My take on a virtual tour package

[WideEyes]

Hello everybody.

So now it is finally time for me to share my thoughts about building a virtual tour with FPP.

You can see the tour here:

http://www.wideeyes.dk/temp/tour/index.html

A few comments is in order to explain what I have done – and why.

1) Infoscreen
I start the tour with an infoscreen that explain how to navigate.

2) Mouse plug-in
I used the mouse plug-in from flaspanos.com in order to make a more intuitive navigation. I have tested this “mouse follow” feature up against “left click” navigation on “regular” people, and the feedback is clear. The “mouse follow” is by far the most preferred way of navigating. So that is from now on standard in my panos.

3) Cache plug-in
I also used the cache plug-in. Most panoramas are 1-2mb and that gives many people a lot of waiting time when new panoramas are loading. That is a shame as it affects the whole experience of taking a virtual tour. So I am a big supporter of this great plug-in J

4) Hotspots
I’ve used a mouse over feature so you see a small thumbnail of the next room before clicking the hotspot. Again it is something I believe makes the tour more user-friendly.

5) Info boxes.
A small info-box have been added to each panorama to give the client the opportunity to elaborate on what the guest is seeing – or to tell about the rooms facilities.

I would like to thank Patrick and Zephyr. Without their plug-ins I would not have been able to get the tour as I wanted it.
And I’d like to thank Aifos (also know as the "scariest" guy in Argentina *lol* ) for his help with optimizing the xml document and teaching me the basics about coding. And of course Mike and Kevin from Newspin360 for the template.

Best regards
Morten

[cheathamlane]

Morten:

Kudos! Looking good... :)

Cheers,

[PauloGGPX]

Very nice indeed Morten :D

I don't agree with the mouse navigations thing, and personally I got "lost", but maybe I'm just to familiar with the old way to learn a new trick (and I'm not getting younger either)

looking forward to see more tours from you, now that you got the hang of it there's no reason to stop ;)

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Very nice Morten.

You have done a good job there. I would however side with Paulo on the "mouse follow" function... for me it is distracting... as if something nasty got stuck to my shoe and can't be shaken off :)

[NewSpin360]

Good job Morten!

Mike

[Dalileis]

Great job, but many of the links on your site don't work properly. Check under DOKUMENTATION. Cheers...

[WideEyes]

Thanks for letting me know.
The links are to articles I found that support the use of virtual tours.

Fortunately I have back-ups of most of the documents not working. I will re-post them soon.

Thanks again.
Regards
Morten

[eladnova]

Hi Morten
that's very nice although I found the mouse-follow a bit annoying.

May I ask you somethings. The drop down panel which reads 'Vaelg Billed'...

Is that calling a SWF hotspot?
Did you create the drop-down inside flash with actionscript
How does it then target each panorama?


I only want to know if you are not giving any secrets away :)
Thanks!

[WideEyes]

Hi Eladnova

I don't mind giving secrets away - but it is Aifos who helped me with the "Vaelg Billed" So I have to study the xml before I can give you an answer. But I am almost certain that the background image (the transparent part) is a .png file, and the thumbnails are individual .png files.

Best regards
Morten

[WideEyes]

Hi everybody.

Thanks for your response.

I have made a few changes since last.

1) I decided to drop the "mouse follow" feature. The panning was just not as smooth with the "mouse follow" as without. I don't know why, but it doesn't really matter.

2) I can't decide if I should set the qualityMotion to medium or low. I hate the way the pictures look when it is set to the default Low - see it here: http://www.wideeyes.dk/tours/visitdenmark/dif/index.html

But I am afraid that it will require too much computer power if I set it at qualityMedium - see it here
http://www.wideeyes.dk/tours/visitdenmark/dif2/index.html

Can you guys please test it and get back to me with these informations:

1) Is the panning equally smooth in both examples?
2) Browser used?
3) cpu power
4) RAM
5) Speed of internet connection??

Thanks in advance.

regards
Morten

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

There is a difference, but for me it's not justifiable to lower the quality, but I also understand it might be a difference justifiable for lesser machines.

1) No, it's a bit slower in the "Medium" example
2) IE based Crazy Browser
3) Double core AMD - 64x2 4200+
4) 2GB in mainboard ram + 512MB in graphic card ram
5) 2.5 mbps (officially) 2.0 mbps effective

[WideEyes]

Thanks for testing Tuddi.

My main concern is the quality. But it can very different what "common people" perceive as quality. Some people - like me - is concerned about the quality in the pictures so qualityMedium will be preferred. But it is also my experience that lot's of people see it as "bad quality" if the panning isn't smooth. So I guess the best choise is to let the client decide. And that is what I would normally do. But in this case the tour have to be used as a reference for a marketing campaign I am running that hits 600+ potential customers. I can therefore only have one example.

What to choose, oh what to choose. (moaning out loud)

Best regards
Morten

[Aifos]

Hi Morten
that's very nice although I found the mouse-follow a bit annoying.

May I ask you somethings. The drop down panel which reads 'Vaelg Billed'...

Is that calling a SWF hotspot?
Did you create the drop-down inside flash with actionscript
How does it then target each panorama?


I only want to know if you are not giving any secrets away :)
Thanks!

no, it is not and swf file... it is all xml...
as Morten said, the background is a png file. all the thumbnails and Vaelg Billed'/Luk texts are png, too...
to target each panorama, use this line inside the spot parameters:
onclick="loadpano(panoname=path/to/your/panorama)"

bye!