Local panos on Android HD tablet?

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John Goodman

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Sep 15, 2012, 3:36:16 AM9/15/12
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Is there a good way to view spherical panos (~80Mpx) locally on a HD Android tablet? Ideal would be a light standalone viewer like DevalVR or FSP for single pano files, but nothing seems available. Flash seems fated to fail, since mobile settings at Adobe doesn't allow green-lighting local folders the way the PC version does, not to mention Flash being a dead-end from Android 4.1. Are there workarounds for non-rooted devices that would allow loading Flash panos from an SD card? However, mobile browser support for PTGuiViewer.swf seems spotty. If the pano loads, I can pan up and down in some browsers but not zoom, or zoom but only pan horizontally in other browsers. A few Android apps I've tried for pano viewing either require internet or are limited to low resolution (or both). All in all, a sorry state of affairs. Is there any current remedy? Anything in the pipeline? TIA.

thomash2

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Sep 15, 2012, 7:21:51 AM9/15/12
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I was able to load local PTgui panos by rooting my phone and adding a custom security log to allow flash to open images locally.  Flash is able to load local swf panos if the images or embedded in the swf, but by default its not able to load swf panos with photos that are loaded externally, like the PTGui viewer.

In the root directory /data/data/com.android.browser/app_plugins/com.adobe.flashplayer/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#Security/FlashPlayerTrust/yourfile
you need to create a file with the lines

file:////path/to/swf/directory
i think i used /// instead of //// because 4 slashes didn't work for me.

you can find more info here
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/527425/flash-player-trust-file-not-working-with-embedded-browser-on-linux/

thomash2

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Sep 15, 2012, 7:23:41 AM9/15/12
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Also, it may be worth going to a local electronics shop to play with the Google Nexus 7 tablet to see if android 4.1 really supports html 5.  I haven't been able to get my hands on one, but if it does support html5, then PTGui viewer should work without flash.


On Saturday, 15 September 2012 09:36:16 UTC+2, John Goodman wrote:

Jim Watters

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Sep 15, 2012, 7:31:37 AM9/15/12
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The only stand along viewer for Android I know of is Panodroid.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.frank_durr.panodroid
It is limited to equirectangular images. But it then converts them to faces. My
tablet handles 2048 pixels faces easily. My phone could not convert 8400X4200
pano to 1024 pixel faces.
It is very responsive. No zoom. It can display panos from local, from URL, or by
searching Flickr. I can not find anywhere on the device where the tiles are
cached. The pano was cached but loading the same pano with different tile size
from my home network even though the pano was cached it downloaded it again then
converted to faces before displaying.

Multiresolution flash player is probably the easiest way to go.

Jim
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Jim Watters
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John Goodman

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Sep 17, 2012, 2:17:41 AM9/17/12
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Thank you all for your replies. I don't want to hassle rooting my tablet now, so trying to add a custom security log file won't fly. FWIW, I checked the Flash settings.sol file in Users...Roaming... on Win7, and it shows the local path I green-lighted for Flash, but the file is not plain text, so I'd likely be "SOL" trying to edit it by hand.


> The only stand along viewer for Android I know of is Panodroid.

I found Panoramic Photo Viewer 360 PRO, and like it a lot. I wish more pano enthusiasts knew about it. The app has quite a few rough spots, but I think it's a great beginning.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adec.apps.release.panpro

I recommend buying the Pro version (it's not expensive). I'll email the author to give feedback and suggestions. It loads my full-size panos (~90Mpx) from the tablet's SD card, pan & zoom work well, and if the UI glitches are removed, this Android pano viewer will be hard to beat, IMO. There's some overhead involved in prepping jpeg sources for pano display, but this is done locally.

John Goodman

Hans Nyberg

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Sep 17, 2012, 5:14:38 AM9/17/12
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Sorry but where do you get the idea that local flash is not allowed?.
What Android version are you talking about. Flash is supported up to 4.0.  I have no problem viewing flash panoramas on my Android 2.3.6  installed on my SD card,
Just copy your tour to the SDcard and in your browser point it  at file://sdcard/panofolder/panos.html

Hans

thomash2

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Sep 17, 2012, 6:33:09 AM9/17/12
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Local flash files are allowed most of the time,
but flash files which load external local objects are not allowed.

Try creating a pano using PTGui viewer with externally loaded tiles, and open it from your SD card. on your android phone.

Jim Watters

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Sep 17, 2012, 12:49:03 PM9/17/12
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On 2012-09-17 3:17 AM, John Goodman wrote:
> I found Panoramic Photo Viewer 360 PRO, and like it a lot. I wish more pano
> enthusiasts knew about it. The app has quite a few rough spots, but I think
> it's a great beginning.
>
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adec.apps.release.panpro

This works very well. Give it a equirectangular or cylindrical jpeg and it
generates all the tiles for smooth viewing.
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