How can I get cylindrical projection of an equirectangular image in FPP?

[million$smile]

I usually use cube faces in almost all of my panos.

But I currently have a client who wants panoramas with equirectangular images and cylindrical projection. He likes the 'curved ceilings' in an equirectangular image and wants to keep that same look.

Does FPP support cylindrical projection of an equirectangular image?

I know FPP has a cylConverter.swf plugin, but I don't think that's what I need.
As far as I know, the cylConverter.swf plugin takes an equirectangular image and converts it to cube faces on the fly, then loads it in FPP. But it doesn't give a cylindrical projection.

I need the equirectangular image to be displayed as a CYLINDRICAL projection.

Does anyone know how I can do this in FPP?

[puzz]

... He likes the 'curved ceilings' in an equirectangular image and wants to keep that same look....

I need the equirectangular image to be displayed as a CYLINDRICAL projection. I don't think this is possible in FPP, but it is easy with Javascript (if you know Javascript, of course).

Does anyone know how I can do this in FPP?

In fact, you want to show equirectangular panoramas but scrollable? I don't think this is possible with FPP, but I saw a few other Flash and Java players with that feature.

I think the easisest way to do that is Javascript (for example here (http://www.panoye.com/panorama.1106-kings-canyon-northern-.html)) - because the viewers of your site don't need any browser plugin.

[million$smile]

Thanks for trying to help Puzz.

Unfortunately, I actually need more than just a 'scrollable' equirectangular image. A scrollable image would have a 'left side' and a 'right side'.

I need the image to be projected onto a cyclinder so that it appears like a continuous panorama as the cylinder keeps rotating.

I hope that explains the difference :???:

Ps. FPP is one of the most advanced panorama viewers out there, I'm surprised it can't do a cylindrical projection.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

That's an easy one... and don't ever say ... or even think... that FPP can't do something :)

Let's say that you have an equirectangular image of 4000x2000 pixels

1. Open it in your image editor.
2. Copy your image.
3. Make the canvas double as wide as it is, while keeping the hight (8000 long, 2000 high).
4. Paste the image into the empty canvas space.
5. Load the image into Flashificator and Flashificate (or do it the manual way)
6. The result: http://flashificator.com/1/CurvedOne/index.html

Now your client can stop complaining :)

[phberlin]

Hey Tuddi,

how come you make the canvas double as wide as it was? Why not simply take the cylindrical image as it is and use FPP's cylConverter? Plus: If you paste the image in the doubled-canvas, do you mean pasting it in the center (so that you have empty space left and right of the image), or pasting it twice side to side?

Regards, Ph.

[puzz]

Thanks for trying to help Puzz.

Unfortunately, I actually need more than just a 'scrollable' equirectangular image. A scrollable image would have a 'left side' and a 'right side'.

I need the image to be projected onto a cyclinder so that it appears like a continuous panorama as the cylinder keeps rotating.

I hope that explains the difference :???:

You can have a "scrollable equirectangular image" with continuous scroll very easy (if you know Javascript, of course). The pano don't need to have a "left side" and/or "right side" (where the scroll stops).

Of course, you can still try with Tuddi's approach :)

[HansNyberg]

Thanks for trying to help Puzz.

Unfortunately, I actually need more than just a 'scrollable' equirectangular image. A scrollable image would have a 'left side' and a 'right side'.

I need the image to be projected onto a cyclinder so that it appears like a continuous panorama as the cylinder keeps rotating.
I hope that explains the difference :???:
Ps. FPP is one of the most advanced panorama viewers out there, I'm surprised it can't do a cylindrical projection.

No I am afraid we do not understand the difference.
And you have no idea about what you are talking about. Converting an Equirectangular panorama to cylindric projection means you have to crop it to max 80 degree Vertical FOV to not get extreme distortion.
You can see here what happens
http://www.panoramas.dk/panorama/projections/

Either you have a flat scrollable panorama like the one Puzz linked to or the ones you can see here .
http://stadtpanoramen.de/hannover/index.html
And there is no left and right side with stop at the ends as you seems to believe.

There are a lot of Java, javascript or Flashviewers for doing that.
There are even some Realtor viewers using it. The projection used for the panorama can be cylindric or spherical. It does not matter as long as your FOV is within reasonable height. It is a flat scrollable viewer. And FPP is not that kind of very simple viewer.

FPP is a perspective corrected viewer,
You can just restrict the view for cylindric panorama like this one.
http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full22.html

I do not know of any other viewers.
If you have an example of what you want please point us to it.

Hans

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Hey Tuddi,

how come you make the canvas double as wide as it was? Why not simply take the cylindrical image as it is and use FPP's cylConverter? Plus: If you paste the image in the doubled-canvas, do you mean pasting it in the center (so that you have empty space left and right of the image), or pasting it twice side to side?

Regards, Ph.

Well, If I just put the image in as it is, using cylConverter, FPP will automatically correct the bends in the image and make it normally spherical.

Take into notion that I only work with FPP through FFC, and FFC automatically recognizes equirectangular images for what they are (due to the 2:1 format).

The canvas increase should be done on one side only - keeping the original one on left side for instance, pasting the copy of it on the right side.

This gives the visual result I am sure million$smile's client wants... if I have understood him right.

[million$smile]

Thanks for the help Tuddi. That's exactly what I was looking for.

But now I have another problem...

Here has been my learning experience/problem-solving so far:

First, I tried to get the cylindrical projection without using FFC. I copy and pasted the equirectangular image like you said, used the cylConverter.swf and added it to my XML code, set panoType = cylinder, and tried to load the panorama. FPP loaded all my hotspots, but it would not load the actual panorama. I'm not sure why.

So then I tried doing it using FFC. I copy + pasted the image like you said, created the files with FFC, and FPP loaded the panorama just how I wanted it to. The problem with this is because I used FFC, I don't have any of my hotspots or motion tweens.

Then what I did is I took the all the files generated by FFC and used them with my original XML file that includes all my hotspots and motion tweens. All my hotspots and the panorama loaded correctly, except my intro_pan_moves (motion tweens) do not work. The panorama just autorotates. Another problem is that although the hotspots load, if I click on one of them to load a different pano, the new pano doesn't load. What happens is the original pano just freezes. It gets 'stuck' in its current position and no matter what I do I can't pan or tilt in any direction.

I need to be able to display the cylindrical projection while still being able to load and click on the hotspots as well as execute the motion tweens.

If I can't figure out how to do this, I don't think I'll be able to help this client, unfortunately.