sliders for x and y interaction

[erik leeman]

Hi all,

I was wondering, is it possible to make sliders (controllers) so the viewer can accurately move the view to a specific direction?
(please, let's skip the "whatonearthwouldyouneedTHATfor", I am trying to think 'out of the box' here)

I'd like to make graduated sliders for -180|0|+180 degrees on the horizontal axis, and +90|0|-90 degrees on the vertical.
The sliders would both have to be in the appropriate position when the panorama opens.
The sliders would also have to follow normal manipulations of the panorama with the mouse, working as direction indicators as it were.

Can this be done in the skin editor? If not (which I think is the case), how could it be done otherwise?
I'm a complete nitwit when it comes to Flash, but I think interface elements like this should be possible.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers!

Erik

edit: Perhaps I should have used the word 'scrollbar' when I wrote 'slider', but I don't think there's too much difference : )

[Hopki]

Hi Erik
It’s almost possible to do it in the Skin, making boxes with a "mouse enter" and "move to view" action and setting pan, tilt, fov

I tried setting data for the pan and using place holders for the tilt and Fov

$at Current Tilt
$af Current Field of view

So it would look like this

Mouse enter, move to view, 10/$at/$af

Unfortunately, the place holders are not working, when you mouse over the box it does take you to the pan position, but also sets you tilt and fov back to default. I was hoping that using the place holders, would keep your tilt and Fov the same just moving pan.

You could have then used the place holder $ap, Current pan, and set the tilt by using boxes along one edge of the pano,

The reason for saying I have almost got it is I am hoping that Thomas sees this and says, yes that will work you just need to do ......


Fingers crossed as playing with this, it has potential.

I have also attached a skin version of the sliding menu.

Regards

Martin

[thomas]

Sliders/Scrollbars is a good idea... I will think of a way to do this. The placeholders will work for "moveTo" in Pano2VR 2.2.2.

[erik leeman]

That would be absolutely great Thomas!

I uploaded a primitive implementation of Hopki's box solution, but I don't think that route will lead to an acceptable interface.
It's here http://tinyurl.com/insert-external-flash-TEST-01 if you want to have a look.

I used cos(Pan) to get some kind of feedback of the current pan angle on the 'scale', but just got a better idea....
A bar from the left + a bar from the right, a slit between them, let them grow/shrink in tandem so the slit moves with the pan angle.
Oh well, not needed any more if Thomas gives us proper sliders : )

Oh, for the record, I tried $cur for tilt and FoV, didn't really expect it to work and it didn't.

Cheers!

Erik

[Hopki]

Hi Erik
With 2.2.2 the above will all now work,
Thanks Thomas

Martin

[erik leeman]

Just tried v2.2.2 and indeed those placeholders work for 'Move To', great : )

But dammit, amongst other things my fullscreen buttons are dead now because Thomas tinkered with alpha/visibility again, grrrrrrr!
These 'Verschlimmbesserungen' are very annoying to say the least.

Erik

[erik leeman]

Strange, the visibility threshold value for alpha seems to be 0,004 and not 0,001.

I still cannot see the logic for linking alpha and visibility, instead it was great to be able to use them side by side.
Several of my designs relied on their being independent, now I have to repair them with fuzzy workarounds like the above 'alpha=0,004'.
What a shame.

Erik

[smooth]

I should think it is a decimal point not a comma between numbers 0.000 not 0,000 unless you have non English version?

So far I have no understanding what you are after with these sliders. Is it for placing hotspots? You should be able to map these on a flat image in Adobe Image Ready.
I guess you are looking for convenience?

Regards, Smooth

[erik leeman]

Unfortunately the skineditor makes a bit of a mess of decimal points an commas, at least on my XP machine.
The parameter values that can be set by those small arrow-up/arrow down controls have commas, but in the Actions/Modifier fields I must type values with decimal points. Confusing and inconsistent.

The sliders/scrollbars are yet another interface experiment.
If I can show a horizontal scale of -180°---- 0°----+180° with a sliding button that controls the view along that scale, then maybe people will try to move that button, just because they are used to interface elements like that. They will have an expectation of what those familiar sliders will do, based on their experience with 'normal' applications. Ditto for the vertical angle of view.
All in an effort to seduce people to actively interact with VR images, instead of passively looking at still, or autorotating images.

It could also be used as an instrument for telling people where to look for a certain feature in a VR-panorama.
Now there is no way to accurately direct someone's view in a specific direction, these graduated scales/sliders could be a solution for that.
I know you can make buttons with 'move to' commands, but to be practical that only allows a limited number of 'destinations', and such a system is static.

Erik

[smooth]

Hi Erik,

OK, so you want it for the end user viewing? Not so much for the building?

Regards, Smooth

[erik leeman]

Yep.
I don't need it for VR creation, but maybe it could also be useful for that too, why not?

Erik

[erik leeman]

New prototype on http://tinyurl.com/insert-external-flash-TEST-01

Note: the 'current pan angle' text is just for testing purposes, some sort of scale needs to be added yet.

Cheers!

Erik

[Hopki]

I used cos(Pan) to get some kind of feedback of the current pan angle on the 'scale', but just got a better idea....
A bar from the left + a bar from the right, a slit between them, let them grow/shrink in tandem so the slit moves with the pan angle.

Erik

Hi Erik
Working well, is that the two bars in use?
Kind regards
Hopki

[erik leeman]

Yep, I'm working on the vertical one now.
Used Pan, not cos(Pan) for the bars, one growing/shrinking from the left, and a ditto one from the right, leaving a gap in the middle.
The gap indicates the current pan angle, moving towards the target angle that the user points at with his mouse.
Very primitive as it is now, but I hope it will convey the general idea I am after.

Erik

Edit: vertical 'slider' added to the prototype

[thomas]

But dammit, amongst other things my fullscreen buttons are dead now because Thomas tinkered with alpha/visibility again, grrrrrrr!
These 'Verschlimmbesserungen' are very annoying to say the least.

Hmm.... what exactly is not working? Do you have an example? I just tried make it consistent again.