Notes from a Gnome

Pano2VR 2.3 beta 1 released

thomas — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:46:53 +0000

I am happy to announce that the first Pano2VR 2.3 beta has been released early this week. The major new feature is the addition of sound (see this demo) but this version contains a lot of other improvements.

Some of the new features are:

Background, directional and effect sound within the panorama (Flash 9/10 only!)
Effect sounds in the Skin
Sound controls within the Skin (Play/Pause/Stop, change volume)
Improved tree view within the Skin editor (hide elements, fold/unfold)
Improved drag & drop in the Skin editor with auto scrolling on the edges
Invert mouse wheel direction
Invert mouse control direction (for touch screens)
Skin: Start/Stop auto rotation action
“*” hotspot proxy to match all hotspots
Skin: UTF-8 support for setText action
Skin: Mouse X/Y as modifier value
Conversion keeps ICC profiles in TIFF files
Updated to Qt 4.5.1 library
This breaks older HTML templates. You need to check now for “true” instead of true if you use checkboxes
Crash bug in conversion fixed.

Karyn was kind enough to produce a quick introduction in record time.

You can download the new beta version (as always) from the Pano2VR download page.

April Showers Bring May Flowers…

karyn — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:35:18 +0000

…and in our case those showers helped to grow new production elements for our tutorials. We would like to bring to your attention the new introduction and ending which we have added to the tutorials. Not only do these animations bring production value to our tutorials but we hope they also add some entertainment during your viewing.

As always the tutorials can found here.

Object2VR 2.0beta3 released

thomas — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:39:31 +0000

I just released a new beta version of Object2VR. The new features are:

Area Hotspots
Improved Light Table
Domain lock/Expire date
Skin editor with Hotspot proxies (as in Pano2VR)
Updated to Qt 4.5.1 which should give faster screen rendering
A lot of bug fixes

There are still some things missing for the final 2.0 release but this is another milestone to this goal. You can download the latest beta from the Object2VR download page. For bug reports and other comments please use the forum.

Third Party Skins

thomas — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:28:10 +0000

Hopki Media provides Skin Packs for Pano2VR to help you to get started with the skin editor and provides additional skins aside from the default skins included with Pano2VR. They also create customs skins for you to give your panoramas a unique look if you don’t want to learn to create your own skins.

Visit their website to find out more.

Pano2VR 2.2.3 released

thomas — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:34:41 +0000

I just released Pano2VR 2.2.3, the first release from the new Garden Gnome headquarters. Moving turned out to be more hellish then expected so this took a while. Still to many boxes all around the place.

Anyway: The following things have been changed/fixed:

TIFF 32 bit support fixed
User data placeholders in output file name
Current position naming in patch tool fixed

Welcome, March

karyn — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:48:16 +0000

March has arrived and with it a new Garden Gnome office and updated hotspot tutorials.

The updated hotspot tutorial has been posted on the tutorial page. A written tutorial is in the works. This will be handy for reading along with the screencast. There will also be a demo project available for download that you can use and follow along with the tutorial.

The tutorial is split into six parts and each part continues from the previous. However, if you feel the need to watch the videos out of order, you should be able to do so without getting lost. The chapters:

Creating Hotspots
Part 1: Adding Hotspots that Link to Websites
Part 2: Using Hotspots to Link to Other Panos
Part 3: Using the Skin to Build Hotspot Images & Actions
Part 4: Creating Multiple Hotspot Templates
Part 5: Building a Basic Map in the Skin Editor
Part 6: Using Proxies & Indicating Location

We hope you find them helpful!

Gnome offices are moving

karyn — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:43:58 +0000

The Garden Gnome Software office is moving to a new home this week. (yay!) If you’re worried because you haven’t heard from us in while, this is most likely the reason. We should be back up and in full swing by next week.

Pano2VR 2.2.2 released

thomas — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:27:08 +0000

I just released Pano2VR 2.2.2. This is mostly a bugfix release.

The following things have been changed/fixed:

Skins: visibility and alpha=0 fix
Fast QTVR to Flash conversion is working again
Skin: Placeholders work in “move to”
Locked window (file not exists with “insert”) in Patch tool fixed
Several translations updated

Happy groundhog day!

Pano2VR 2.2.1 released

thomas — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:10:28 +0000

I just released Pano2VR 2.2.1. This is mostly a bugfix release.
The following things have been changed/fixed:

Added word wrap checkbox for hotspots
Start width selectable for hotspot autosize
Proper encoding for user data, links and HTML should work again
Settings for position name in patch and width/Pi factor for output
Pano2QTVRs .*pqp file parser to convert old projects
Skins: visibility and alpha are now independent again
Bug fix for transforming cylindrical panos to cube faces
Skins work now also in containers and are positioned correctly

Pano2VR 2.2.0 released

thomas — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:09:07 +0000

I just released Pano2VR 2.2.0.

As a remainder the main new features compared to 2.1 are:

Automatic Flash 10 rendering for Flash 9 panoramas
Domain lock + expiration date
Inline Hotspots: The next panorama is loaded inside the current Flash player
Point Hotspots: You can add point hotspots along QuickTime style area hotspots
Extended Skins with new actions and parameters
Designer point hotspots in the Skin editor
Automatic check for updates

The changes compared to 2.2 beta4 are:

Flash 9:Multiple domain locks: Use a list of domains separated with spaces
Skin: hide with alpha=0
video panorama fixed
dynamic user data: The user data changes with the next panorama
slide controller fixed
hotspot position for embed panoramas fixed

You can download the new version as always from the Pano2VR download page.

Please use the forum for feedback.