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Author Topic: Displaying panoramic images on website  (Read 20606 times)

buzzski

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Displaying panoramic images on website
« on: March 26, 2010, 12:16:34 pm »

Hello, this may be the wrong forum, if so I apologise in advance. I photograph large panoramic images and wish to display them on my website (at a reduced size). I'm currently using quicktimeVR and it's quite effective. What I'd like to know is if anyone has experiences or recommendations they'd be willing to share? Feel free to take a look at: www.craig-stephen.co.uk  to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I've looked at Zoomify and linking to Gigapan and wasn't all that happy - any advice would be gladly received. Thank you, Craig
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elf

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Displaying panoramic images on website
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2010, 09:51:21 pm »

Quote from: buzzski
Hello, this may be the wrong forum, if so I apologise in advance. I photograph large panoramic images and wish to display them on my website (at a reduced size). I'm currently using quicktimeVR and it's quite effective. What I'd like to know is if anyone has experiences or recommendations they'd be willing to share? Feel free to take a look at: www.craig-stephen.co.uk  to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I've looked at Zoomify and linking to Gigapan and wasn't all that happy - any advice would be gladly received. Thank you, Craig

I use Silverlight and Deep Zoom in my site: http://www.efrench.members.winisp.net/.  It's still a work in progress, but should be able to give you an idea of how it can look.   I also use Photosynth: http://www.photosynth.net/userprofilepage....;content=Synths.  I think Photosynth is better for large FOV panoramas and I prefer Deep Zoom for the macro panoramas. I use Microsoft ICE to stitch most of my panos and it can directly create the Deep Zooms or publish to Photosynth.
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feppe

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Displaying panoramic images on website
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2010, 01:00:50 pm »

Quote from: elf
I use Silverlight and Deep Zoom in my site: http://www.efrench.members.winisp.net/.  It's still a work in progress, but should be able to give you an idea of how it can look.   I also use Photosynth: http://www.photosynth.net/userprofilepage....;content=Synths.  I think Photosynth is better for large FOV panoramas and I prefer Deep Zoom for the macro panoramas. I use Microsoft ICE to stitch most of my panos and it can directly create the Deep Zooms or publish to Photosynth.

A major stumbling block when using proprietary systems such as Silverlight or Flash is market penetration. Silverlight has only roughly 2/3 of the Win Vista and Win 7 market, much less for XP and MacOS. That means you're missing on 50% or more of your potential visitors by using Silverlight exclusively.

Not sure what Photosynth uses (Flash?).

Another problem is that they break google crawls, so if you rely on google for your traffic it's advisable to use non-proprietary content delivery (read: HTML) or at least wrap such content around proper HTML pages.

Thomas Krüger

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Displaying panoramic images on website
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2010, 01:11:18 pm »

Have a look at the krpano player from www.krpano.com
Example: http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html
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buzzski

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Displaying panoramic images on website
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2010, 01:23:58 pm »

Quote from: ThomasK
Have a look at the krpano player from www.krpano.com
Example: http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html


Seen that, it is very nice, will investigate further. Right now I'm having issues with Zoomify on Internet Explorer 8. The quest continues...
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elf

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« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2010, 06:40:10 pm »

Quote from: feppe
A major stumbling block when using proprietary systems such as Silverlight or Flash is market penetration. Silverlight has only roughly 2/3 of the Win Vista and Win 7 market, much less for XP and MacOS. That means you're missing on 50% or more of your potential visitors by using Silverlight exclusively.

Not sure what Photosynth uses (Flash?).

Another problem is that they break google crawls, so if you rely on google for your traffic it's advisable to use non-proprietary content delivery (read: HTML) or at least wrap such content around proper HTML pages.

Silverlight is similar in techology to Flash, but uses .NET and XAML for the programming interface.  The latest version works on Macs as well as PCs.  If you open a website that uses Silverlight and you don't have Silverlight installed, it will prompt you for the install. I don't think you will miss that many potential visitors.

Photosynth uses Silverlight.

http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ is a Silverlight site that is much more representative of the capabilities.
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feppe

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« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2010, 06:53:54 pm »

Quote from: elf
Silverlight is similar in techology to Flash, but uses .NET and XAML for the programming interface.  The latest version works on Macs as well as PCs.  If you open a website that uses Silverlight and you don't have Silverlight installed, it will prompt you for the install. I don't think you will miss that many potential visitors.

Photosynth uses Silverlight.

http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ is a Silverlight site that is much more representative of the capabilities.

I don't know the statistics of people rejecting installing of plugins. Let's be optimistic and say only 20% of people are like me and summarily don't install a plugin when visiting a random website because most of them are useless bonzi buddies or phishing scams. According to this (poorly cited) comment Silverlight has 45% market penetration, so let's go with my previous 50% figure.

That means that 20% x 50% = 10% of your visitors will not have nor install Silverlight when prompted.

The question is can you afford to lose 10% of your potential client base?

elf

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« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2010, 10:38:25 pm »

Quote from: feppe
I don't know the statistics of people rejecting installing of plugins. Let's be optimistic and say only 20% of people are like me and summarily don't install a plugin when visiting a random website because most of them are useless bonzi buddies or phishing scams. According to this (poorly cited) comment Silverlight has 45% market penetration, so let's go with my previous 50% figure.

That means that 20% x 50% = 10% of your visitors will not have nor install Silverlight when prompted.

The question is can you afford to lose 10% of your potential client base?

I don't think using Silverlight excludes showing panos in the usual small jpeg version.  What it does do well is show them in detail.

Have you installed Silverlight and looked at how the Deep Zooms work on my site or are you just being theoretical?
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feppe

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« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2010, 01:34:53 pm »

Quote from: elf
I don't think using Silverlight excludes showing panos in the usual small jpeg version.  What it does do well is show them in detail.

Have you installed Silverlight and looked at how the Deep Zooms work on my site or are you just being theoretical?

That's why I qualified my Silverlight statements with the "exclusive" statement. If you have a backup option which fails elegantly (ie. the site defaults to JPEG automatically if it doesn't detect Silverlight) you should be ok most of the time.

My point is not to lambast Silverlight or Flash, although I'd be glad to do so as there are better, non-proprietary options for 99% of uses those are used, and Silverlight is becoming another widely abused plugin just like Flash. Fortunately Apple and Youtube are killing Flash, and Silverlight is DOA for same reasons.

My point is that if your business relies on web presence to generate sales, it's better ROI to use tech which is widespread and doesn't require installation of new plugins. And if you insist on the bleeding edge, ensure that the customers who aren't on that edge can still get to your content so you can still make the sale. If I was running a photography business and my webmaster came to me saying "here's this nifty plugin which will cut your visitors by 10%" I'd get a new webmaster.

I think I have Silverlight, but I waited for 15+ seconds on your site and nothing happened so I left - the zoom buttons loaded but no image(s). I have 10+ mbps connection.
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