Observations on AutoPano Tour vs Pano2VR

[AntiochInteractive]

I wanted to discuss what I believe is a serious competitor to the excellent Pano2VR and see if loyal users have any opinions.

http://www.autopano.net/wiki-en/Lastest_Beta (Beta 9)

I gave this a test and there were some initial thing that I like --

#1) I posted a request for a feature where you could place a hotspot and preview the resulting tour that would follow and from the preview, be able to set default view. A response was posted that instructed me to setup tons of things in the skin editor -- this is a few steps removed and tedious to do. AutoPano implemented this the exact way that I visualized it.

#2) AutoPano is using KRPano for rendering (http://www.krpano.com/). Unless I'm missing something with how I'm using Pano2VR, I'm finding that KRPano has less distortion at the top and bottom for my equirectangular tours... whereas Pano2VR has major distortion at top and bottom.

#3) AutoPano Tour has a visual way of arranging all scenes and draws a visual map -- this is very useful. Projects are useful.

#4) AutoPano Tour has some skinning things built in that I like. Pano2VR's skinning is much superior in how flexible it is. Getting AutoPano to replicate what I do in Pano2VR is NOT easy and I'm running into all kinds of weird results. So definitely score one for Pano2VR. I -do- like how AutoPanoTour will generate a thumbnail bar though -- that's super useful when I'm making tours with 12-20 scenes.

#5) KRPano supports iPhone/iPad using a javascript library that renders tours using HTML5/CSS3... this is quite important. I noticed that this has been addressed by Thomas and hinted that a forthcoming v3.0 Beta will include this -- which is very exciting for me.

So - are some of these features likely to make it to Pano2VR? Any thoughts?

Sorry if this post is rather controversial. I want Pano2VR to remain the best choice to use. As license holders, we all have a stake in the future, right?

[thomas]

Give me another 2 weeks and you should be able to make some check marks for Pano2VR. For the final Pano2VR maybe you can even make 5...

[xhalemedia]

This sounds very, VERY!!! intersting!

will look forward to the next release with great anticipation

Thanks Thomas

LG
Alex

[AntiochInteractive]

This is fantastic ... Again, loyal and huge fan of Pano2VR. I feel like the software as a whole is of higher quality and the flexibility is great.

I'm having crazy problems with AutoPano Tour ... you have to make XML files for your skinning stuff - kinda jury rigging extra features in -- and it seems that once you've created a template, it stores the template in a cache... so that if you want to make changes, you need to keep copying the file as a new file and editing -- so far I'm on my 8th revision and still not getting the right results.

While using AutoPano Tour, I'm thinking the entire time that I wish I was using Pano2VR's skin editor.

So - I can't wait. Thomas, if you need a beta tester -- I'm available (laughing) -- I bet everyone on the forum is too

FYI -- I'm wanting to do 3 new home tours and was considering swapping to AutoPano Tour for a few of the features ---

Here's a comparison of AutoPano to Pano2VR - same tour:

AutoPano:
http://www.metroplex360.com/360s/test/

Pano2VR:
http://www.mansionsatstarranch.com/i/VR ... -Area.html


Unless I'm doing something wrong in Pano2VR, you can compare the warping at the top and bottom of pictures...

[Carl Lamb]

I've never had that distortion in any panos with pano2vr. Almost looks like a QTVR cylinder to me with a low rendering quality.

[AntiochInteractive]

Holy cow. I've been using 'Auto' for all of my tours which defaults to cylinder ... which makes the tops and bottoms squished!

Now I have to figure this out -- if I swap to equirectangular, it treats my tour as if it has a nadir and zenith shot - which I do not shoot... so i need to wade around the forums and look for a solution...

So that's one thing figured out -- AutoPanoTour recognizes my tours as equirectangular and I can set all of my panos to 133 degrees and it works... now time to figure out how to do this in Pano2vr...

AHA --- Photoshop increase vertical canvas to make 2:1 .... I'm doing mine at 8000xX -- so 8000 x 4000

Thomas - there's another feature request -- if equirectangular, calculate the needed vertical and auto crop the pano...

[Carl Lamb]

Glad you got that sorted.

To set your limits, hit 'modify' in the viewing parameters box, then make sure you check 'show limits' under viewing limits. Pan up and around to find the point that just hides your blank area then hit 'set' at the top, pan down and down the same at the bottom. Click ok and create your locked down pano.