Multi-node Tour ready for review and input

[Scott Witte]

Howdy, fellow FPP enthusiasts,

Well, I've just about finished my first "grown-up" tour (the tour, not the web page it is on!). At least it's to the point where I would really appreciate input from some of the great talent here. Please comment on anything from interface and usability to performance to artistic issues but especially let me know of any problems.

The test site: Eisner Museum (http://www.scottwitte.com/QTVR/EisnerFlash_sm/)

I should point out that this is a facility tour, not a gallery exhibit. The tour will be up for several years during which time the exhibits will change many times. So the client specifically didn't want the flying picture effect Denis demonstrated with the 2.1 introduction.

FPP is the first system that seemed capable of giving me the flexibility and nearly the performance I wanted cross platform. The animation between panoramas is one prime example. Speaking of which, one HUGE remaining headache is "spinning hotspots". I will make a separate post about that in the support forum.

For me, the big thing still missing is proper sound. The client wants ambient sound (which I totally support) plus a tour guide voice over on demand. I haven't found a player I'm really happy with including all those I've seen mentioned here, but Denis promises a new one before long. In the meantime I'm using a modified version of his old player and added that to the top floor panos just to give the client an idea.

Looking forward to your comments and discussion.

Thanks!

[izoneguy]

The red text hotspots are hard to read. I would use a graphic that is more
arty in the spirit of each room you are going to.

[Scott Witte]

The red text hotspots are hard to read. I would use a graphic that is more
arty in the spirit of each room you are going to.
izoneguy,

You (and a couple other people) are right about the red hotspot labels. Thanks. I just uploaded much more readable versions, I trust.

Unique graphics for each link is an interesting idea -- could be fun. More work than I want to put into that element right now, though. Then again, there are some who think using different words for each hotspot is too much variation compared the the same, universal symbol throughout.

Thanks for the feedback!

[jaaaab]

Hi Scott,

Nice Job!

Personnaly, i avoid placing rollovers on invisible hotspots in the tour, i think that it makes the visitor wasting time to look for them and it's particurlarly disturbing.

To make the joint with WideEyes post in the central forum "Making money with flashpanoramas?" (http://www.flashpanoramas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=432) can you describe us in that post how did you find that client? this is an interesting application of panoramas!

Cheers.

[WideEyes]

Hi Scott

Congratulation on the tour.
As Jaaab sugested, I would also love if you would reply my thread "Making Money with Flashpanoramas" and share your selling experiences with the rest of us.

I think your tour is very good. Have you considered making a frame around the panorama? And what about thumbnails. Have your considered that? I really like the way you made the combo list where you can choose the seperate panoramas. It looks great :)

If I were you I would make the hotspots visible from the beginning. If you are not familiar with virtual tours, it can seem strage that text sometimes show up.
Can someone explain what is wrong with the Mp3Player that is available at the moment? I have used it once and it works fine. Is it because it does not work with all browsers?

Best regards
Morten

[WideEyes]

Hi Scott

I just got an idea I would love your input on. (And everyone else)

What if you expanded the tour of the museum, and included close-up pictures with some text of every piece that is exhibited. You should then be able to click every item and see the item up close along with some text explaining what it is you see.
The idea is to put your expanded virtual tour on a cd and sell it to the public.
The problem with museum exhibitions is that the exhibition is only available for a limited time period. By making a virtual exhibition the exhibition will be available for ever.
But the question is of course if there is a market for it. Can it actually be sold? And is the profit worth the effort?

Best regards
Morten Andersen

[izoneguy]

That would be an interesting idea. But from my experience with artists and photographers they get uncomfortable with the idea of distribution with
compensation. I think Scott said they are not doing that for some reason.
Just the amount of work involved would probably crush that idea.
I am sure Scott did a demo to show them the possibilities.

[WideEyes]

That would be an interesting idea. But from my experience with artists and photographers they get uncomfortable with the idea of distribution with
compensation. I think Scott said they are not doing that for some reason.
Just the amount of work involved would probably crush that idea.
I am sure Scott did a demo to show them the possibilities.

Sure it will take some work. But I bet that there is already a lot of pictures available of the items that can be used. Then all you have to do is to ad a small text area in PhotoShop, and the insert a hotspot. And then burn the tour to a cd.

Well I guess it is an opportunity - the question is if there is a market for it. The future will tell us :)

Best regards
Morten

[Scott Witte]

Jaaaab,

Regarding the rollover hotspots, like many design elements it may just be a matter of personal preference. Personally I find the cleaner the image the better and a constantly on hotspot can become distracting. One designer complain that just having the navigation buttons was too much. Of course, he wasn't a newbie at navigating VRs either. I agree about the "wasted time hunting" concern and hope the Reveal Hotspots button minimizes that. I'll be very interested in the feedback I get from the target audience starting next week.

Wideyes (love the handle!),

I have thought about a frame, at least to move the nav butons off the image but got bogged down in the learning process along with a concern about "wasting" screen space on the frame. Balance that against the desire to keep the image as clean as possible.... Anyway, I plan to explore that further but probably not on this project.

Regarding the fly-out thumbnails you and jaaab have used. I've been totally impressed and enjoyed using them. Great cool eye candy if nothing else. However, from a utilitarian viewpoint I am undecided if they add much. Are they large enough to give enough idea what you will be looking at vs. the listbox? How much difference does it make to the end user?

My impression is that the first time someone experiences VR images they will likely be quite lost and want all the visual aids they can get. But once they "get it" they want all the visual aid "junk" out of the way. What is the best way to do that? We need more user feedback on all this stuff.

Re: the MP3player, you can experience the problem on the second floor panoramas. Move from one pano to another and the previous sound file often (not always) continues playing to the end of its loop. There seems no way to load a sound file without reloading the player which means you loose volume adjustment from one instance to another or even the on/off status.

I need a player that is loaded once and dynamically changes files along with the pano. It should also cross fade between files so you don't get that jarring change from one space to another -- IMO.

Re: The closeups of items: It is a good idea and was discussed but rejected right away. This tour will be up for several years during which time the exhibits will change many times. This was a facility tour, not an exhibition vehicle. But I will discuss that further in your "making money" thread.

Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! This really helps.

[cheathamlane]

Hi Scott

I just got an idea I would love your input on. (And everyone else)

What if you expanded the tour of the museum, and included close-up pictures with some text of every piece that is exhibited. You should then be able to click every item and see the item up close along with some text explaining what it is you see.
The idea is to put your expanded virtual tour on a cd and sell it to the public.
The problem with museum exhibitions is that the exhibition is only available for a limited time period. By making a virtual exhibition the exhibition will be available for ever.
But the question is of course if there is a market for it. Can it actually be sold? And is the profit worth the effort?

Best regards
Morten Andersen

Huh cool... Back in 2001/2002 I did just this. :)

http://www.graystone.org/galleryview/David_Maxim_GV/main.html

This is running in QuickTime, since Flash couldn't handle VR back then, appropriately anyway.

If you have a newer version of QuickTime, then you'll miss out on the popup window functionality, where a closeup image of each art piece is shown, and also video for certain pieces. This was on the Web, and tha artist also provided it on CD to people.

Because of updates to QT not allowing "javascript:" style links, the popup windows won't work.

If I'm feeling philanthropic one day, I may update the tour to Flash for the client. At any rate, enjoy.

Cheers

[Scott Witte]

Huh cool... Back in 2001/2002 I did just this. :)

http://www.graystone.org/galleryview/David_Maxim_GV/main.html

Dude! I remember that! So you are that guy. :D

[cheathamlane]

Cool, I'm famous! :P

Regrettably, the panos I produced for that can't go anywhere near full screen -- It'll take some creative doing to replicate the interface with FPP (or to include FPP), especially because of the quality change while panning.

[Cameleer]

Hi Scott,
Very nice tour, here at work on a 15” monitor it was very nice, but at home on my 24” monitor it was just like being there! Supper!!

I really like the way you set it up and was wondering if you could tell me how to get hotspots to work like that? I’ve been pounding my head against the wall for over a week now trying to learn some of these things.

This is as far as I have gotten with my pano tour and still have much more website work to do. http://www.indiavrtours.com/jaipur/amber4.html

Thanks for any and all help,
Roger

[Scott Witte]

Roger,

Thanks for the compliment. I've really enjoyed the work you've been showing on the forums as well. Talk about VR taking you to another world... It's great.

Anyway, just check my xml file (http://www.scottwitte.com/QTVR/EisnerFlash_sm/Eisner.xml) for details about what I did. Also check the "Clicking Madness" thread (http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381) which explains a lot of what went into figuring it out. Feel free to ask any further questions in the Support forum.

Good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your adventures!

[Cameleer]

Thank you Scott,

I learned a lot form viewing your xml page and tested a few of the things on my site, works good!
Now I understand why you should use one xml page for a tour and how things work together, looks like I have a few changes to make.

I’m trying to get a nice VRT set up before my next trip to India in November.

Thanks again,
Roger