What is most wanted?

Q&A about the latest versions

What are the most wanted features for upcoming versions?

Scene Transitions
40
34%
HTML Window
10
8%
Mapping (Stick) Items in place
15
13%
Easy(ier) Movie input
9
8%
Multi-level Hi-Res Zooming (Tiling)
21
18%
Pre-load other Scenes
12
10%
Something Else (Please add to thread)
12
10%
 
Total votes: 119
wigi
Posts: 69
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thomas wrote:
stalwart wrote:Thomas,
Do you have a time line when new features will be added to the next beta?

I voted for multires & Google map integration, but now must add iPad / iPhone compatability as an urgent requirement...
I think you will be happy with the 3.0beta :)
But why not with the 2.5 or 2.8? ;)
Waiting... :)
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shinodem
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:41 pm
Location: Russia, Krasnodar

Please do a filter image to avoid such artefacts on rotate and zoom Image
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stalwart
Posts: 651
Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:52 am

Thomas,

bump!

this week alone asked by 2 clients' web designers about iPhone / iPad support....

PLEASE - I must have a time frame for this!

thanks

Stuart
parseh
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 12:39 am

Dear Mr.Thomas,

:arrow: Actions window:
1- It's better to change the Actins/Modifiers window, so users could type and select actions like Flash Action panel.
the new design will help us to add actions fast and copy them to other elements easily.
2- move up/down actions in the list
3- using Loops and Conditions
4- facility for using externak files(txt/jpg/swf)
5- facility for using embeded swf files
6- enable walking through facility

:arrow: Skin Editor:
1- It's better user can specify the panorama display window independent from other parts. for example: specifying
a window for displaying panorama in the left and specifying a window for displaying a map in the right and etc.
the best refrence can be the Tourweaver software that you can define a scene viewer indepenently.

:arrow: General:
1- facility for replacing the skin of imported swf panorama to the main panorama file.
2- unfortunately with dialup internets(slow speeds) when clicking on the hotspots for loading other connected panorama, for some
seconds nothing is done and users think that the link is crashed or sth like this. It's better it show a message "please wait ..." until
the preloader of the second panorama is loaded.
3- there is a problem with showing ((Titles of map buttons)) when mouse over a related point hotspot in the situation we added an Area Hotspot and point hotspot together!
4- There is a problem with showing ((Farsi Fonts)) in published project: when we use html font tag with face attribute in the text field element and type a farsi word with ی alphabet the words format in published file will crash.
<font face="Tahoma, Arial">ضلع جنوبی</font> >>> in published file ((ی ضلع جنوب))

Regards,
Edalat Mojaveri
emojaveri58@gmail.com - mojaveri@parsehcom.com
smooth
Posts: 1493
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:30 pm

Most Wanted as per the long running online poll was "Scene Transitions"
Today we are charged for 3.0 upgrade and the Number 1 voted item didn't even make the grade?

Thanks also Thomas for looking after your long term users and supporters by charging us even more for the upgrade! Your a champ, gives us a real warm fuzzy feeling.

No wonder people don't help out on your forums very often.
Still, the iDud people will be over the moon I'm sure!

Congrats on your efforts, the money must be nice.
Maybe next time the pano2vr users vote might count for something.

Regards, Smooth 8)
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Robert Harshman
Posts: 75
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Location: Chicago/Austin TX
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Smooth,

Single developers are seldom driven by others, they are creative s in their own right. they do want they want to, right or wrong. while i agree with you that they should pay attention to what their users want, it's not the driving force, i thinks it more the technical challenge and new that drives programmers. html 5 is new, "i whatever" is also the new regardless of what you think of it.

personally would I like to see all of the most wanted included, of course. but version 3 is a significant release, deserves a new number and the upgrade fees are, as is the price of a new license, extremely reasonable. with a background in the software industry I'm always amazed when users complain about expensive pricing for extremely inexpensive software. the upgrade fees of 10 or 20 euros is really next to nothing for any serious hobbyist or commercial user. this is less than i have ever charged by a long shot for even one 360, the value added by Thomas has and continues to be significant.

the idea that earlier purchasers of a product pay a more for upgrades is quite logical in it's basis, the longer you have used the product the more value you should have received from it. while other pricing structures are also common, in this case the most expensive upgrade is so cheap as to really make very little difference, it's just not significant.

Your points are well taken, but your attitude lacks professionalism. i hope you get back on track and realize your comments attacking Thomas are misplaced.

Regards,

Robert
Mdholl
Posts: 158
Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 11:43 am

Fully agree with Robert Harshman.
I even think its not enough to develop p2vr all the time and refuse from other projects.
smooth
Posts: 1493
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:30 pm

Robert,

Jeez, that's a bit Harsh Man! lacks professionalism?

I'm not here to be professional, I don't have a barrow to push.
I started this thread and the poll. If I don't have the right of reply, you certainly don't.
What you offer up is an opinion, nothing more and mine is just another. This forum lacks users input and the reasons behind it are coming to the surface.
This is certainly not the only negative or sarcastic post ever place on this forum and yes the consumer should be listened too. Dismiss them and your dismissing your customers.

I agree, the release is significant and the upgrade price is reasonable, I've coughed up! That said, this across the board upgrade split in pricing has never sat well with me.
Without the people supporting your product from the very beginning, you don't have a customer base to charge at all. Charging these people extra somehow seems shallow and non rewarding.

Anyway, from being an avid contributor here on this forum for many years and across the panoramic scene, I'm pulling right back as the reward lately is attacks and pot shots from people without respect, nor knowledge.

I guess my comments are simply a reflection of these times.

Regards, Smooth 8)
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Smourt
Posts: 170
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:15 am

I too MUST lend my voice to SMOOTH (even though I dont like Aussies ;-) )

FIRSTLY... I dont care if he is a single developer or a team of 1000... A PROMISE IS A PROMISE... KEEP IT... dont string people along... THOMAS did exactly this... There has been loads of soon soon soon soon next month next month etc! WHICH THEN TURNED OUT TO BE NEARLY A YEAR LATER...

IS PANO2VR about creating the experience of VIRTUAL REALITY?

So... then we would expect that the "experience" would have improved... No change to maps, no change to adding video, no addition to scene changes... NO preloading of scenes... WHAT THE HELL... THIS IS ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE... no changes equals ... products produced by PANO2VR appear the same and function the same... except when you have an IPAD... :-( YAHHHOOOO!!! LETS PAY MORE FOR... THE SAME...

Honestly its B*llsh*t. Dont promise exciting stuff and deliver ... nothing... this is in reference to the "what is most wanted"...

As far as I am concerned, HTML5 is a necessary upgrade to VR as a whole, but in terms of the WOW I HAVE EXCITING STUFF IN STORE... I was so pissed off I had to go for a surf just to get my frustrations out... The upgrade really only effects IPADs etc. Currently Mac machines still support flash... SO with all these billions of people buying IPADs etc, what % are going to be viewing PANOS on them specifically...???

As far as I am concerned Apple is only doing this re FLASH, not because there is the "security concerns" (which there is), but funny how thay have accepted it till now, or because it is resource intensive (which it is)... but because they dont want people developing APPs because this will errode their ability to sell apps through their store... SIMPLE as that... And in fairness ADOBE needed to be ahead of their game which they were not... they lose... Personally I dont think an IPAD can take FLASH... either for the battery life or the processing power... ... it is not equiped... so instead of admitting to this, it is easier to blame it on issues.

Thomas does not realise that he is on the brink of losing his entire base to several rivals, he was on the cutting edge for about 5-6 months but now he HAS BEEN surpassed LONG AGO... I have several pano tour software programs, I measure PANO2VR against them everyday when I choose which one to use... and honestly, I am finding that I would rather pay more for decent value and promises kept... I am choosing them more often as they have upped their game... Thomas is quick to say "oh that is not a new idea, it has been around for a while"... WELL THOMAS... PEOPLE ARE ASKING YOU FOR IT AND YOU ARE NOT PROVIDING!!! ... ... PANO2VR IS DEAD ... ... that is a challenge to prove us wrong... and no excuses...

Coming back to smooth...!!! You only have to type panorama ... tour, stitching and his bloody name comes up... EVERYWHERE... so seriously... if he has a voice, regardless if you like his style or not... (damned aussies ;-) ) there is HUGE VALUE in what he says... AND ... HOW MUCH HE HAS ASSISTED PEOPLE... Robert, did you pay any attention to this? His bloody aussie (helpful) comments are everywhere.

AND seriously... If you release the upgrade and make no mention of several of the most asked for aspects of the tour that people WANT... then ... ... ... not even mention... anything about it... F*CK man! Seriously...!!!

Thats all I have to say...

bloody aussies... ;-) soooo unprofessional...
smooth
Posts: 1493
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:30 pm

Hey!

You give us Aussie's a break, we only small in numbers and contribute massively worldwide.
I guess it's the residual German blood that makes me passable to you? :wink:

Don't get me wrong, I own an iPhone and I will use the latest release of Pano2VR to create tours for it. I'm not totally anti iDud products, but these are NOT mainstream and not what many would prioritise in their wants from Pano2VR as "tour" software. People are so disappointed in the lack of requests being met for what are the "simple" things by developers.

We want a timeline on features we care about. So much was pinned on the release of version 3.0 and while it is significant it missed much of what we hoped for.

I will give credit to easypano who have just released Tourweaver 6.0 with most of the things (outside of HTML5) that people have been asking for.
I.E: Google Maps, Video/Flash perspective placement, Single .swf output for multiscene tours, .exe output, Sunflare, Rain and Snow effects (gimmicky in my eyes) but a popular request nonetheless to add to the already "tour" friendly multiple choice scene transitions and builders GUI.

By now we should at the very least have input boxes for images and Flash items/objects instead of the backward cheating of code via userdata/html code snippets in Pano2VR.
I'm sure it's on a "wish list" and possibly going to happen - the question is when?

Is it 4.0? If so let us know, so we all can make different plans.

Regards, Smooth 8)
PROUD 8th Generation Australian :lol:
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wigi
Posts: 69
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Location: Poland
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Why the latest version 3.0 isn't based on Flash 10, but still 9?
Sebastian
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:08 am
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wigi wrote:Why the latest version 3.0 isn't based on Flash 10, but still 9?

There is no difference between 9 and 10, beside time-line animation, which is not part of Pano2Vr files but Adobe Flash alone.
The ActionScript didn't change so the file version would be nothing but a number, which would make no difference whatsoever to us.
Sebastian
Posts: 209
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smooth wrote: Don't get me wrong, I own an iPhone and I will use the latest release of Pano2VR to create tours for it. I'm not totally anti iDud products, but these are NOT mainstream and not what many would prioritise in their wants from Pano2VR as "tour" software. People are so disappointed in the lack of requests being met for what are the "simple" things by developers.
I do agree on that one. Plus, inevitably there will be iPad like line of products with Flash support, being the key selling point against iPad.

Have you seen the Motorola tag line, as fire back to Apple? http://android-apps.com/articles/motoro ... -a-jacket/
Same thing will happen with iPad...all the new products will come with everything iPad doesn't and use it against it. In the same time, our Flash panoramas will be safe :)
smooth wrote: By now we should at the very least have input boxes for images and Flash items/objects instead of the backward cheating of code via userdata/html code snippets in Pano2VR. I'm sure it's on a "wish list" and possibly going to happen - the question is when?
Again, agree. Macromedia, then Adobe, was and is great in that regard. We needed a feature, it wasn't there, we found work around and with the next release the work around became a built in feature. Simply by popular demand. The "extras" to display are in fact quite crucial, I can't seem to get single project done without it. Recently we did pano for a hotel, where every room had 3 to 5 photos to show extras, each in huge variety of sizes and orientations. Hence to accommodate, I had to create very large text box, which would result with the smaller images, being off the screen center. I would imagine this would be one of the priorities but I guess I was wrong. Amazingly tho, PTGui new beta now support export to SWF/HTML5 etc... so I won't be surprise if soon, it will have more features, making Pano2VR not very necessary.

I also couldn't agree with you more on the price. I know about Pano2VR from a guy who has been using it for very long. Then I pass the word around when my friends were getting into Pano. And yet, the longest supporting users are paying the most :)Many of them did in fact make the application what it is today by their support throughout all these years. Should be one price for an upgrade to all, and free one for recent customers, just like any other company does it.

I like Pano2Vr, don't think I'm here inciting hate against it. In fact, many of us meet on other forums and we do defend its shortcoming against tools like Flashificator, which had much more comprehensive list of features, for fairly long amount of time. I do find many of them too gimmicky but nevertheless, many users would like to have the option to use it. I to understand the reason for some features to be left behind. Flash was always CPU intensive especially Alpha operations taking big part of the screen, hence the Cross Scene Fade between two panoramas could be really slow while running on high resolutions. But then again, the machines are getting better and better, and flash player more refine with each release.

For now, I won't upgrade. I keep an eye on Flashificator. Instead of sanding 20Euro, must why I add 30 and get much longer list of options, because from what I see now, Pano2VR can't provide basic features, which seem more and more in demand by my clients. It's not going to be much of personal choice but business decision. If I can offer more than the next guy, I'm in business, simple as that :)
I
smooth
Posts: 1493
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:30 pm

I'll reserve judgment until I hear a clear response from Thomas himself.

I know he is still returning from the Pano Tools meeting. Though, I also have seen him logged into this forum quite often also.
To date he has failed to acknowledge this thread by way of reply.

It is clear though, I'm not the only person who is a little worried.

We appreciate the effort that goes into producing a fine product and we show gratitude by purchasing a license and talking up and defending the product on other forums etc.
Things I'm not happy about I feel I've made clear, but to reiterate:

1) Ignoring the most wanted feature
2) Charging long time users twice as to upgrade
3) Failing to offer a road map (no matter how flaky)

I'm trying to see this from all sides. But it appears it is the "Apple" users who are the ones who are jumping on the HTML5 train. The Flash coders, who could care less about Apple and then the tour panorama creators who need to satisfy their customers.

Rushing to meet a release date for a Pano Tools meeting seems more like ego tripping then trying to appease your existing customer base, for it is those who actually use the product and create sales for it.
Lets hope the amount of work put in to have "a new version 3.0 release" debut at the meeting doesn't now drop off simply because the meeting is over.

Regards, Smooth 8)
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thomas
Chief Gnome
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This is just a short reply because I am exhausted from the trip.
smooth wrote: 1) Ignoring the most wanted feature
But maybe you should acknowledge that I have implemented the 2nd most wanted feature according to your poll. Transitions depend on the rendering engine, and for multi res I needed to rewrite this engine. It is more logical to "rewrite the engine" and then "build transitions" then "build transitions" then "rewrite engine", "build transitions again"! I just ran our of time. Transitions are coming soon, don't worry.
2) Charging long time users twice as to upgrade
But you are using the software for a longer time! Are you also complaining at your car dealer that you pay more for your new car (because you get less for your old car) if your are a "long time car driver"? You received 3 years of free upgrades including things like the skin editor, patch tool, point hotspots, Flash 10 support, domain locks, directional sound, flat images,... If I would do it just for the money I would have tried to charged you for each of those feature. Because I ask for 20 Euros after 3 years you call me greedy. Thx.
3) Failing to offer a road map (no matter how flaky)
I am posting now and then my plans so you know what is coming but I want to have the freedom to change my plans and not be held accountable for an exact release date of each feature.
Some times I have a good idea for a features and I just implement it right away. I don't want to postpone it only because it is not on the road map.
MfG, Thomas
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