Shimmering Image Problem

[visionman]

Hi

I have created a high res pano and am displaying it in cube face format using FPP. See http://www.360vision.co.uk/garden/area/

In full screen, the image looks ok, but in the initial size within the web page, there is a shimmering effect when the image is rotating. This disappears when the image stops rotating. I have not seen this issue before. Could it be related to the amount of detail in the image and the relatively small display size? Any suggested work arounds?

Thanks

Visionman

[Jochum]

It has to do with if you have sharpened the picture and which quality setting you have in qualityMotion2.

[HansNyberg]

You can solve some of it at least for Flash 10 users. (60% has it)

Ad qualityMotion2=best to the parameters
Also ad quality2=best to the autorotator parameters. (you need the new flash10 autorotator from the googlegroup/files)
Also change the autorotator quality=low to medium

If that does not do it you may need to make a small version for the initial view and ad a loadpano for the fullscreen button that loads the fullscreen version.

Hans

[RCFisher]

OK where do you find the Googlegroup? I have a similar problem.

[Jochum]

There where we download FPP I guess?

http://groups.google.com/group/flashpanoramas/files

if logged in

[visionman]

Thanks all for your posts. I was not aware there was a new Autorotator plugin for Flash 10.

Also, I have not heard of the qualityMotion2 and quality2 parameters before. Do these only work with the new Autorotator plugin? Where do you put these parameters? Do they go between <parameters> and </parameters> or between <autorotator> and </autorotator>?

Here's my xml below:

<panorama>
<parameters>
layer_2 = autorotator.swf
layer_4 = hotspots.swf
layer_10 = glassMeter.swf
loaderBackColor = #ffffff
zoomMax = 1.7
zoomHome = 0.9
zoomMin = 0.7
</parameters>
<autorotator>
speed = -0.15
interval = 30
pause = 3000
quality = low
</autorotator>
<hotspots>
<global onLoad="alpha=0; alpha=1,1000" >
<pano segments="30" onPress="segments=15" onRelease="segments=30" />
<pano qualityMotion="low" qualityStatic="best" />
<spot id="full" alt="full screen" static="1" align="BR" salign="BR" staticX="-4" staticY="-4" url="black_f.png" depth="3" scale="0.50" onClick="fullscreen(-)" />
</global>
</hotspots>
</panorama>

Many thanks

Visionman

[HansNyberg]

qualityMotion2 and qualityStatic 2 goes in the parameters just like the old ones for Flash 9.
You need both as the 2 ones will not work for Flash 9, I can see you have them in the global settings instead of the main parameters.

The info about the new qualitymotion2 settings are in the blog when Denis presented the Flash 10 update.
http://flashpanoramas.com/blog/

The new autorotator. You need both the quality and the quality2 setting between autorotatori the autorotator settings.

[visionman]

Many thanks Hans

I have amended my xml and added both versions of qualityMotion and qualityStatic to the main parameters area. I have also added quality and quality2 to the autorotator parameters.

I have removed the quality parameters from my global settings.

I am using FPP 2.3 and the autorotator plugin from nidrig posted here on Jan 16th (http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1887&highlight=qualitymotion2&page=3)

Here's my revised xml:

<panorama>
<parameters>
layer_2 = autorotator.swf
layer_3 = editor.swf
layer_4 = hotspots.swf
layer_10 = glassMeter.swf
loaderBackColor = #ffffff
zoomMax = 1.7
zoomHome = 0.9
zoomMin = 0.7
qualityMotion=low
qualityStatic=best
qualityMotion2=best
qualityStatic2=best
</parameters>
<autorotator>
speed = -0.10
interval = 30
pause = 3000
quality = low
quality2 = best
</autorotator>
<hotspots>
<global onLoad="alpha=0; alpha=1,1000" >
<pano segments="30" onPress="segments=15" onRelease="segments=30" />
<spot id="full" alt="full screen" static="1" align="BR" salign="BR" staticX="-4" staticY="-4" url="black_f.png" depth="3" scale="0.50" onClick="fullscreen(-)" />
</global>
</hotspots>
</panorama>

And here's the link to my pano ... http://www.360vision.co.uk/garden/area/

As you can see, I am still getting the shimmering problem.

Any ideas what I can do now?

I really appreciate your help.

Many thanks

Visionman

[Jochum]

I think I was right before, it has to do with sharpening, though this picture may not have been sharpened but because it is so small in the window and full of details it all ends up like if it was sharpened. A moire effect, the details in the picture against the pixel in the screen. The same result but of different causes. If you don't want make the window larger try to make the sourcepictures smaller or compress them more and not sharp them at all but maybe even unsharp them, maybe that could help.

[HansNyberg]

I am afraid that the difference in size is to much. What you can do is set the initial FOV to the maximum, you can see that if you zoom in the shimmering gets much smaller.
Then change it to normal size with a parameter in the fullscreen button.

The best would be to use a special small pano for the initial view or increase the display size of it. I can see that the pano is a very large download because all the details makes it hard to compress.

Hans

[Jochum]

Forget what I wrote about to unsharp the picture, now when looked at it fullscreen I see the good quality and high resolution, it would be bad to trash that, the problem is like said the small initial window. Is that method you Hans write about possible, a different smaller pano for the initial view? That would very likely solve the problem I guess too.

[HansNyberg]

Forget what I wrote about to unsharp the picture, now when looked at it fullscreen I see the good quality and high resolution, it would be bad to trash that, the problem is like said the small initial window. Is that method you Hans write about possible, a different smaller pano for the initial view? That would very likely solve the problem I guess too.

Yes it is easy. I did one a year ago. I just updated it for Flash 10 to get rid of the shimmering.
http://www.panoramas.dk/flash/fullscreenloader/

This is a similar pano which easy gets shimmering.
Small pano 600x600 cubefaces, big 1400x1400
I disabled the autorotation for the fullscreen as it interferes with the fading.
Could perhaps be solved in another way.

Hans

[Jochum]

That worked like a charm Hans, especially liked how the first initial small pano when getting fullscreen updated nicely into highres like a preloader, but better than a preloader. But how do you do it, what code do the trick, or is it yours secret? :)

[HansNyberg]

No secrets.
Here is XML http://www.panoramas.dk/flash/fullscreenloader/navigation1.xml
Hans

[visionman]

Hans

Thank you so much. It looks like your solution will work perfectly for me. I will give it a try and let you know how I get on. Yes, it does seem that the image display size is simply too small for the detail in the image - makes sense now.

Cheers

Visionman

[Jochum]

Thanks Hans, though it's way over my head but I am impressed, as most often. However I asked maybe more because if the origin-man of this thread maybe could be helped by it.
But just for fun to know, is it based on hotspots, is it very big hotspots that covers the old small pictures or in plain english what is it that makes the magic? I can't understand what exactly code makes the exchange. And why I ask that is because I know I want to know in future how I could exchange one cubeface-picture with one other.

[HansNyberg]

It is just a simple loadpano command which also includes the fullscreen command.
They are locked together by using pano leash="follow" and pano leash="lock"
That means the large pano will load in same pan/tilt position.

The way I do it here only works for 1 singe panorama.
It will be much more complicated if you want to do it for a tour with several panos if you want to have navigation also in Fullscreen.

Hans

[Jochum]

Great, thanks for the explanation! (though I understand 50% but I shall investigate this further some other time when I'm not also drinking wine) :D

[360VT.co.uk]

The way I do it here only works for 1 singe panorama.
Hans

Hans

Would it work for multiple panos, if you had two fullscreen open/close hotspots linked to each pano?

<spot id="full_pano01_lg" linked="images/small" onLoad=" ..... onClick="fullscreen(-);pano.leash= ..... loadPano(panoName=images/large .....

<spot id="full_pano01_sml" linked="images/large" onLoad=" ..... onClick="fullscreen(-);pano.leash= ..... loadPano(panoName=images/small .....

And just repeat for every pano

or is there a better way

[visionman]

No secrets.
Here is XML http://www.panoramas.dk/flash/fullscreenloader/navigation1.xml
Hans

Hi Hans

OK, I have updated my xml and created a low res set of cube faces. The low res set load up ok but loading fails for the high res set. See http://www.360vision.co.uk/garden/area (http://www.360vision.co.uk/garden/area). Any ideas please?

Also, assuming I can get this working, is there any way when you switch out of full screen, you can go back to the low res version?

Here's my xml (just the hotspot coding):

<hotspots>
<global onLoad="alpha=0; alpha=1,1000" >
<pano leash="follow"/>
<pano segments="30" onPress="segments=15" onRelease="segments=30" />

<spot id="full_low" onLoad="depth=100" linked="imageslow/azalea" url="black_f.png" scale="0.5" static="1" depth="100" alpha="0.7" onOver="alpha=1" onOut="alpha=0.7" align="BR" salign="BR" staticX="-4" staticY="-4" onClick="fullscreen(-);pano.leash=lock;external.autorotator.disabled=1; loadPano(panoName=imagesfull/azalea&qualityMotion2=medium&qualityMotion=low&100,fade)"/>

<spot id="full_high" onLoad="depth=100" linked="imageshigh/azalea" url="black_f.png" scale="0.5" static="1" depth="100" alpha="0.7" onOver="alpha=0.9" onOut="alpha=0.7" align="BR" salign="BR" staticX="-4" staticY="-4" onClick="fullscreen(-);pano.leash=lock;external.autorotator.disabled=0; loadPano(panoName=imageslow/azalea&qualityMotion2=best&qualityMotion=medium&100,fade)"/>

</global>
</hotspots>

Thanks
Visionman

[visionman]

Doh! Just spotted the reason - simple error in my xml code:

<spot id="full_low" onLoad="depth=100" linked="imageslow/azalea" url="black_f.png" scale="0.5" static="1" depth="100" alpha="0.7" onOver="alpha=1" onOut="alpha=0.7" align="BR" salign="BR" staticX="-4" staticY="-4" onClick="fullscreen(-);pano.leash=lock;external.autorotator.disabled=1; loadPano(panoName=imageshigh/azalea&qualityMotion2=medium&qualityMotion=low&100 ,fade)"/>

Thanks again for your posts.

Visionman

[HansNyberg]

Seems to work fine now, However I would reduce the cubefaces for the fullscreen version. 2733x2733 is to big for flash.
People with just 512mb of Ram may have problems seeing it.
I found that 2400 is max for 512mb. You do not know what people have open of other applications. My Safari uses 375mb for your fullscreen. You ned some memory for System and other applications also.

I usually never use more than 2000x2000 and my standard is 1600x1600.
I can see that your cubefaces does not loose much information at all when I reduce them to 2000. The compressed size is just reduced with around 15%.

Hans

[visionman]

Many thanks Hans, good tip re tile size. I will reduce them down and see what happens.

Also, I have noticed that if you hit 'Escape' in full screen mode (as opposed to clicking on the toggle button) the system gets confused as it doesn't switch to the low/high version. Is there any way to disable the 'Escape' button function or to change the default bubble that says 'press Esc. to exit full screen mode.'

Cheers

Visionman

[HansNyberg]

Good observation. I have not thought of that. Actually my original demo page did not have the shift back to low on the fullscreen button.

I do not know of any way to disable the escape function. I seen others who have asked for it also.

Hans

[visionman]

Thanks. I have emailed Denis re disabling the Escape function. Will post back if I hear anything.
Cheers
Visionman

[discocandy]

As I recall the escape function is a adobe security thing..
nothing we ca do about it..

[HansNyberg]

I am not an expert in coding but I looked in the tutorial and there are 2 codes which says

onEnterFullscreen event, fires when panorama enters the fullscreen mode
onExitFullscreen event, fires when panorama exits the fullscreen mode

Actually I discovered an error in the tutorial. the onexit actually says onenter also.
I guess that these code can be used instead of using the fullscreen button for loading.

Hans

[visionman]

Ah, I see what you mean Hans. I will give that a try. It would be good for the high/low pano switcher to work whichever way you you enter and exit fullscreen. Many thanks.

Cheers

Visionman