Beginner: PTGui Virtual Tour -> krpano

[JR]

I'm just starting to use PTGui Pro to create virtual tours. I was
easily able to create a 360 pano in PTGui and saved it as QuickTime
VR. That worked fine on my Mac (after downloading QT 7), but it
doesn't display for other people off my web site.

I've concluded I need to go to a Flash based image viewer and it seems
krpano is one of the best. However, it's not obvious to me how to get
my PTGui panorama into a krpano flash ...

Can someone suggest the appropriate work flow?

BTW - I'm also doing HDR, so it's convenient to use PTGui to stitch
and tone map at the same time.

Thanks for your help.

JR

(I haven't purchased krpano yet, so I am open to suggestions if I
should be using a different tool ... although I am bought into PTGui
Pro)

[JR]

Or ... looks like Pano2VR is a pretty good option.

Any opinions on which I should be using?

Thanks,

JR

[michael crane]

2009/12/22 JR <howe...@gmail.com>:

> Or ... looks like Pano2VR is a pretty good option.

as you have ptgui use that.
export/ convert the equirectangular to cube faces and tell krpano in the .xml
the krpano documentation is pretty good

regards

mick

[mcz...@gmail.com]

There is another called FPP (Flash Panorama Player) which many people
use and is pretty flexible.

I believe many people here use Krpano so feature descriptions will be
left to them. My workflow is Ptgui, Pano2Vr to make cube faces and FPP
for display. You can eliminate Pano2vr if you wish as you can feed the
Equirectangular pano back to Ptgui and make cube faces from that program
now.

Pano2vr will let you create just cube faces, or, it will let you just
feed the Equirectangular to it and it will pop out a nice SWF file that
you can just stick on your site. There are a number of free controller
bars you can get to use with it.

The advantage of cube faces and a player that you control through
parameters in an XML file is the great flexibility you can get. If you
are just starting out, using the easy output tools like Pano2vr are a
good way to go as the learning curve is shallow and you get excellent
flash panos quickly and easily, and the tools will still remain a
valuable part of your arsenal as you gain experience.

Quite likely KRpano fits this bill as well, but an experienced user will
need to confirm.

Ray setzer
wivirtual

[Joergen Geerds]

I can highly recommend krpano, especially if you buy it with the
krpano tools, which are really easy/fast/great.

here is the workflow
1. render your pano to equirect at full rez to 16 bit PSD/PSB, either
blended or blended with layers, depending on your errors/retouching
needs.
2. fix your pano in photoshop (except the nadir/zenith hole if you
have any), save PSD/PSB with all your adjustments, and save a
flattened 8 bit copy as uncompressed tiff, no sharpening yet.
3. drag the new equirect tiff onto the "sphere to cube" krpanotools
droplet
4. open the 6 cubeface tiffs in photoshop, sharpen the FBLR faces al
gusto, patch your nadir/zenith, and save all 6 cube faces as tiffs
again.
5. drag all 6 cube faces onto the "create multirez" krpano droplet
6. adjust the krpano xml to your liking
7. enjoy the pano

joergen

[JR]

Thanks for your help ... looks like I've made a little progress trying
out the krpanotools demo ...

I can follow along your steps 1-5. However, I'm not sure how to
display the result. I have a .js file and a .xml file. What's the best
way to display this locally to make sure it works ... then I assume I
need to add it to my web page ... I use Web and mobileme ... I presume
I can make that work similar to how I do zoomify images.

Thanks again.

JR

[Joergen Geerds]

hmm, this is technically a question for klaus and the krpano support
forum, not really ptgui anymore.

the makemultirez droplet should have produced a list of things:
/index.tiles/
index.html
index.xml
krpano.license
krpano.swf
/plugins/
/skin/
/swfobject/

(individual filenames might vary, and you might need to _copy_ your
license file manually into the folder)
you obviously would start the pano by opening the html in your
browser, local or server doesn't matter.

I would suggest to read the krpano manual, and the forum, especially
working on the xml file, because this is where all the magic happens
that krpano is capable off. but I have to say, until you have picked
the right xml/html template, and modified them a bit yourself, krpano
is not a "one click and you're done" thing like exporting a QTVR from
ptgui. there is a lot of power in ptgui, and i always suggest to use
the latest beta, but it takes a bit of TLC to get it where YOU want it
to be.

i hope this helps you to get started.
here is one of my krpano displays:
http://luminous-newyork.com/img/2007-11-trump-tower/2007-11-Trump-Tower.html

joergen

[JR]

Yup ... I have a little studying to get going. Doesn't look too bad
and I was able to at least get the first version ... Thanks for your
help.

Great New York skyline pano.

Here are a few of my Panorama's I've done ... I've used Zoomify to
show the detail.

http://www.howellphotographicarts.com/Howell_Photographic_Arts/Panoramas.html

I've now ordered a Nodal Ninja 5 and and starting on Virtual Tours ...
therefore the need to go to krpano.

Thanks again for your help.

JR

> here is one of my krpano displays:http://luminous-newyork.com/img/2007-11-trump-tower/2007-11-Trump-Tow...