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From: povray org admin team
Subject: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 09:30:53
Message: <362ed33e.12121109@news.povray.org>
It will probably only work in IE (when I tried Netscape, it failed to get the
plugin).

  http://www.expedia.com/daily/fullcircle/australia/surround.hts

I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)

After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made with
one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since it's
likely to be Microsoft proprietary).


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From: Ron Parker
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 10:29:49
Message: <362de1cd.0@news.povray.org>
On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 12:30:58 GMT, povray.org admin team 
	<new### [at] DESPAMpovrayorg> wrote:

>I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
>allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)
>
>After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made with
>one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
>possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since it's
>likely to be Microsoft proprietary).

I can't see it, since I don't have a working IE, but I've seen similar things 
e.g. on an IBM research site.  Believe it or not, most of these panoramic 
images are now done with the aid of software from a number of normal 
photographs.  These are then perspective-corrected and composited into a 
panoramic image.  Of course, it would be much easier to create such a thing in 
POV where there actually are panoramic cameras.  

Something to think about: what happens if you render an image at say 14800x300, 
using a camera with an angle of 370 degrees, then stick it in a 400x300 window 
(with a scrollbar at the bottom)  If I'm thinking right, you'll get a 
10-degree-wide view of a panoramic scene, and you can look around by scrolling 
left and right.  Ideally, of course, you'd want to do some perspective 
correction on-the-fly, necessitating a plugin or some Java code, but if you 
keep your viewing angle small it shouldn't make much difference. 

Make it an imagemap, and you'll be able to make your own Zork:Nemesis in
plain HTML using POV.


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From: povray org admin team
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 11:31:17
Message: <362defe7.19458439@news.povray.org>
>e.g. on an IBM research site.  Believe it or not, most of these panoramic 
>images are now done with the aid of software from a number of normal 
>photographs.  These are then perspective-corrected and composited into a 

In this case, I think it's a real 360 degree photo. I've seen the cameras that
do this - they have a little 'periscope' type arrangement at the top that
rotates 360 degrees with the aid of a motor during the exposure.


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From: Mike Weber
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 11:43:16
Message: <362df304.0@news.povray.org>
For the Windows users run the attachment.

povray.org admin team wrote in message
<362ed33e.12121109@news.povray.org>...
>It will probably only work in IE (when I tried Netscape, it failed to get
the
>plugin).
>
>  http://www.expedia.com/daily/fullcircle/australia/surround.hts
>
>I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
>allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)
>
>After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made
with
>one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
>possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since
it's
>likely to be Microsoft proprietary).
>
>


Post a reply to this message


Attachments:
Download 'snowmoun.exe.dat' (421 KB)

From: Ron Parker
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 13:11:41
Message: <362e07bd.0@news.povray.org>
On 21 Oct 1998 09:29:49 -0500, Ron Parker <par### [at] my-dejanewscom> wrote:

>Something to think about: what happens if you render an image at say 14800x300, 
>using a camera with an angle of 370 degrees, then stick it in a 400x300 window 
>(with a scrollbar at the bottom)  If I'm thinking right, you'll get a 
>10-degree-wide view of a panoramic scene, and you can look around by scrolling 
>left and right.  Ideally, of course, you'd want to do some perspective 
>correction on-the-fly, necessitating a plugin or some Java code, but if you 
>keep your viewing angle small it shouldn't make much difference. 

Turns out 10 degrees is too narrow an angle.  I tried it with a little over 55
degrees (a 2900x300 image) and it looks great.  If you'd like to see it, point
your HTML 4.0 compatible browser (IE 4 and above; sorry, NS 4.0x won't cut it,
nor, surprisingly, will Amaya) at http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/pantest.html .  
(I guess I do have a working IE after all...)  The image is nothing to write 
home about, but the technique is stunning.


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From: Lewis Sellers
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 13:58:51
Message: <362E12E7.F15E95C5@usit.net>
Ron Parker wrote:
> 
> Turns out 10 degrees is too narrow an angle.  I tried it with a little over 55
> degrees (a 2900x300 image) and it looks great.  If you'd like to see it, point
> your HTML 4.0 compatible browser (IE 4 and above; sorry, NS 4.0x won't cut it,
> nor, surprisingly, will Amaya) at http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/pantest.html .
> (I guess I do have a working IE after all...)  The image is nothing to write
> home about, but the technique is stunning.

Try it in normal frame arrangement. Of course, I don't think that will
work on a webtv....

-- 
Lewis A. Sellers: writer and contract Multimedia Website Developer
mailto:lse### [at] usitnet (The Fourth Millennium Foundation)
http://www.public.usit.net/lsellers/ & http://www.intrafoundation.com
http://brain-of-pooh.tech-soft.com/users/critters/bios/sellers_lewis.html

You can bug the living bejesus out of me live on ICQ @ 491461
(If I don't get back to you within a month, I'm out of prozac in some
dark corner somewhere screaming things quite unintelligable but -- most
curiously -- thick with a sumerian accent.)

"The comedy is over" -i pagliacci


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From: Mike Weber
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 15:04:57
Message: <362e2249.0@news.povray.org>
Dear Mike:
Thank you for writing in about the Surround Video technology used in
Expedia's Full Circles.  Here is some background information about the
images and the technology:

The images in Full Circle are created in a couple of different ways:
1) a special camera that spins around on top of a tripod, and generates a
long strip of film.
2) a regular 35 mm camera on a tripod rigged with a special device that
permits you to take one shot, then rotate the camera a few degrees, then
take another, and etc. This latter kind generates some 12 to 36 still
images. Those are then scanned in, and the seams between the stills are
digitally "sewn" together.

After processing either type to create a digital continous 360 image, we use
Microsoft's Surround Video technology to present that visual warping effect
in a Web page. The user can see by means of either an ActiveX control
(Internet Explorer browsers) or by downloading a plug-in (Netscape users).

There are a few versions of this technology: Surround Video code was created
by Black Diamond Consulting company in NH
http://www.bdiamond.com/surround/surround.htm Their site's got really great
information that explains how it works and how you can use it), and then
that was licensed and adapted by Microsoft. There is also something called
Apple Quicktime VR, which creates much the same effect, but is slightly
different. That technology works on Macs, too. (Do check out their site as
well--it's also good.)The Microsoft technology is not available for use
outside the company, but the Black Diamond and the Apple QTVR software are.

I hope this helps. Thanks again for your interest in Expedia.com's Full
Circle.

Best Wishes,
Jayme Lynes
Assistant Editor
MSN Expedia's Full Circle
http://www.expedia.com



povray.org admin team wrote in message
<362ed33e.12121109@news.povray.org>...
>It will probably only work in IE (when I tried Netscape, it failed to get
the
>plugin).
>
>  http://www.expedia.com/daily/fullcircle/australia/surround.hts
>
>I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
>allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)
>
>After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made
with
>one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
>possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since
it's
>likely to be Microsoft proprietary).
>
>


Post a reply to this message

From: Jim Kress
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 15:25:35
Message: <362e271f.0@news.povray.org>
Looks great!  And you don't need those annoying Microsoft plugins!!

Jim


Ron Parker wrote in message <362e07bd.0@news.povray.org>...
>On 21 Oct 1998 09:29:49 -0500, Ron Parker <par### [at] my-dejanewscom> wrote:
>
>>Something to think about: what happens if you render an image at say
14800x300,
>>using a camera with an angle of 370 degrees, then stick it in a 400x300
window
>>(with a scrollbar at the bottom)  If I'm thinking right, you'll get a
>>10-degree-wide view of a panoramic scene, and you can look around by
scrolling
>>left and right.  Ideally, of course, you'd want to do some perspective
>>correction on-the-fly, necessitating a plugin or some Java code, but if
you
>>keep your viewing angle small it shouldn't make much difference.
>
>Turns out 10 degrees is too narrow an angle.  I tried it with a little over
55
>degrees (a 2900x300 image) and it looks great.  If you'd like to see it,
point
>your HTML 4.0 compatible browser (IE 4 and above; sorry, NS 4.0x won't cut
it,
>nor, surprisingly, will Amaya) at http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/pantest.html
.
>(I guess I do have a working IE after all...)  The image is nothing to
write
>home about, but the technique is stunning.


Post a reply to this message

From: Ron Parker
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 15:49:32
Message: <362e2cbc.0@news.povray.org>
On Wed, 21 Oct 1998 14:25:33 -0400, Jim Kress <jim### [at] dccmailcom> wrote:
>Looks great!  And you don't need those annoying Microsoft plugins!!

Thanks!

Now it works in Netscape 4.x as well.  I opted not to use a frameset,
since I don't really like 'em all that much, and instead added some
JavaScript that executes when your browser doesn't support <IFRAME>. So,
if you're running Netscape, you get the panoramic effect in a new window.
It still doesn't work in Amaya, but you can't have everything...


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From: Mike
Subject: Re: Check this out ...
Date: 21 Oct 1998 18:30:55
Message: <362E5ED9.C69712DF@aol.com>
This is the kind of thing that got me to start the thread in povray.programming
about creating a spherical camera for POV, which eventually I got to work thanks
to Chris Colefax.  I posted the convoluted code there.

The viewer I used to view the image was livepicture, formerly realspace.  It's the
only one I know of that does a full 360 view of the image.  The info about it can
be found at:

http://www.livepicture.com/

Unfortunately, they have pretty much trashed the realspace viewer by mixing it
with activex and java, and I get nothing but errors on their pages now.  It would
be nice if someone were to create a public domain viewer that just did the
panormas and skipped the browser thrashing java ect.  I think that's what has been
keeping this kind of thing from becoming a standard.  About the best thing I can
find now is Quicktime, but last I checked they still didn't have the full 360
degrees version working.  Then there's the overhead of every company wanting you
to pay to create the images, which you should could do for free if the viewer
could just read in a standard jpeg, which is what they do anyway once they see the
proprietary extension on the file.  Argggh.

-Mike

povray.org admin team wrote:

> It will probably only work in IE (when I tried Netscape, it failed to get the
> plugin).
>
>   http://www.expedia.com/daily/fullcircle/australia/surround.hts
>
> I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
> allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)
>
> After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made with
> one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
> possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since it's
> likely to be Microsoft proprietary).


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