a DevalVR-like compass

erik leeman · Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:38 pm

Hi all,
I'd like to make a compass for Flash like I have in some of my DevalVr panos. It would seem obvious to me that Pano2VR's radar could somehow be (mis)used for this, but I haven't yet studied it in detail. Did any of you make something like this already, and did it work?
It would be nice to know before I spend hours on it only to find it can't be done.
Thanks!

Erik Leeman

firehell · Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:25 pm

http://www.panomap.cn/bbs/thread-102-1-1.html

maybe it's helpful for you.
it s from a chinese user, and there is a perfect compass in his works.

first,u must be reply, and then u will get the download site about this compass SKIN of pano2vr

erik leeman · Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:37 pm

Thanks Firehell, I had a look,but... ehhh, it all looks very, well, like chinese to me.
I really haven't got a clue what it is all about, sorry.

Regards,

Erik Leeman

ThomasK · Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:48 pm

Here are the files from the posting on Firehell's chinese panomap.cn forum.
I posted a note on the cinese forum about the crossposting of these files, but I think it's ok. Otherwise I will delete them.

erik leeman · Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:01 pm

Thanks Thomas!

Perhaps mr. Firehell can tell us if the maker allows us to adapt and/or use it?

Regards,

Erik Leeman

firehell · Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:02 am

erik leeman wrote:Thanks Thomas!

Perhaps mr. Firehell can tell us if the maker allows us to adapt and/or use it?

Regards,

Erik Leeman

Sure

tonesh · Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:52 pm

firehell wrote:
erik leeman wrote:Thanks Thomas!

Perhaps mr. Firehell can tell us if the maker allows us to adapt and/or use it?

Regards,

Erik Leeman
Sure

Really nice graphics mr. Firehell!
thanks for sharing! (obviously I adapted all colors...)
http://www.studioargento.com/p2vr/
Toni

erik leeman · Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:25 pm

It's a good start indeed! But I'd like to make it look more like the Deval compass, so I don't want the indicators to be visible over the entire width of the screen. I haven't yet found a way to mask their visibility left and right of the centre, any ideas anyone? In other words, I want to make some sort of a 'window' through which the dials or arrows of the compass are visible, without obscuring the rest of the panorama. Not sure if that is possible though.

Cheers,

Erik

erik leeman · Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:33 pm

This method appears to be very non linear, not really what I'm looking for.
Hmmm, I think what I need is a very small cilindrical 'panorama' with the compass on it, project it in the big one, and then link their pan angles.
Showing a panorama in a panorama....is that possible?

erik leeman · Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:11 pm

As an alternative I've made a rotating disk. That was very easy, with Rotate linked to Pan in the Modifiers menu.
But again, how do I mask the parts I don't want to see? Or, how to make a window for a just a small part of the rotating disk?

Erik

firehell · Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:47 am

Make good use of radar，it will be changed to COMPASS well

erik leeman · Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:49 pm

This is a simple version of the basic idea:
http://tinyurl.com/moddergat-small

Not very pretty, downright ugly to be honest, but essentially what I want.
I'd much prefer an endless band type to this rotating one, maybe like those Flash and Javascript banners, but not over the full width of the screen.

Hmmm...

Erik

erik leeman · Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:41 pm

I've got a band-type compass now.
Finding the proper width of the .png for a 360 degree scale and the exact Modifier factor to lock it to the rotation of the pano is difficult.
Also giving it an Offset in the Actions/Modifiers menu to get it pointing North breakes it at 180 degrees rotation.
To work around that one the band has to cover more than 360 degrees, so there is some overlap to close the gap.
Accuracy is so-so, only the centre is usable because of non-linearity to the left and right.
Now I still need to find a way to mask away those unwanted parts......

Cheers,

Erik

firehell · Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:05 am

I have tried to build a new compass SKIN

: .jpg (134.64 KiB) Viewed 12396 times

Online Example Link:

http://cq.panomap.cn/gch/firehell/compass/index.html

erik leeman · Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:03 am

Thanks mr. Firehell, it looks very nice. However I need that compass for a technical purpose, not as trivial eyecandy so to speak, so it needs to be both accurate and easy to read. A rotating compass as such seems to be much more accurate than the band type I've been able to make so far, but it has to be VERY large to have enough room for a fine scale, thus bloating the .swf more than would seem necessary.
I guess Thomas has to implement a special function to make a really accurate band-type compass possible, so I hope he sees the possibilities for such a feature : )
Also masking layers to make skin elements partly visible/invisible (like a 'porthole' or window) would be very welcome!

Regards,

Erik