, a 360 degree Panorama painting depicting a pivotal moment in the civil-war-between-the-states battle of Atlanta.

It is really quite a shame, in my view, that our digital era -- we see 3-D inside a flat screen -- has seen the corruption of this term.

Yes, join those ends up, even if it's only a big enough circle you can stick your head into!

[ngunn]

Yes, join those ends up

chuckclark, have you checked out the one Andy posted in post 11 of this thread? It's brilliant, and I'm hoping we'll see more like it soon.

Incidentally I was fascinated to read in your post about Catherwood's Cyclorama. I'm a huge fan of his artwork and have a book about his Mayan exploits with Stephens on my living-room shelf.

I'm sure those theatre-sized panorama/cycloramas will make a comeback. Mars and Titan are likely to remain as inaccessible to most people through the 21st century as Jerusalem and the Yucatan were in the 19th, so the potential of the medium is reborn. Museum architects take note!

[Reckless]

Hi Andy your moving panarama is great, more please I particularly like the degree markers at the top.
wide screen would be nice too.
There have been so many superb 360 degree views taken so far and all would be enhanced by this treatment.
Thanks

Roy

[AndyG]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, and please accept my apologies for not getting the more flexible panorama tool finished. I have to blame real life, but - with clear air in sight - I should be free to get things done later this week.

And then maybe I'll have the time to return to my other hobby, as well...

Andy