Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is a Spherical Panorama?
A: A Spherical Panorama is a viewpoint to the user
that allows complete viewing of the location. This covers the full 360?
around and 180? up and down. Whilst these cannot be seen all at once,
viewing applications (flash/QTVR/Java/HTML5) allow the user to pan around the
scene and zoom in on details or take a wider view of the location.
Q2: How do I control the view?
A: Panoramas produced by Spherical vision are mainly
displayed using Adobe Flash. Custom controls are shown on the screen and
allow the user to move the view and change the zoom. In addition you can
use the arrow keys to change the view and <SHIFT> and <CTRL> to zoom in
and out. A Full screen option is also often available, pressing <ESC>
returns you to the normal view.
Q3: How are Spherical Panoramas Created?
A:
Spherical Panoramas are created by taking pictures in all directions
and stitching them into a single image using software tools such as
PTGui or
Hugin. The more pictures you
take, the greater the detail but for most occasions, a Fisheye lens
is used allowing for quick capture and good viewing capabilities.
This is usually a single image covering 360?
from left to right and 180? from top to bottom. The most common way
to view the panoramas is through a web browser using a
flash player
(very common on most computers), these can be created using panorama
generator software such as Pano2VR.
Q4: What formats does Spherical Vision support?
A:
Spherical Panorama can be produced in both
Adobe Flash,
QuickTime VR (QTVR) and
HTML5/CSS3
formats. Samples on this site mainly use Adobe Flash and HTML5/CSS (according to browser compatabilities.)
Q5: What size are the panormas?
A:
A typical panorama can be produced in various sizes as required. A
panorama of 10Mb will give the highest quality but be the slowest to
load, whilst a 500k image will be quick to load but low quality. The higher
quality can be achieved through lazy loading of the images, so detail is
only shown when the user zooms in.
Q6: Does Spherical Vision provide panorama hosting?
A:
Yes and No. We can provide hosting for spherical panoramas or hosting can be provided on sites such as
http://www.360cities.net/
at reasonable costs. We do not provide hosting for an entire website.
Q7: How much does it cost?
A:
Each customer and project presents their own requirements and as
such there is no flat fee for a panorama. Please
contact us to discuss your
requirements.
Q8: Where are you based and what area do you cover?
A:
We are based in the North of Hampshire and mainly work in the local area. We are willing to travel further but
the additional travel expenses will have to be covered.
Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
Q9: What is an Object VR?
A:
An Object VR is an interactive movie of an object allowing the user to rotate the object 360 degrees.
Where an interactive panorama is a fixed point looking around, an Object VR has a fixed point of
the object and the view point moves around it. See this
example
for a better idea.
Q10: Do you support the HTML5/CSS (iPhone/iPad/iTouch devices)?
A:
The new standard for Panoramic production is using HTML5 and CSS3. This is still an emerging technology
and currently only supported by Apple through the Safari browser and on their i range of devices (iPhone/iPad/iTouch).
We are capable of producing panoramas using both HTML5/CSS3 and Flash technologies and picking the appropriate version for
the device in use. See this
example
to get an idea.