first off HI everybody,

I'm Steve from the UK and a complete novice in virtual tours, in fact i am still in the development stage of this little venture,

some noobi questions you have probably heard a thousand times before

800 * 600 Skins, does anybody still use a monitor with this resolution? i would of thought 1000 would cover 95% of the potential users,

stitch v oneshot

I did some tours, stitching 3 sets (hdr) of 8 shots taken with a canon 40d at 10mm, i was very impressed with the results, but in trying to streamline time in taking and processing the shot I purchased a 0-360 one shot lens(though i take 3 for hdr) to fit on the40d, i never expected the quality to be as good, how could it be!

but there is a mark difference in the results, What are the thoughts on here?

File size, obviously there is a compromise between quality and practicability, below 250k and the quality is being seriously compromised, and above 500 will take too long to open, what file size do you aim for?

Skins

i was surprised at the lack of skin building options in tourweaver, (i read how to import background images and button images) had there ever been plans for a skin building option?

thanks for your time

Steve

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum.

I personally prefer 800*600 skins because I have discovered that some of my clients are indeed using this resolution and it seemed the best way to play it safe.

stitch v oneshot. I personally think this really depends on your time, how much your clients are willing to pay etc. The one shot lens is undoubtedly the poorer option of the two and does limit the uses mainly for quality reasons.

I use a one shot lens primarily because I was led down this road without knowing anything else and I have found some good work arounds that get me reasonable results. I also take 3 shots in each room/area for hdr. The example below took me 18 hours to produce from start to finish including the initial on site visit.

Here is an example

http://www.nerjavirtualtours.com/tours/portichuelo.html

Most of my panos are around the 350-500kb which as you say does initially take a time to load but we are only talking 10/20 seconds. I have found that file sizes less than this just get too grainy - one of the down sides of a one-shot. You have to remember that a one-shot is a mirror and quality is seriously effected.

I produce my own skins in photoshop, it is very straight forward and once you get the hang of  it you can let your imagination do the rest.

I am sure you will have plenty of other advice coming your way but please post away if you need any help.

18 hours including the site visit is good going, there is obviously a lot of work here

its just taken me 4 hours to do a floor plan lol (it was my first go)

thx for the quick reply

Steve

some more noobi questions

when adding tours and still images to the scene, there  seams to be problem in playback, as it wont play the images?

i wanted the tours and images to work separately on the same scene window

i added the still images to a separate movie and assigned a play button to this.

i copied the main slide show movie, then deleted all the still images, then made this the default movie and assigned a play button.

it all worked exactly as i wanted :-)

my questions

when importing your images will they always be added to the default movie?

can you edit the contents of the locked deflate slide show movie?

can you select more than 1 track at a time to delete/copy tracks from a movie?

thanks

Steve

Hi Steve, When you add panos or images they only automatically update the slide show which incidently you cannot alter. The properties of each pano i.e transition etc flow through to the slideshow.

You movie is created by you only and you have to select the frames you want to include.

Not sure about your last question I will have to check it out.

Keep up the good work :)