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To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:50 pm
by thomas
We were shocked to hear the news of GoPro completely shutting down Kolor. It made us very sad, as we have known the team for a long time and they always have been a fair competition. It was always nice to see their take on current problems in the market. Sometimes we came up with almost the same solution and presented it back to back at the same conference, sometimes we had wildly different approaches that have inspired us both.

We know that a lot of customers already use both products and choose the product depending on the project but if you've never used Pano2VR, we welcome you to download the trial version and test it for as long as you like. Please have a look at our video tutorials to give you a headstart. Panotour and Pano2VR use sometimes different concepts, so please be open to learn the Pano2VR way instead of trying to force Panotour concepts onto our software. We are happy to help. You can reach us via email, our forum or Facebook group.

Currently, Pano2VR 5 is the stable version and Pano2VR 6 is in beta with the final release to come later this year. This means that if you buy a Pano2VR 5 license, you will also get a free upgrade to Pano2VR 6 as well.

We think Pano2VR has already a very resonable price so we will not give a special discount to people that would like to switch to us, as this would be unfair to those switching earlier. We also believe you should switch to Pano2VR and invest your time learning a new product because it better fits your needs, not because we gave you the bigger discount. However, as long time sponsors of the IVRPA, we still offer a 10% discount to IVRPA members.

And finally to answer a frequently asked question: Garden Gnome Software has been around for the last 13 years with a small team, it is privatly owned, and we have no plans to sell out to a big company. We also have plans and ideas for the next 10 years and beyond.

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:45 pm
by mbb
I've been taking a closer look at Panotour's generated XML to see if some script (perl, php etc) can be made to at least convert krpano style node, hotspots, links etc to P2VR's project file XML. So far it looks promising.

For larger tours, being able to at least start with all nodes, hotspot node navigation, orientation, starting views, various defaults etc in place (even without other skin elements) in a new P2VR project would be a huge time saver, even if one will still need to rebuild the rest of the skin from scratch in P2VR.

Since Panotour relies on fixed/structured xml output based on settings taken in by its template fields, perhaps conversion of other Panotour XML elements and their functionality may even be doable?

Anyway- something to consider..

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 1:13 am
by TheRealMojoJojo
I am personally not sorry to see Panotour go by the way side.....I don't even hate to say that. It was 100% inevitable. As much as I'd like to put a good word towards the software, I can't. They took the entire tour creating process and compounded it's complexity 1,000 fold. I started using Panotour recently after getting back into the game only because FFC had dropped off the face of the earth. The Panotour GUI was a monstrosity. It is literally EASIER to code directly with krpano than it was to use the Panotour wrapper.

I should have tried Pano2VR before jumping into Panotour......the GUI is much easier to understand and as far as I can tell there are a lot more features that are included into the software without having to buy a ton of different plugins to get the job done.

My intention is not to offend anyone by saying any of this but my experience with Panotour was absolutely horrendous.I hated it.....literally. I'm sure that after moving to Pano2VR my blood pressure will eventually go back to normal but I won't be able to do anything about all the new grey hairs I developed using the product......aside from a little dye that is.

GO PANO2VR!

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:48 pm
by TheRealMojoJojo
Just wanted to give an update on how well my blood pressure is doing.

It's official...... I love Pano2VR :-) I was able to learn (for the most part) Pano2VR and create an entire tour with some of the advanced functions/features in less than 2 days. 2 DAYS! My first tour using Panotour took me an ENTIRE MONTH only because the GUI was so janky and made absolutely no logical sense :-)

Blood pressure has stabilized and grey hairs have stopped sprouting.

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 5:12 pm
by Howard
As a long-time GG software user, I DID purchase Panotour Pro (and Livepano) only to access its ability to pin-and-alilgn an inline looping video within a panorama.

I hope that one day Pano2VR will create an easier way to do this, as now, the process is soooo complex:

https://ggnome.com/wiki/Pin_and_Align_V ... Pano2VR%29

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 4:24 am
by Enviropix
As a user of both software companies, it was indeed a shock to hear of Kolor's demise. I have been using PanoTour Pro for many years and have made significant strides with its offerings. With that being said, I have also been using Pano2VR longer and its how I have removed every nadir from my panos since 2010.

So, after a week of self medicating :shock: I pulled myself out of my funk and have downloaded and purchased the latest version of Pano2VR after running version 2.0 for all this time. And what did I find?? New possibilities and opportunities for myself and my clients! In just the past 2 days, I have created a work around to offer my Google customers a stand alone "Street view" feel experience that they can use on their website which much more features in addition to their official Google presence.

Plus version 6.0 already looks like it's going to be amazing and I can't wait for its release. In the meantime I am re-learning the workflow, and watching all of the "how-to videos" (They truly are the best, and entertaining too)

And the team at Pano2VR are awesome! I have met them on several occasions, and consider them family and I wish them the very best for now and over the many years ahead!

THANKS!

Jeff Handley - Enviropix

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:40 pm
by anahum
Thomas, I was an early adopter of pano2vr and ptgui. I tried many of the available options, including Kolor's ..... but pano2vr has been always the best solution, specially for its fantastic and powerful GUI skin editor.

After doing many projects of panoramic photography and creating virtual tours for my customers, I started many years ago to offer custom developments and ready to use skins, exclusively for pano2vr.

If you are a KOLOR user thinking to change to other solution....go fo pano2vr and save time in the learning curve trying one of our skins. You can see our skins offering in this link http://skins.360panotours.com

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 11:44 am
by JVANNI
Bonjour,
J'utilise Panotour pro depuis plus de 10 ans et voila que.........
J'essaie donc de redémarrer avec Pano2vr mais pas facile avec une aide 100% en anglais et un forum 50% en anglais et 50% en allemand.
Je viens de lancer google translate mais les traductions sont vraiment farfelues pour certaines.
Est ce qu'un utilisateur français de Pano2vr aurait des liens vers ds tutos en français car je n'en trouve que de très anciens et plus du tout adapté à la version actuelle ?
Merci d'avance pour votre aide.
Jacques.

Translation by google

Hello,
I use Panotour pro for more than 10 years and here .........
So I try to restart with Pano2vr but not easy with a 100% help in English and a forum 50% in English and 50% in German.
I just launched google translate but the translations are really crazy for some.
Would a French user of Pano2vr have links to ds tutorials in French because I find only very old and no longer adapted to the current version?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Jacques.

Re: To Kolor Panotour Users

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:20 am
by TJackson
To all Garden Gnomes,

Having just seen the announcement that Pano2VR 6.1 will include a Panotour Pro Import option, I just wanted to offer my sincere gratitude for adding this functionality.

Assuming it all works correctly (which the demo video seems to suggest it will), this feature will save me weeks of work.

Thanks so much!!