Garden Gnome

Beta 2 for version 6 is out and is mainly a bugfix release. But, we did sneak at least one new feature in there.

You can now save the credentials for multiple accounts for Google Street View.

Connect each account just as you have done before, by using the Grant Access button. You can then view the selected account using the Open in Browser button.

Download beta 2 here or Check for Updates in Pano2VR’s Help menu.

Skin Editor Tutorial: Keyboard Mapping

In version 6, you can now map keyboard keys to actions in the skin. In Hopki’s tutorial, he shows how to add custom keys to actions.

Skin Editor – Keyboard Mapping – Pano2VR

Google recently announced its new Google Maps Platform and with it comes a change in their pricing for their map APIs starting June 11th. Due to this change, we needed to make some adjustments to our API calls. Please update to the new releases (Pano2VR 5.2.4 and 6 beta 3) as we may need to block the old API keys to the maps which may cause the Google Street View export to stop working or be limited in functionality starting in early June.

Pano2VR 5.2.4

Adds some optimizations for Google Maps API calls.

Download the update here or go the Help menu and check for updates.

Pano2VR 6 Beta 3

Pano2VR 6 Beta 3 is now available and it brings fixes and improvements.

Here are some highlights:

AutoTags can now be used in the Skin Editor
Roll can be disabled in the gyroscope
Simple Floor Plans can now be aligned and have background transparency
Pan/Tilt/FoV can now be specified with Direct Node Access
Pinned elements can now be locked

See the full list of changes here.

You can download beta 3 here (Click, Show all downloads) or go the Help menu and check for updates.

To get a license for version 6 beta, you will first need to purchase a version 5 license and then you can receive the free upgrade when you log in to your account. If you already have a version 5 license, just log in to your account to see what options are available to you.

2018 Epson International Pano Awards

Finally, it’s that time of the year!! The Epson Pano Awards are open to everyone and early bird entries are open until July 9th, 2018. The images that are submitted are truly amazing. Even if you don’t submit, the galleries from years past offer a lot of inspiration.

Pano2VR Workshops at IVRPA Conference

Don’t forget! If you’re going to Tokyo for the IVRPA Conference, be sure not to miss Martin’s workshops. You can sign up here. Note: You must hold a full conference ticket to participate.

Meet up with us at the Street View Summit

Just another reminder that we’ll also be attending the Street View Summit in San Francisco at the end of May. If you’ll be there, be sure to find us!

Pano2VR 5.2.4

Adds some optimizations for Google Maps API calls.

Download the update here or go the Help menu and check for updates.

Pano2VR 6 Beta 3

Pano2VR 6 Beta 3 is now available and it brings fixes and improvements.

Here are some highlights:

AutoTags can now be used in the Skin Editor
Roll can be disabled in the gyroscope
Simple Floor Plans can now be aligned and have background transparency
Pan/Tilt/FoV can now be specified with Direct Node Access
Pinned elements can now be locked

See the full list of changes here.

You can download beta 3 here (Click, Show all downloads) or go the Help menu and check for updates.

2018 Epson International Pano Awards

Pano2VR Workshops at IVRPA Conference

Don’t forget! If you’re going to Tokyo for the IVRPA Conference, be sure not to miss Martin’s workshops. You can sign up here. Note: You must hold a full conference ticket to participate.

Meet up with us at the Street View Summit

Just another reminder that we’ll also be attending the Street View Summit in San Francisco at the end of May. If you’ll be there, be sure to find us!

Today, we’d like to introduce you to tours created by 360imagery.

The folk at 360imagery are masters at their craft and create custom tours for all sorts of clients. Their portfolio is extensive; from hotels to health clubs to auto interiors. We’ve found a few projects we’d like to share with you.

Let’s start with the Car People. The Car People is a dealership and this tour introduces a would-be customer to not only their facility and purchasing process, but also to the people who work there. This is truly a fun and interactive project. As you walk through the tour, you’ll find staff with a button or bubble above their heads. When you click it, a video pops up with the staff asking how they can help.

Below the video, you can choose a question and the staff will provide an answer.

As you move through the tour, you’ll find pop up text boxes, pinned video, and animated hotspot images.
Hint: Don’t miss the zeppelin to check out the aerial panorama.

Panorama to Object VR

360imagery have also done a wonderful series of auto interiors and exteriors with Renault.

The interior showcases the car’s features with pop-ups with text and images. While the exterior — created with Object2VR — also showcases the exterior features with 2 viewstates; doors open and doors closed. You move in and out of the car via the door handles, naturally.

These projects are just a tiny sampling of 360imagery’s portfolio. We encourage you to head over to 360imagery for more inspiration.

Did you know…

… that you can invert auto tags?

When you filter images with tags, you can click on a tag to filter its opposite. For example, what if you wanted filter for all images that have a Title? Use the No Title tag and then click on it.

You are now filtering for all images that have a Title.

Learn more about tags.

We’re getting closer!

Today we’ve released Pano2VR 6 beta 4. This adds quite a few features and fixes a ton of bugs. We’ve changed a few things to the interface and added a highly requested feature. Without further ado…

3D Arrow Hotspots

In the Components Toolbox, you’ll now find the highly anticipated Street View style hotspots with extra fanciness! See it in action.

Here’s a tutorial on how to add, use, and configure them for your projects:

Skin Editor Component – 3D Arrow Hotspots – Pano2VR

Quick Share

We’ve made a few changes to the interface and the most noticeable is the Quick Share button we’ve added to the Toolbar. This lets you quickly export an image for posting on the social networks, specifically Facebook. It will save the default view, GPS, add patches, and leveling data to the image without having to use the Output panel.

Here, Hopki gives a short introduction to it:

Quick Share Button –Pano2VR

Viewer Settings

The second most noticeable change to the interface is the Viewer Settings. They are now found in the Viewer and use icons instead of checkboxes. All the original settings are still available and we’ve added a few more.

Finally, we’ve updated the Simplex and Silhouette skins.

There is now one Node Hotspot component that works for both pro and light versions
Better thumbnail menu layout
Thumbnails will now automatically hide if the project is not a tour
Custom scrollbars added to the scroll area
If there is no Title, tooltips will be hidden

The shortlist of changes:

New

3D Arrow Hotspots Component — Street View style hotspots
Quick Share button for sharing on social networks
Mapbox users can now add custom maps
Drag multiple nodes to Auto Place drop zones
Small Skin images are embedded into the skin file
Placeholders can now be used as triggers for logic blocks (tooltips can be hidden if no title added)
Added scrollbars to the scroll area so scroll bars can be customized
Pick Place ID for quickly adding POI to an image
Map Pin with Radar Component — allows you to easily connect tour nodes to pins on a map or floor plan
Altitude can be adjusted for automatic hotspots
Polygon hotspots colors can now be changed in the Viewer

Updated/Changed

Built-in skins have been updated
The Viewer Settings panel now opens at the bottom of the Viewer

Improvements

3D distorted hotspots working with flat images - fixed
Gyro not following North - fixed

Tutorials

We’ve also added a few new tutorials.

Map Pin with Radar

Another component we’ve added is Map Pin with Radar. Use this component to add map pins to an image map (image element) in the Skin Editor. Just drag tour nodes to the map image to add pins. The pins also act as radars, and tooltips show both at the pins and the hotspots in the tour. Watch the tutorial to see how you can use it.

Skin Editor Component – Map Pin with Radar – Pano2VR pro

Variable Tracks in the Animation Editor

In case you missed it, variables can be used in the Animation Editor. This gives you the ability to show and hide skin elements, play/pause sounds, etc. at certain points in time during the auto rotation or video. This is quite an advanced workflow and requires some knowledge of the Skin Editor, but Hopki shows you how to use it:

Animation Editor – Variable Tracks – Pano2VR

Download the update here or go to the Help menu and check for updates.

Remember, you can install and use both version 5 and 6 at the same time. If you don’t want to use the trial for version 6, you will need to grab a new license. If you purchased a version 5 license after January 1, 2017, version 6 is free for you. Just log in to your account and follow the available upgrades path. If you need any help, just write us an email to support@ggnome.com.

The documentation for version 6 is still being updated, but it is there. In Pano2VR, go to the Help menu and choose Help. By default, this will open the online documentation. But, there is also offline documenatation (with a better search). Turn this on in the Preferences/Settings. Go to the General Tab and select, “Show offline help.”

Today we’re releasing our final beta for Pano2VR 6. Beta 5 comes with a lot of fixes and a few added features.

Nested Cloners

Cloners are used primarily for building menus in the Skin Editor. When you draw a cloner over a node image, it clones that node image element and includes all the thumbnails of all the nodes in the tour. You can see how this is done when you add the Thumbnail Menu Silhouette to a skin.

Now, we’ve added the ability to nest cloners and added a tag table so you can more easily build cascading menus.

Nested cloners will let you have a multi-menu system and the tag table will let you use the tags you’ve added to your nodes as a way to organize them into menus or categories. The table can be exposed to the Edit Skin Configurations so you can easily reuse the skin for other projects.

You’ll find a menu using nesting cloners in the components toolbox. And if you want to know about how to build them, then check out these tutorials from Hopki:

Building Multi-Level Menus

Font Size and Weight

We’ve added the ability to change the text’s size and weight in text elements.

To customize the text further you can add CSS classes and styles to the element itself or reference external CSS or add CSS directly to the outputted HTML file.

Custom Maps

In the Tour Map, you can add custom maps styles for Mapbox and OpenStreetMaps. With this update, you can now add custom Google Maps Styles, too.

Panotour Pro Users

We know there are Panotour Pro users who are still evaluating their next tool. To help you learn your way around Pano2VR, we’ve put together an info page that not only shows the different ways we call features, but it also explains how certain methods are done.

Final Version of Pano2VR 6.0 is Near

Yes, this should be the last beta. Well, for version 6.0 at least. This means that the next release will be the final and stable version. As with every new major release we will stop selling the old version, Pano2VR 5, and Pano2VR 6 will be € 149 for light and € 349 for pro (excl. VAT). The upgrade prices will also change accordingly.

Where is WebVR support?

It’s coming, we promise!

When we release version 6.0, we plan to release version 6.1 beta as well. 6.1 beta’s main feature will be support for WebVR.

New Search

We’ve implemented a new search tool for a website. You can now search each part of the website; website/blog, documentation, and forum. This means your search results will be filtered depending on the tab you select. You can also use Google to search the entire website.

Download

As always, you can update your version of Pano2VR via Check for Updates or if you have it set to check automatically, you will be notified. If you don’t want to overwrite whatever version you’re currently using, go here to download 6.0 beta 5.

New Here?

If you’re just joining the ride of Pano2VR 6, then you can get caught up and feast your eyes with lists and videos on updates and bug fixes here.

Did you know…

…that in a tour, you can have different logos shown in different panoramas? There are few a ways to do this in the Skin Editor, and Hopki has made a quick how-to explaining them.

Adding Different Logos to Tour Nodes

The first way is to add the images to the skin editor and to add a logic block to each image’s visible setting. Use the trigger, Node ID, to show the image according to which panorama is currently being viewed.

Another way to approach this if you have a lot of images and/or their file sizes are large, is to use an External Image. Add an external loader to the skin with a logic block with conditions that will open the images based on the current node. Then, in the HTML5 output, add a folder that holds the images to the Assets section. The External Image will then call the images from this folder.

Useful links:

The final, stable version of Pano2VR 6.0 is now ready!

If you haven’t been following the beta development, then let us give you a recap.

We first released 6.0 as a beta back in March 2018, and with it we added:

Over the last 8 months, we’ve also added the following features:

Multiple accounts for Street View
Quick Share
Menus with categories
Styled Maps (Mapbox, Google)
3D Arrow hotspots (inspired by Google Street View)

If you haven’t been keeping up with the beta releases, then you have a lot to get caught up on. To help you, we’ve produced a few tutorials over the months:

Pano2VR 6

To see all the changes, check out the What’s New page.

Upgrading

This is a new major release, which means to use version 6 without watermarks, you will need a new license for version 6.
If you own a license for a previous version, log in to your account to see your upgrade options.

Remember, if you are an IVRPA member and this is your first purchase with us, you are entitled to a 10% discount. Contact us before you purchase.

Where’s 6.1 beta and WebVR support?

We still have a bit more work to do to get this feature where we want it for the 6.1 beta. We will keep you updated!

Useful Links:

Today seems like a good day for an update. We hope this news finds you well.

We have released Pano2VR 6.0.1, which is just a minor bug fix release which includes the following fixes plus other various fixes.

Fixed an issue where iOS users’ panoramas wouldn’t spin properly if interacted with during a transition.
Fixed an issue where map pins couldn’t be selected when using a simple floor plan.
Fixed an issue for some Windows users who would get a black frame in the Viewer when playing back video panoramas. Please download and intall the latest K-Lite Codec Pack.

Please download and install the update or Check for Updates from within Pano2VR. If you run into any problems, don’t hesistate to contact us.

Tutorials

We have published a new tutorial series on using Hotspots. Pano2VR has two types of hotspots; point and polygon. You can build tours with both types, but point hotspots can be connected with the skin so you can have custom hotspot images. It’s a seven-part series that we hope you’ll find helpful.

Another tutorial we produced is called, Pinning Images. This is a short tutorial on how to pin images to the panorama.

Did you know…

…that if you ever need help, you will find documentation (manual) in the Help menu. The default is set to open the online documentation. But you can change this default to show offline documentation. Go to the Settings or Preferences and in the General tab, select, “Show offline help”.

If you ever need support, you can have Pano2VR create a support package that you can send to our support gurus. This can be very helpful for us to determine your issue. Go to the Help menu and choose, “Create Support Package”.

Today, we’re releasing Pano2VR 6.0.2 and with it, snow.

For the holiday season, you can add a little interest to your e-holiday cards with falling snow. It’s quite simple to implement using Pano2VR light or Pano2VR pro:

Import your panorama.
Add a skin.
Open the components toolbox and find the Effect Snow component in the Built-In category.
Add it to the skin.
Save the skin.
Output your project.

You can easily adjust how many flakes you see, the speed, and particle size by adjusting the numbers in the text box:

Skin actions can also be used to control the snow (i.e. turning the snow on and off) and, if you want to use a different image for the snow, just swap it out in the the image panel.

Check out our example.

In addition to the Snow component, we added a component that adds a seek bar for video panoramas and some graphics (map pins) for using with the map element in the skin. We also fixed a bug where pinned video couldn’t be played back in Chrome.

Check for updates in the Help menu to update to 6.0.2 or download here.

Taking a Look Back at 2018

This year, we released Pano2VR 6.0 which brought floor plans, an updated tour map and animation editor, new goodies in the Skin Editor, interactive 360º video in the Viewer, and lots more.

For the keen-eyed, we also released Object2VR 3.1.7 which added support for some Canon cameras.

In May, we were fortunate to have met some of you in person while at the IVRPA conference in Tokyo and the Google Street View summit in San Francisco. Thanks for joining us there!

The entire 360 community no doubt heard of (and for many were affected by) the closing of Kolor. For users of Kolor software, namely Panotour Pro, we created a guide that compares Pano2VR features to Kolor features. You can also read a note to users by Thomas, here.

As always, we’d like to thank you all for your inspiring questions and work throughout the year. You help make Pano2VR and Object2VR what they are.

From all of us at Garden Gnome Software, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season!

It’s time to grab your VR headset.

Pano2VR 6.1 beta

This is our first beta of 6.1 which brings WebVR support to Pano2VR and some other new features.

Here are the highlights:

Support for WebVR
External javascript and CSS files (like Google Fonts) can be easily added to the skin
Nodes can now be sorted in the Tour Browser
Street View browser can connect nodes to external PhotoIDs/Tours
Export all clips as separate videos in animation
Use the Go Back One Node skin action to go back through the tour

See the full list of changes here.

You can download the beta here.

Getting Started with WebVR

Oculus Go, Oculus Browser

WebVR enables you to create an immersive experience directly from a web page without the need for an app. Most of the current VR headsets can display WebVR content. You can find an up-to-date list at WebVR.info. We also use a WebVR polyfill for mobile phones/Cardboard.

Pano2VR uses the available controls on the VR device. So, with an Oculus Go/Rift, HTC Vive, you can use the controllers to rotate the panorama around and directly point and click at hotspots. With Cardboard, you can only use stare navigation.

Point Hotspot in VR

To enable WebVR on your project, you need to make sure that “WebVR” is selected in the HTML5 output.
If you use our built-in skins (silhouette_v6 and simplex_v6), the “Enter VR” button and actions are already included. For your skins, you can use the “Enter VR” component or build an interface with the new skin actions“Enter VR” and the Logic Block Trigger“VR Available”.

Please note: The “Enter VR” button is only visible if the browser/device supports WebVR.

We have updated most of our examples on the website so you can test this new feature. Take for instance a look at our Melbourne Tour, our Aligned Video example, and 360 Video by Panedia.

iPhone X in cardboard mode

Google Pixel with Daydream

As always, feel free to write us with any issues or feature requests.

Pano2VR 6.0.3

We also release a new stable version Pano2VR 6.0.3. This is mostly a maintenance update.

New:

Loop in Animation

Fixed/Changed:

Sound now plays on first touch/interaction in Chrome and on open in Firefox
8 and 16-bit TIFFs and cylindrical images now displaying correctly with HD Intel graphics cards

See the full list of changes here.

To update, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website.

Today, we’re happy to release 2 more updates and a few tutorials.

Pano2VR 6.1 beta 2

This is mostly a bug fix release. But we did throw in a few new features.

New

Skin actions can now not only detect if YouTube and Vimeo videos have ended, been paused or are playing but they can also control the videos
Floor plans can now be laid over a map on output
Zoom to image center added to hotspot transitions options

Fixed/Changed

General improvements to WebVR including better resolution, click and drag in Oculus Browser, and logic block triggers for checking if the device supports VR and if the player is currently in VR mode
Blurred square and circle patches are now blurring as expected again

See the full list of changes here.

Pano2VR 6.0.4

In 6.0.4 we fixed a scrollbar issue when size was set to auto. We fixed a few more minor issues that you can read about here.

Updates to Street View Browser

Google has changed the Street View API and so we have updated the Street View Browser in both 6.0.4 and 6.1 beta 2 which can now show the names of each entry. This also allows filtering and sorting by name.

To update Pano2VR, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website.

Tutorials

If you haven’t yet gotten an API key, then save yourself a headache and watch our tutorial on how to obtain API keys and how to use them in Pano2VR:

We’ve also put together a tutorial to get you started using WebVR:

IVRPA Belfast 2019

Spring is in the air (on this hemisphere) and that means we are already gearing up for our annual pilgramge to the IVRPA (International VR Professionals Association) conference. This year, it takes place in Belfast, Northern Ireland from June 10th to June 13th. We’re really looking forward to seeing our old friends and users and meeting new users and making new friends! See you there!

Comparison of Panotour Pro and Pano2VR pro

02.b. Differences between PTP and Pano2VR

A few months ago Thomas Bredenfeld released a video comparing Panotour Pro and Pano2VR pro shortly after GoPro closed Kolor.

It’s a great comparison but it is only in German. Last week, Thomas released an English version. So, for those who are still curious about the differences between the two programs or simply need help to find features in Pano2VR after switching, we recommend checking it out.

Did you know …

…that you can copy and paste elements in List View?

This is useful for a number of tasks. For example, if you have a patch you’d like to apply to some nodes, but not all.
In Pano2VR pro:

Apply the patch in one node.
Copy the patch in the List View (right-click) and choose Copy.
In the Tour Browser, filter the nodes to be patched.
Select the nodes and then paste the patch in the List View.

You’ve now batch applied a patch to a selected number of nodes.

Going to Belfast?

If you haven’t yet heard, we will be going to the next IVRPA conference in June. Not only will our founder be speaking. Hopki (aka Martin Hopkins) will also be in attendance and will be holding workshops throughout the conference.

If you’ve been wanting some hands-on training and a chance to meet the Garden Gnome Software team, then this is the best place to get that chance. Martin’s workshops will be targeted not only to the absolute beginner but also the advanced user. He will focus on many subjects including building skins and using the Skin Editor, working with Floor Plans, and how to embed videos into your panoramas.

We hope to see you there and as usual, are excited to meet you in person!

EPSON International Pano Awards

This is the 10th year of the Pano Awards! It’s also the largest competition for panoramic photography, and early-bird entries are now open. There are great prizes up for grab, including a license for Pano2VR pro for the category of “Highest Scoring IVRPA Member.”

We encourage everyone to submit their work or at the least visit the gallery pages for some inspiration.

Did you know…

…that you can merge projects in Pano2VR pro?

No? Well, now you do. Adding a project is simple. In the Tour Browser, right-click and choose, Add Project. Choose any Pano2VR project (.p2vr).

Animation Tutorials

Today, we released a new tutorial series focused on building animations. Pano2VR light and pro both feature an Animation Editor. This editor lets you make not only custom animations of your panoramas to export as flat videos, but also to create custom autorotations.

We start the tutorials with an overview of the editor, the animation properties, and the animation output. Then you’ll learn to make a simple video, a custom autorotation and finally, how to animate an entire tour in Pano2VR pro.

Learn more about animation.

Did you know…

…that you can filter your tour nodes by auto tags. Every image imported into Pano2VR pro is tagged automatically. For instance, if the image has GPS data, it’ll be given the tag, GPS. These tags are found in the User Data. In the Tour Browser, you’ll find these tags in the filter.

There are also other auto tags that can be very useful for filtering your nodes. For instance, if you want to find all the nodes that are missing titles, use the No Title tag.

Learn more about filtering in the Tour Browser.

Pano2VR 6.0.5

Today we are releasing a small update to Pano2VR. This update fixes a few bugs including an issue where Google Maps were not showing in the Tour Map.

The built-in skins, Silhouette and Simplex have also been updated and so have several components so that tooltips will now hide if no title is being used.

To update Pano2VR, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website and install.

Embedding Videos in a Panorama

In Pano2VR Pano2VR 6.1 beta 2, we improved the workflow for embedding videos in panoramas. And now, we have a tutorial showing you how it’s done. Check it out:

Workshops Survey

We are in the works of planning workshops within the German-speaking region. If you’re interested to learn Pano2VR in German with Thomas Bredenfeld, then let us know by taking this short survey.

For those living in the rest of the world, don’t worry, we’re thinking of you! But before we start planning, we need to assess interest. If you’d be interested in a workshop in English or another language or in your neck of the woods, then please let us know with this survey.

Thank you!

New WordPress Plugin

Some of you may have already discovered it, but we have published a completely re-written plugin for WordPress. The plugin works with the latest WordPress version and the Gutenberg editor.

You’ll find the plugin over at WordPress.

We’ve also updated our tutorial for the plugin. The basic workflow is that you output a Garden Gnome Package and upload it to your self-hosted WordPress site. Then, add the package to the post via a widget in the Gutenberg editor.

Embedding in WordPress

Pano2VR 6.0.6 Released

Pano2VR 6.0.6 is now available which fixes a few minor issues, including one where, for some, place ID’s were displayed instead of place names when searching for a place in the Google Street View panel.

To update Pano2VR, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website and install.

Did you know…

…that you can also use the package format to view projects offline using our stand-alone Garden Gnome Package Viewer? Sometimes, a project can’t be uploaded to a server, or there is no internet (like at a kiosk). In these cases, you could use this little app to present the project.

Today we released another beta version of 6.1 that is chock full of features like native stereo support and an importer for Panotour Pro projects. At the IVRPA conference in Belfast, we already gave a sneak peek. Since then we’ve added even more features, and below you’ll find the full list along with issues we’ve fixed.

Custom Hotspot Images

You could always have custom hotspot images, but they needed a hotspot template in the skin. We added now an easy solution to create individual images per hotspot. For any point hotspot, add the image in the hotspot properties. And then you can resize the image or choose to have it 3D distorted without creating or editing a skin.

Convert Patch to Point Hotspot

In the previous beta, we added a feature that converted a patch to a pinned video and image. Converting the patch to a pinned video made the workflow for embedded videos much easier. With this beta, we’ve added the ability to convert the patch to a custom image for a point hotspot. This will make the workflow for 3D distorted hotspot images also easier with fewer steps involved. 3D distorted hotspots images allow us to create perfectly aligned roll-over effects in the panoramas and Hopki explains in the tutorial below how to do this.

Converting Patches to Point Hotspots

Exposed Color in Skin

To make the workflow friendlier you can now change the colors of the built-in skins using the Edit Skin Configuration button. This lets you easily match the colors of your website without opening the Skin Editor.

Panotour Pro Import

We’ve gotten a lot of Panotour Pro users since Kolor closed and wanted to make it easier for them to covert their projects to Pano2VR. With this release, we’ve added the ability to import Panotour projects. Most features like hotspots, categories, floor plans, and lens flares will be converted, but the skin will need to be rebuilt.

Hopki has a great tutorial showing exactly how this works and even rebuilds Katherine Gooding’s skin (Thanks Katherine for the project!).

Importing Panotour Pro Projects in Pano2VR pro

Stereo Panoramas

Stereo Panoramas are now natively supported. All you need to do is drop in your stereo panoramic image, and you’re good to go. You can even mix stereo and regular panoramas. If you’re working on a tour, you can also make use of the new distance field for hotspots to bring them closer to the viewer. We also updated the patch tool to support stereo panoramas as well.

Working with Stereo Images

Accordion Menu Component

Earlier, we introduced some features in the skin editor that would allow you to create menus with categories. With this beta, we added a few more features that will enable an accordion menu. You’ll find the accordion menu component in the Components Toolbox.

More Features

Integrated web server now includes a secure option (HTTPS)
Calculate and show the distance between nodes using placeholders
Tags can now have symbols as a way to visually see the tags in the Tour Browser
Exclude nodes from autorotation
Raw CSS: You can mix units for position and size of skin elements
New skin actions: Set Size and Change Size
New logic block trigger: Cloner Index
New skin actions for adding and removing skin elements
Cloners can now change the size automatically

Fixes

YouTube videos can now go fullscreen in skin editor video element
Floor plans will now respond to a logic block used to show them
Scroll bars no longer cover the cloner element on mobile
If the input image doesn’t change, Pano2VR will no longer regenerate cube faces for single resolution outputs

Changes

Pan/Tilt/FoV actions are now grouped under Panorama Movement
Faster loading of projects
Significant improvements to the Street View upload

To update Pano2VR, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website and install.

Welcome to September!

To start this season off, we’ve published two new tutorials for Pano2VR 6.1 beta. We hope you’ll find them helpful!

Adding Custom Hotspot Images

The custom hotspot image feature was added in Pano2VR 6.1 beta 3 and lets you easily create individual images for point hotspots without having to add, create, or edit a skin.

Adding Custom Hotspot Images

Adding Google Fonts

In Pano2VR 6.1, the stylesheets have been moved to the skin rather than the HTML template. So, Hopki shows you how to access the embedded stylesheet and edit it to use Google Fonts.

Adding Google Fonts

Did you know…

…that you need a secure server to display a Cardboard project?

The cardboard VR player needs to use the phone’s gyroscope. Earlier this year, both Android and iOS made it a requirement that a secure connection is needed in order to access the gyroscope. That means the project needs to be served from a secure server.

To help you test your projects, Pano2VR 6.1 has an option to use a secure server (HTTPS). Make sure this is enabled (Settings/Preferences > Web Server) for testing cardboard projects.

Pano2VR 6.1 has been released! Version 6.1 has been in beta for about 7 months and in that time, a lot of new features have been added. We’d like to thank all the users who have been testing and using the beta and for reporting issues and requesting features. For those who haven’t been following the beta cycle, check out 6.1’s highlights below.

This update is free for all who own a Pano2VR 6 license.

WebVR

WebVR support was added to the HTML5 output and is added by default. WebVR gives us the ability to view both single and multi-resolution panoramas and tours in VR web browsers (like Oculus Browser and Firefox Reality) and mobile browsers.

To use WebVR in a headset or on Cardboard, you’ll need to add a “Enter VR” button to your skin. Our built-in skins (silhouette and simplex) already have this button and will only be visible when viewing the project in a VR browser or on a mobile phone.

WebVR – Pano2VR 6.1

Stereo Panoramas

Pano2VR now natively supports stereo panoramas. Just drag in the stereo images. If you have hotspots, you can also adjust their distance to bring them closer to or further from the viewer.

Working with Stereo Images

Import Panotour Pro Projects

Panotour Pro users who are now using Pano2VR will find that they don’t have to completely rebuild their projects from scratch. Rather, they can simply import their projects and the work is done! All elements will be converted except for the skin.

Importing Panotour Pro Projects in Pano2VR pro

CSS and JavaScript

You can now add CSS and Javascript files to your skin which also gives you the ability to apply CSS to the entire skin or to a single element. This is useful for customizing fonts in the skin.

Adding Google Fonts

Accordion Menu

In the Components Toolbox, you’ll find a new menu component that lets you create a menu with categories and that uses an accordion style animation.

Custom Hotspot Images

You can now add custom point hotspot images without editing the skin or working in the Skin Editor.

Point Hotspots – Adding Custom Hotspot Images

Convert Patches to Hotspots

Having the ability to create custom images for point hotspots opened another possibility; to convert patches to point hotspots. This is especially useful for creating roll-over effects. In our tutorial below, Hopki shows how to use this feature to show a door open and close.

Converting Patches to Point Hotspots

Exposing Colors in the Skin

In 6.0, we introduced the Edit Skin Configuration button. This tool lets you manage elements within the skin without opening the Skin Editor. So now, not only can you expose skin elements, but you can also expose colors. Just go to the Color Tool, choose the color you want to expose (for example, your tooltip background color) by right-clicking in the New Color column and choose, “Expose Color As”.

Street View Improvements

Uploading to Street View and the Street View Browser have been greatly improved. The Street View Browser also got a new feature that lets you filter tours and panoramas.

Fixes from Pano2VR 6.1 beta 3

For those who have been using the betas, we also fixed a lot of issues. Here are some of them:

Fixed an issue where the SVG buttons states were not showing the correct state
Pinned video will now play as expected (without user interaction) on the MS Edge browser
If you had a very large patch and converted to a point hotspot, it may have “unpinned” itself from the panorama after rotation; this has been fixed
Fixed an issue where the file paths of imported panoramas were lost after the project was saved to a folder other than the source images
A fix has been added to allow access to the gyroscope in iOS 13 (update your projects to the latest player)

Download

To update, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates or download directly from our website.

★ This update is free for all users who own a Pano2VR 6 license.

Useful Information

Pano2VR 6.1.1 has been released and fixes a few issues:

Videos in WebVR are now playing when they should
Dragging a folder on a droplet now works on macOS Catalina
You can now enter a negative number for any of the Element Angle skin actions
WebVR is now working with Android 10

We also changed a few things:

In the Tour Map, the radar beam line now goes through the entire beam rather than just through the front for easier alignment
A Point Hotspot can now be locked regardless if it has location data or not
Toggle the locked state of any element in the Viewer by holding Shift and clicking the element

Download

To update, go to Help in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates. Or download directly from our website.

Did you know…

…that Pano2VR has a feature that consolidates all project media? When you’re finished with a project or need to duplicate it, you can use Save with Assets in the File menu. This will consolidate all associated assets (images, patches, pinned elements, etc.) to a different folder than the original project.