On 9 Jun 98, Sandy Miller wrote:
> > quicktime or real video would be my two recommendations.
> I *have* QuickTime 3 loaded and all the virtual tour files (in
> castlesbythesea.com look like gray boxes (which occasionally change to the
> Live Picture logo). I can't get any of them to run. OK, maybe this is
> unusual, but if I'm creating a site for public viewing, I'm real leery
> about this plugin.
I absolutely would *not* employ QuicktimeVR at this time... there are numerous
alternatives which work as well and require far smaller downloads at the user's end.
I was stunned, a couple of months ago, to discover that QTVR 3.0 is not generally
backward-compatible with MOV files created for earlier versions... to view these
newer files I would have to download a **6.8 meg** plug-in -- ridiculous. And the
files themselves are still 300-500K in size typically.
Real Video is also problematic, in that your host has to install the Real server
software at a cost of anywhere from $7,000 to $30,000; not a viable option for
many smaller ISPs.
For simple panoramic effects, Java still seems the best route to go, in my view.
Coincidentally, I've been looking into implementing such a thing on my hometown
site lately, and have done a fair bit of research... I think I'll go with a simple
applet
written by a fellow Canadian, called PanaView. It ain't fancy, but in my testing it
works just fine. The applet code totals about 5K, and the JPG image files I've been
testing average about another 30K.
Here's a sample, using the same image that Sandi's client's competitor has on their
site:
http://www.almonte.com/pana/panaview.html
On my system this image works *way* better than it did on the original site: (a)
because I've shrunk the JPEG file way down in size, and (b) because the applet
doesn't load in "auto-pan" mode, i.e., the image isn't scrolling as soon as it
appears.
In comparing various such applets, I noted that it was the scrolling that really
gobbled up CPU time -- so when you're concurrently loading text and other images
too, there's an increased chance of stalling or hanging. Better that the image
stays static at first.
I'd be interested in hearing from others how my little demo works on their systems.
-----------
Brent Eades, Almonte, Ontario
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Town of Almonte: http://www.almonte.com/
Business Web site: http://www.almonte.com/brent/
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