Not quite sure how this works

[PanoMapper]

Hi guys

I am not 100% sure how the Add an external picture or SWF feature of the latest beta works, and nothing seems to appear in documention or in the forum. Understandable, I know, but a little frustrating.

If I wanted, for example, to use a YouTube video in a skin, how would I go about embedding it? I have tried by adding the YT url, but this seems to have little effect.

Jon

[Hopki]

This might help
Hopki

[smooth]

add_youtube.jpg (56.17 KiB) Viewed 9427 times

Of course the URL can be to another .swf file like a video file or .swf wrapper for a .flv or even another pano2VR tour etc.

Regards, Smooth

[PanoMapper]

Thanks chaps!

I actually tried that, but to no avail. However, I was also trying to juggle about thirty other things as well and have not Smooth's knowledge and understanding of such matters. Nor do I live in Braintree, Martin.

I shall play in the morning when I am not trying to multi-task (when I say multi-task, I mean washing clothes, putting on the dishwasher, vacuuming the floor, answering the phone or trying to heat milk up in the microbølg - sounds better in Norwegian).

I will let you know the results . . .

Noggin the Nog (only a mere -11 degrees tonight)

[smooth]

It would be nice to see a "Flash" pre-loader for these .swf objects so people know something is going to happen.
Take a look at how Tourweaver handles these things. Something like this would be a good idea.

Regards, Smooth

[Hopki]

Hi Smooth
I tackled this a long time back when loading large images, have a look at this example link, the third button in from the right loads an image which is not instant, so i put in a little load indicator to let people know that something is happening.

http://www.hopkimedia.co.uk/GGS/YTV-EIL/index.html

Just place the attached loader behind the external image & SWF loader box in your own skin and set it to show and hide with the external image and SWF loader.
Doing it this way means you have a bit more control of looks and wording etc, of course a SWF loader is nice, but this way means it easy to do and build in the skin editor.
Hopki

[smooth]

Thanks Hopki,

That is a neat work around. But I was really after a default without having to go to the trouble of having the add extras via the skin editor.
But I guess this way we have control over the style and that can't be a bad thing!

Regards, Smooth

[anahum]

This might help
Hopki

Hi Hopki. Embedding jpg or swf is working great with the "Add external image or swf" new feature. Do you know if SWFs with audio can play the audio when the swf is embedded in a panorama? (in my tests it doesn't). On the other hand, embedding external web video streams like with Youtube, the audio plays ok. Thanks in advance.

[Hopki]

Hi Arturo
Can you post the SWF as this should work?
Regards
Hopki

[anahum]

Hi Arturo
Can you post the SWF as this should work?
Regards
Hopki

Hopki, attached is a small swf movie with audio for your testing --> .

[PanoMapper]

Many thanks to Martin and Smooth!

I managed to get it to work. For those interested, it is the preliminary shots for a outdoors centre in this part of Norway, shot in the late autumn, into which the customer wants one of their promotional videos integrating.

I decided that when the video icon is selected to clear the screen of everything else and put up a black background. I think this works better than just having the video layered over the panorama, if only because it negates the need for a frame.

The panos can be found at: http://tactus360.com/panos/orkel/index.html

The icon itself is second from the right (Vis video) and the return from the video screen, click the same icon that appears in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Sorry that it is in Norwegian. Even more, I apologise for the fact that the video will be understood only by a small percentage of users of this forum. That is hardly surprising, since it is in a dialect peculiar to a community of about 500 people. Even most Norwegians will have problems with that!

Thanks again!

Jon

PS Arturo

Can you get rid of that video?

It is very irritating having that running in the background when trying to read this page!

[smooth]

Neat Jon, Glad you got the result you were after.

Yes, delete the embedded video in this forum page. The download link is sufficient.

Regards, Smooth

[PanoMapper]

Thanks Jim . . .

I would prefer to stream the video from the server and add my own controls. However, I seem to be able to download from YouTube only an flv file. I have tried several converters but none does a good job of the conversion.

Does anyone know of a means of downloading just the flash from YT?

Jon

[smooth]

YouTube streams .FLV (Actually that is how you stream) you use a .swf wrapper to display (this is where the controls come in).
I believe they use H.264 compression.
Personally I use and recommended Flash Video Studio 4.0 from www.increditools.com (but there are many others).

Regards, Smooth

[PanoMapper]

Thank you Jim,

Nice program, that. Worth every penny!

Jon