Sometimes novices need help navigating QTVRs. Take this example from VR photographer Bob Shindel: “When I first started shooting QTVRs I would email them to family members. After a couple years of doing this I ended up at the house of my oldest brother where I showed him some of my newest QTVRs on his computer. Only then did he discover that they spun around. He was content to just zoom in and out of the opening part of the image.”
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Many of us have had similar encounters with clients, friends and others who, when placed in front of a VR say, “That’s beautiful, but what does it do?” A shame, since much of the beauty and fun of QTVR is in the interactivity – clicking, panning and zooming the image.
VR photographer Patrick Cheatham found this problem was fairly widespread. When he worked as an Apple tech consultant he had to teach people how to click-and-drag. “As a rule, I’ve found that Joe Computer User does not grasp using the keyboard’s shift/control buttons for zooming,” he says. “All of us [in the VR community] understand QuickTime and the power of QuickTime -- we're developers and enthusiasts -- but, again in my experience, I find that the general public doesn't understand it and doesn't really want to. They just want it to work.”
With those problematic experiences in mind, last year Cheatham developed a simple controller for the VRs on his website in an effort to make his clients’ fullscreen experience a more intuitive and pleasurable one. Since he’s instigated his controller, only one person has asked him what to do.
Cheatham recently donated a custom QTVR controller for use on the popular World Wide Panorama website and also decided to make spincontrol:VR freely available to anyone interested. He has several color and button combinations available, plus the shareware version, which allows more advanced QTVR creators to customize the controller’s color scheme however they see fit. People who want to offer an alternative to the limited, standard QuickTime VR controller can do so -- without having to design one, then spend hours coding it for themselves.
Cheatham has had both positive and negative critiques on his app from other QTVR creators. “Some people feel that having an alternative controller will detract from the interactive experience, while others agree that an alternative controller gives the novice visitor a more intuitive introduction to QTVR,” he explains. “I think most of the constructive criticism revolves around the aesthetics of the controller I created, rather than its technical, "what it does" aspects.” Cheatham allows that once folks understand how to click-and-drag, they may never go back to using his controller, and that’s fine with him.
spinControl:VR, from CheathamLane, is a QuickTime movie which, when embedded in a Web page with a QuickTime VR, can control the QTVR's pan, tilt and zoom -- with no coding necessary, and for any QuickTime-friendly platform.
The spincontrol:VR controller uses intermovie communication and the power of QTLists to enable the QTVR producer to provide intuitive controls for his or her QTVR presentation. Offered as freeware, the spincontrol:Basic version comes in several color combinations and button styles, available from http://spincontrol.cheathamlane.net.
To begin using spincontrol:VR, simply download your choice of the custom controllers, copy-and-paste the provided embed code into your Web page, correctly set your QTVR's moviename attribute and enjoy.
spincontrol:Hextended: If red suddenly becomes the new black, you can put a hex on it - hexadecimal, that is. You are in complete color control. By changing the color values in the provided embed code, the spincontrol:VR controller can be easily customized to match your site's color identity, or the colors in each QTVR presentation. The spincontrol:Hextended version also shows or hides hotspots, and will even control the auto-rotation of your QTVR -- all without having to write a single line of script in the QTVR.
Examples, downloads and instructions are available from:
http://spincontrol.cheathamlane.net
