Property tour - could you give it a quick test?

[jez_p]

I have just finished my first virtual tour, and welcome any feedback. After putting it on the web it worked without any problem using my dual-core PC with 2 gigs of RAM, but when I tested it with my old P4 with 512MB a timer error was displayed in the Flash debugger. I think I have fixed the problem, but I would be grateful if you could possibly give it a go and see if any errors arise. Any other comments or criticisms would be welcomed as well.

http://www.panoco.co.uk/tours/0001/

Many thanks,

Jez

[user101]

Latest webkit (Safari), Mac: No problems with functionality.

1) I would hide the ? screen on load. It gets in the way for anyone doing their tour number 2. Unless you save a cookie and take it from there.

2) I find the FPP transitions a waste of time. They're too slow. You sit there waiting for the graaaaaaduaaaaaal appearance of a pano already loaded. Ideally, I'd just like to get on with it and have a look. Given a choice, which would you choose as a property buyer and not a bells-and-whistles web designer?

3) Work on the color balances of the panos. That daylight cyan must be one of the ugliest colors in the world (don't you think?). It is sometimes preferable to go for a more yellow interior to balance out some of that sinking blue feeling, if local adjustments are too much work/out of budget.

[jez_p]

Many thanks for having a look user101. I'm happy to hear that you found no functionality problems - it was also a bonus that you are on a mac as I haven't access to one for testing purposes. I think you're right on all three points, and I will be updating the tour. Thanks again.

[Scott Witte]

Pretty good. Jez. I especially enjoy the occasional wild spin in some of the transitions. (I dearly hope Denis makes them "optional" in the next release...)
You might consider lowering your qualityMotion setting to low. Even on a fast machine panning (and transition motion) gets pretty ragged and slow. It might prove unbearable on slower machines.

[jez_p]

Thanks for the feedback Scott. Yep, the "whirling hotspot" issue is a bit of a pain - I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up more often.

I set the qualityMotion to medium to stop the static hotspots from jumping when the pano is moved. There seems to be two options - a sluggish pan with static hotspots that don't jump, or an easier pan with static hotspots that do. I'm not sure which option is best.

[HansNyberg]

Yes Scott is right, the long transitions must be because of your global quality for motion is medium.
You have no autorotation with separate motion quality so I assume that the the medium affects also the transitions.

I like transitions when they work but on my Powerbook 17 1ghz from 2003 your take 10 sec. On my MacBook Pro 17 2.16ghz. they take 3 sec which I think is what it should take max.

My University tour has the same transitions and I have global quality motion to medium (in the English version) but with an autorotation quality set to low and the transitions between the panos take 3 sec on both.
OK I have set the time to 200 you have 500 but I do not think that does much difference. There seems to be other parameters which makes the difference.

Transitions seems to be very unpredictable as I also have an intro transition with both a pano and a png which I can not control at all on different computers.

Hans

I like your interface. And I do not think you should remove the Help screen at the intro. The close button is very clear.
However I would increase the font size, I have difficulties to read the text on my screen and there are a lot of people now with small laptops and large resolutions.

Hans

[Scott Witte]

I set the qualityMotion to medium to stop the static hotspots from jumping when the pano is moved.

Hah! All this time I've been working with hotspots but until you mentioned it I never noticed the small movements while panning. Ignorance is (was) bliss. But I sure notice the overall stuttering motion while panning with qualityMotion at medium. So... I guess for me I would vote for low quality motion, at least until Denis activates hardware acceleration in FPP.

I would agree with Hans on font size. It is just small enough to make reading difficult.

[user101]

All OK on Mac with Firefox 2.0.0.11 also.

[jez_p]

Thanks for taking the time to have a look Hans. I think I will just do away with the transitions. Glad you like the design - I "borrowed" a couple of design ideas from your university tour - hope you don't mind. I got hung up a while on how to have a menu background that ran the full width of the screen on all screen resolutions - then I had a closer look at your tour - simple really... :rolleyes:

I think I will have to increase the size of the text then - I've been developing on a 15.4" widescreen laptop with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 and a 1024 x 768 CRT, and the text has appeared perfectly readable on my monitors. I just tried a resolution of 1280 x 1024 on the CRT though, and the text is verging on unreadable.

Thanks again Scott - I will go with the jumping hotspots option.

Thanks again user101.

I tried the tour again on my old pentium 4 and got the following message:

Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds.
at fl.managers::FocusManager/::deactivateHandler()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::_timerDispatch()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::tick()

If no-one else has recieved an error then hopefully I can assume it is because my old PC has a few issues.

[NewSpin360]

Really nice! All of it.

I noticed this navigation issue on a few tours. Not really an issue just I think may be better for average users. We changed ours a while back.

When using the navigation on the bottom you have to click and hold to get the image to rotate. That is not an action that is normal, we changed ours to respond to a simple left click also, allows for small movements.

Just an idea.

Really nice work.

Example here-

http://host.newspin360.net/bransonhills/2bedroom/

Thanks Mike

[jez_p]

Thanks a lot Mike. I'm a bit confused about your suggestions regarding the navigation controls though - the behaviour seems the same as mine, and I looked at your .xml file and there is no onClick event in your navigation button box objects - have I got the wrong end of the stick?

[HansNyberg]

Really nice! All of it.
I noticed this navigation issue on a few tours. Not really an issue just I think may be better for average users. We changed ours a while back.
When using the navigation on the bottom you have to click and hold to get the image to rotate. That is not an action that is normal, we changed ours to respond to a simple left click also, allows for small movements.


As far as I can see you use the same function which is what everyone else also uses.
I assume that you can use onover instead of onpress but I have not seen anyone use it.

Hans

[NewSpin360]

As far as I can see you use the same function which is what everyone else also uses.
I assume that you can use onover instead of onpress but I have not seen anyone use it.

Hans

I am not tech. as you know, so I have trouble explaining. I may be crazy but mine works different on my machines. It seems? It use to work like the others I asked to have it different and I think it is.

I rest the mouse over the Left, right, up or down nav. Then I tap my laptop pad or tap the left click once. "Not" holding it down and it moves and stops in small movements in the selected direction.

On the other tours I have to left click and hold to get any action. Can not do a single click and get anything.

If I am not just crazy, my thinking was if a basic user just tried to click it and let go they would think it was not working. With a single click, if they see that the images moves it may help the ones that, do not understand to left click and hold. They could "click" "click" "click" and move it in a direction.

Am I crazy, I would not doubt it. Will add to a long list of misunderstandings I have had since I started this company.

Thanks Mike

[jez_p]

Ah, I see what you've done Mike. In your onPress events, you have no acceleration parameter so the pan is immediate, and it responds to the mouse click straight away. Thanks for the tip. :)

[NewSpin360]

Ah, I see what you've done Mike. In your onPress events, you have no acceleration parameter so the pan is immediate, and it responds to the mouse click straight away. Thanks for the tip. :)

Good I am not crazy. Really sorry I could not tell you that. As I have said I am just the owner and photographer. Not coder, easier to just pay.

Thanks Mike

[WideEyes]

I love the tour. And I love the skin that is very similar to both Hans' University tour and to Marks www.flash-panoramas.com
I think we'll see more of these skins in the future.

Just one quick question. Why doesn't anybody use the "mouse follow" plug-in available at www.flashpanos.com ?

I have used it once or twice, and I get very positive feedback from "normal" viewers (people not in our business) so I'll definately stick with it.

One small suggestion I have is to change the hotspots inside the panoramas to small thumbnails like the ones you have at the top of the page. Just a thought.

best regards
Morten

[jez_p]

Not a problem Mike :)


Many thanks Morten. The elements of my design are actually very similar to the elements in a VST plug-in I made a couple of years ago http://www.boxsounds.com/vst.html ie, simple and greyscale. I feel this works well as it does not detract attention from the subject matter. Hans' University tour, Marks and virtually-anywhere's tours definately influenced my functionality and layout - I think they work really well.

The "mouse follow" plug-in does look interesting - this has been my first project though, so personally I have been concentrating on getting to grips with the basics of FPP.

Thanks for the suggestion about the thumbnails in the hotspots - I tried it, but (eventually...) decided not to go with it.


I have now uploaded the updated version of the tour - thank you to everyone for having a look and taking the time to give me some feedback.

Jez

[NewSpin360]

Jez,

I was in "bathroom" and clicked on "lower floor" and it spun me around all crazy, then loaded next pano and performed as it should. Did it 3 or 4 times then worked fine.

Worked fine on all of the rest.

I know I have read about that in a post before.

Discovery of issue is as far as I go. :(

Mike

[jez_p]

Thanks Mike. This is the "whirling hotspot" issue. If you click the hotspot when it is on the right-hand side of the screen then transition works correctly, but if you click it when it is on the left-hand side the transition pan goes the "long way round". It happens in a couple of the other rooms also. I've tried a number of things to correct this, but as far as I understand it this is a problem with FPP which Denis is going to resolve in the next update.

Here is Scott's original thread regarding the issue:

http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=431