Visible Hotspots

Q&A about the latest release Version
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Terry
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Is there anyway to represent hotspots visible whilst panning over them apart from physically putting graphics on the main graphics.

Thanks
Terry
savak
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THere is a button on the QT toolbar for this, it looks like an up arrow.
lochorama
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When I create rectangles or circles as hotspots, I can see them in the Pano2QTVR software but NOT in the final Quicktime movies. Does anybody know WHY?

Thanks.

Just realized the answer to the question could be found just above my post! Yes, when viewing my movie in the Quicktime Player, I can hit that "up arrow" to 'switch on' my hotspots. But when I include it in a web page, the controls are absent. Does anyone know if there's a shortcut key that will switch on hotspots? I couldn't find one in Quicktime Help.
Bas
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You can always consider having icons for the hotspots allready embedded in your spherical image before converting to QT, then add the "invisible" hotspots over them in pano2qtvr.
lochorama
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Bas wrote:You can always consider having icons for the hotspots allready embedded in your spherical image before converting to QT, then add the "invisible" hotspots over them in pano2qtvr.
Yes
Thanks Bas, I reckon that's the best solution for the moment. Most ordinary people have no idea a Quicktime movie can contain hotspots, so you really do have to tell them! and show them!
lochorama
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lochorama wrote:
Bas wrote:You can always consider having icons for the hotspots allready embedded in your spherical image before converting to QT, then add the "invisible" hotspots over them in pano2qtvr.
Yes
Thanks Bas, I reckon that's the best solution for the moment. Most ordinary people have no idea a Quicktime movie can contain hotspots, so you really do have to tell them! and show them!
Here's a question for Thomas on this subject.
Here's a test page http://www.lochorama.com/3qt.html
I've added an arrow to this page to tell visitors HOW TO SWITCH ON HOTSPOTS.
Question: could anybody write a SPRITE to do this. Ideally, this 'tool tip' would flash for a couple of seconds each time the movie loads. So would the actual hotspots! Is this technically possible? Thanks

Mike
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thomas
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lochorama wrote:Question: could anybody write a SPRITE to do this. Ideally, this 'tool tip' would flash for a couple of seconds each time the movie loads. So would the actual hotspots! Is this technically possible?
Good question. I never programmed a sprite and I don't have a copy of LiveStage pro or Hotwires. Maybe you can ask on the QTVR list: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/quicktime-vr
MfG, Thomas
lochorama
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thomas wrote:
lochorama wrote:Question: could anybody write a SPRITE to do this. Ideally, this 'tool tip' would flash for a couple of seconds each time the movie loads. So would the actual hotspots! Is this technically possible?
Good question. I never programmed a sprite and I don't have a copy of LiveStage pro or Hotwires. Maybe you can ask on the QTVR list: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/quicktime-vr
I've found quite a few solutions at http://spincontrol.cheathamlane.net/

I checked out some of their examples and discovered that hotspots can be labeled using sprites, but I have no idea how to do this - yet!

I'm trying to figure out if I can use Patrick Cheatham's "Spincontrol" in conjunction with Pano2QTVR. Any ideas on this, Thomas?
patrickcheatham
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lochorama wrote:I'm trying to figure out if I can use Patrick Cheatham's "Spincontrol" in conjunction with Pano2QTVR. Any ideas on this, Thomas?
Hi Mike:

I sent you an email with an example/test HTML template for use in P2Q -- be sure to let me know how it works for you!

Patrick
lochorama
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cheathamlane wrote:
lochorama wrote:I'm trying to figure out if I can use Patrick Cheatham's "Spincontrol" in conjunction with Pano2QTVR. Any ideas on this, Thomas?
Hi Mike:

I sent you an email with an example/test HTML template for use in P2Q -- be sure to let me know how it works for you!

Patrick
Thanks Patrick,
Your test HTML template works fine in Pano2QTVR. Brilliant! Although I already told you this, I'm repeating myself for the benefit of other folks interested in this thread.

Take a look at http://lochorama.com/spincontrol_mike.html which contains a few remarks concerning hotspot labels, together with a question for Thomas.

This page may also be of interest to QuickTime-VR@lists.apple.com subscribers.

Cheers
Mike
patrickcheatham
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lochorama wrote: Your test HTML template works fine in Pano2QTVR. Brilliant! Although I already told you this, I'm repeating myself for the benefit of other folks interested in this thread.

Take a look at http://lochorama.com/spincontrol_mike.html which contains a few remarks concerning hotspot labels, together with a question for Thomas.
Hi Mike:

Thanks!, and Yes, I like to keep as much info as possible in the public realm... :)

Some thoughts:

* spinControl:VR simply tells the QTVR to display or hide its Hotspots.

* In a QTVR, you can give a Hotspot a name and a link. Pano2QTVR makes it easy for you to name/link your Hotspots. When you display your QTVR in a browser window, the Hotspot's name will not automatically display (I assume this is what you mean by label?) -- unless you set the QT parameter for "controller" to "true". When you set the controller to true, the name _should_ appear in the bottom bar of the QTVR display area.

* To have Hotspot "labels", similar to the ones I created for the PanoSpin tour, you will need to create and script them yourself using a separate application such as LiveStage Pro or VR Hotwires. Or you can hire someone to do it for you. ;-)

I don't think one could easily create a sprite for importing into Pano2QTVR which would allow you to have visible (popup) Hotspot labels -- there are a lot of variables involved which would be peculiar to each QTVR. This would need to be partially supported from within Pano2QTVR, so that it remains a no-brainer for us, the P2Q users, to use. :-)

Other solutions, which still require QT scripting (via LSP or VRH), might involve keeping your Hotspot label images as external files... This approach is doable (I've done it) BUT you run into all sorts of QT quirks and bugs across operating systems and QT versions.

Cheers,

Patrick

ps: In your HTML, to show the QTVR controller, change the following line in the VR embed code from:
'controller', 'false',

to:
'controller', 'true',

ps 2: The HTML for your example Web page includes a lot of duplicate tags; you should remove the duplicate HEAD and META and BODY tags...
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