Createing a "Guided" tour

[FlatBallFlyer]

Createing a "Guided" tour

by FlatBallFlyer » Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:28 pm

I'm hoping that I've found the correct tool to do what I'm wanting.... I have several large pano's (1Gb+) that I would like to create a flash/video/whatever that allows me to create a "Guided Tour", i.e. Start out zoomed to here, then pan out to here, then pan right to here, then zoom in to here.... the key here is I want a "Guided" tour, in which I can identify frames to show, and then transition between those frames by pan/zoom automatically, at the end of the "Guided" part, dropping into the interactive mode is nice, but my main desire is the "Guided" part... I've watched the on-line video's, but how to create this "Guided" or "Automatic" pan/zoom seems to be eluding me, like I said, I'm new to the tools.

[mediavets]

by mediavets » Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:20 pm

I'm soryy to have to disappoint you but you cannot do that with Panotour and Panotour Pro .

You would have to hand code the krpano XML format command files to achieve this effect.

I don't know of any vitual tour authoring program that can do what you seek.

It's something that many - including me - have requested in the past, but so far Kolor has not produced such a tool.

Last edited by mediavets on Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[FlatBallFlyer]

by FlatBallFlyer » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:05 pm

can you point me to the documentation that would allow me to write the code. A GUI that can do it for me would be nice, but being able to code it by hand is acceptable.

[gkaefer]

by gkaefer » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:17 pm

can you point me to the documentation that would allow me to write the code. A GUI that can do it for me would be nice, but being able to code it by hand is acceptable.

http://www.krpano.com/docu/quickref/index.php?lang=en

Liebe Gruesse,
Georg

[FlatBallFlyer]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by FlatBallFlyer » Wed Oct 01, 2014 2:56 pm

I finally have some time to devote to coding, and I've reviewed some of the documentation. I was hoping that someone could provide some advice about specific event handlers and and features to use. I'm pretty sure the heart of the code will be around using the "Viewing Animations / Camera Control" actions. I'm pretty sure I'll want to intercept or work with events used by the krpano engine, and I'm not exactly sure how to organize code modules and where to insert code in the generated xml files. I thought there had been a post here with some of this information, but it looks like I imagined it. If anyone can give me a few more specific pointers it would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of writing a re-usable framework that uses oninterupt and lookto to iterate over a data set of locations, which would be in a separate file. So I would put a small stub in a generated xml, have a re-usable included module and a dataset of locations for each pano. If there are krpano methods I can override to make these functions act as the auto-tour movers and take advantage of the pause/play tour/rotation features that would be ideal. If this approach is for some reason not a good idea any alternatives are welcomed. Specific guidance on how to structure / include files that would require minimal (or no) changes to the generated xml would also be greatly appreciated.

[klausesser]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by klausesser » Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:58 pm

I'm hoping that I've found the correct tool to do what I'm wanting.... I have several large pano's (1Gb+) that I would like to create a flash/video/whatever that allows me to create a "Guided Tour", i.e. Start out zoomed to here, then pan out to here, then pan right to here, then zoom in to here.... the key here is I want a "Guided" tour, in which I can identify frames to show, and then transition between those frames by pan/zoom automatically, at the end of the "Guided" part, dropping into the interactive mode is nice, but my main desire is the "Guided" part... I've watched the on-line video's, but how to create this "Guided" or "Automatic" pan/zoom seems to be eluding me, like I said, I'm new to the tools.

Hi!

Let me try to understand the term "guided" here:

You need PTP 2.x for easily generating an automatically running - guess you mean that by saying "guided" ? - tour. You can set either a time or a state of spin for changing the scenes.

The moment you click into a scene you interupt the austomatics and have full manual control - until you leave it alone again.

Another way doing it is to use After Effects with Trapcode plugin - her you can use te equirectangular image being mapped on a sphere
inside which you generate a camera and make all movings movie. But no interactivity in a movie - besides start and stop . .

But it´s avery cool thing!

Anyway it´s wise to use PTP2.x - it doesn´t rely widely on Flash any more. So the tours/panos run on ALL devices.

Klaus

[FlatBallFlyer]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by FlatBallFlyer » Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:57 pm

I am using PTP 2.2 - love it, but need an enhancement. A "Guided Tour" is an enhancement to the existing "Auto Tour" feature. Rather than a straight pan across the image from a specific starting point I would like to pan and zoom from a starting point to a series of specific "frames" (zoom/position coordinates), with an optional pause at each one. At the end of the stack of frames, the tour should proceed to the next panorama as Auto Tour does now. The "Guided Tour" should respect the Auto Tour play/pause actions and default controls. I do a lot of Giga-Pixel work and want to have the tour highlight specific "frames" of the image. I'm also interested in using the Tweener transitions between "frames". I was hoping to create a code framework that would allow me to use the AutoPano editor to find the "frames" and then just enter those along with optional parameters (speed, transition, pause) into a simple file (csv, xml...) that will drive the tour. My code would need to intercept or override some of the auto tour methods, and would require a "frame stack" file for each pano. If the UI were to be enhanced to support this it would be by providing an editor for that "Stack" file that allowed me to pan/zoom to a location in the preview and add to the stack and then edit the additional parameters for each frame. Those are my current design goals, and I'm hoping to start coding this weekend.

[klausesser]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by klausesser » Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:44 pm

I am using PTP 2.2 - love it, but need an enhancement. A "Guided Tour" is an enhancement to the existing "Auto Tour" feature. Rather than a straight pan across the image from a specific starting point I would like to pan and zoom from a starting point to a series of specific "frames" (zoom/position coordinates), with an optional pause at each one. At the end of the stack of frames, the tour should proceed to the next panorama as Auto Tour does now. The "Guided Tour" should respect the Auto Tour play/pause actions and default controls. I do a lot of Giga-Pixel work and want to have the tour highlight specific "frames" of the image. I'm also interested in using the Tweener transitions between "frames". I was hoping to create a code framework that would allow me to use the AutoPano editor to find the "frames" and then just enter those along with optional parameters (speed, transition, pause) into a simple file (csv, xml...) that will drive the tour. My code would need to intercept or override some of the auto tour methods, and would require a "frame stack" file for each pano. If the UI were to be enhanced to support this it would be by providing an editor for that "Stack" file that allowed me to pan/zoom to a location in the preview and add to the stack and then edit the additional parameters for each frame. Those are my current design goals, and I'm hoping to start coding this weekend.

I have a feel that you puzzle interactive panos with video. Video uses frames. Interactive panos do not use frames.
Using frames works linear.

Klaus

[FlatBallFlyer]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by FlatBallFlyer » Thu Oct 02, 2014 1:31 am

Klaus;

I was using the term "Frame" to describe a "Stop on the Guided Tour" - in coding terms it's a Horizontal/Vertical destination and FOV within the pano that will be used with the lookto action. Hope this helps to make it a bit more clear.

Mike

[klausesser]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by klausesser » Thu Oct 02, 2014 5:06 pm

Hope this helps to make it a bit more clear.

Not really, sorry. The term "frame" isn´t helpful here - it´s mis-leading.

As i understand what you wrote maybe you´d need to use a time-value " to describe a "Stop on the Guided Tour" - in coding terms it's a Horizontal/Vertical destination and FOV within the pano that will be used with the lookto action"?

How would you call a "*stop* on the guided tour"? I´m afraid i still do not understand your using of the term "guided tour" . . .

Either youd´d need to do it frame-wise using AfterEffects or another video-fx-editor - then you loose the interactivity -
or you find a way to not do it frame-wise and keep the interactivity.

But first you need to communicate what you want to achieve in detail - i do not understand what you want to achieve in detail.

Klaus

[FlatBallFlyer]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by FlatBallFlyer » Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:13 pm

I'll try to describe my requirements again:
Upon entering a tour, I would like to override the current "Auto Tour" feature to support a "Guided Tour" in which the user is walked (via pan/zoom) through a series of locations within the panoramic before moving on to the next panoramic. The tour will pause at each location before moving to the next location, and the path taken in the pan-zoom space will be customizable to support the various "lookto" transition effects. I'm hoping to implement in a way that can use the existing AutoTour play/pause controls.

What I think I need to do to accomplish this:
Create a code framework that reads a configuration file with a list of "Locations" that contains the toH, toV, fov, tweentype and time values used by the krPano scripting lookto action. This should be an "includable" set of methods that are pano-independent.
Create code that over-rides the Auto Tour functions with my own method for the AutoPan motion
Then I will manually build the configuration file with the list of "locations" and provide the "Guided Tour"

Input I'm looking for:
Is this a viable approach?
What AutoTour or AutoPan methods I should override?
Is there a special requirement when doing so?
Can you provide advice on how I should package the code modules so that I have minimum changes to make in generated code, or is there a way to modify code generation templates?

Thanks for your help, I appreciate your time
Mike "B-)>

[stadh]

Re: Createing a "Guided" tour

by stadh » Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:04 pm

Hi FlatBallFlyer,
did you achieve some of your goals yet?
I'm currently facing the same problem as you. To learn how to script that, I have now generated the simplest possible Panotour Pro output (just one pano with no style template etc.) and now reading its XML files and the krpano XML documentation. But I simply don't know how to start.

What I tried (unsuccessfully yet) was to insert some "zoomto()" command to the end of the "startup" action of the [tour].xml file, but that does not have any effect.

Is a "main" action necessary for own scripted actions? Were to place the code? Which code could be used to generate SOME action, so that I can see that my action is executed? (displaying some text would be enough for that)...

Examples would be great - I am experienced in reading scripting documentation, but what is missing is the "entrance" to this kind of scripting. Once I have understood how to start, I'll be able to continue on my own.

THANKS!