360degree panoramas are here

M

markdj

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www.stronge.org.uk
MBY NEWS

360º tours of Boat Show stars

See inside the best new boats at the Southampton boat show with our exclusive virtual tours.

Click on the link below, choose the make and model of craft you would like to view, then use your mouse to scroll around the 360º photographs of its cockpit and interior. It's the next best thing to being there.

We've been on board many of the most exciting new boats at the show including the radical new Sealine SC35, the stylish Fairline Targa 64 and the cutting edge Fjord 40 plus a whole host of other boats large and small.

http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20070826115017mbynews.html

But unfortunately no views of the Marlow /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
So what do you think?

360º Views are here...have a look, and a play, drag scroll and zoom to your hearts content...then please let me know what you think...It would be good to get some feedback..Like em, or loath em /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I shot them, I like them, but if you don't I won't shoot any more, so the future of it all is in your hands.

Dunno what coverage the Marlow will get in the mags as neither of us staff photographers were allowed to get on board...so you won't see any interiors from the show...and you won't get a 360º of it either

But lets me know what you think of the other 360s

G
 
Re: So what do you think?

They're all bloody mobos.
But apart from that very good.
With 2 Absolutes will somebody make sure Ali has boxing gloves on or he'll go blind. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Re: So what do you think?

There are also some interior of yachts to come...but seeing it was primarily for MBY, Dan has spent too much of his life trying to get them up asap after the show...Seeing it's all a bit new to us, it took a little longer than expected.

I've got them for 3 forthcoming boats tests in YM (but I'm not telling you what they are...it's secret /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Re: So what do you think?

Only problem I've had viewing is the CPU usage goes to 100% and things stutter. I'm not sure if this is because there are 2 quicktime panoramas on the same page or not. Makes the experiences barely useable. Anyone else having issues. I'll maybe try re-installing quicktime. I'm using v7.
 
Re: So what do you think?

Quick blip of cpu usage, then settled to just about nothing. Very smooth scroll when selected with nothing above normal cpu usage.
 
Hmm, I looked through a few, but the quality is awful compared with what the estate agency people manage. I think I prefer a dodgy video taken by a bloke and his SWMBO who has a bit of passion for the product.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Quality looks very poor and certainly amongst the worst I've seen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you wait for them to open fully?...Just like when a jpg sometimes loads they load up in a coarse resolution first and get better gradually

Try the Manhattan 70 it's the only one I managed to shoot, so it's the only one on the page, so it should load quite quickly

G
 
I wonder if they've compressed the files enough? Using fast computer with lots of RAM and good bandwith, they view similarly to your link, though slower to download, which suggests bigger files. Though could also be down to the serves hosting the images.
 
Something has happened as the quality has suddenly improved but they don't move properly. Move your cursor, there is a delay and then the image jumps two or three frames to left or right.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry snooks, but they are poor quality.


This is what it should look like.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's alright, don't be sorry /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif, I asked for comments. Tho it might help if you could be more specific about which quality you're refering to...If it's the quality of the images, some are better than others...The Absolute is pretty good...the Sealine was at the end of the first day when the mirror was dusty and the image quality suffered as a result...so I know the quality of mine varies, if you're comparing my worst with their best, I can agree, but if you compare like for like there's not much in it

If you're talking about the presentation then yep the link you posted does it far better, this was our first step to see A) if it worked on boats and B) if there is much interest in the idea and whether we should spend time and money on pursuing the 360 idea.

I didn't have time to cover the whole boat...it was at a boatshow where time is limited. So I got one of all the boats I was asked to, and might have sneeked another one in if I could (from clearing the boat/area I was in, I got about 5 mins to set up and get the shot) Maybe in the future this is something we can look into if there is enough interest, and we have enough time.

As for image quality (like for like) they are both pretty similar, both have blown out highlights, lack saturation, and variable focal points and sharpness, but their purpose is to give an idea of the internal layout of the boat, not sell them /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The link you posted used a full 360º system on a vertical and horizontal axis where at least two shots have to be taken then joined, and the tripod retouched out of the images...the system I used just took one pic and gets a full 360º on a horizontal axis. But we felt this system fitted our needs better cos few people are interested in headlining of carpet /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

If you're talking panning/scrolling quality, the link you posted is a lot smoother to tilt and pan, but I feel this has more to do with the ads on our pages than the quality of the images. If you'd like I could Email you the original .mov file to see whether that's the case. I just loaded the Absolute and I had a moving Merc banner and an animated Canon tower, and the scrolling was more like a flick book with a load of pages missing...so that's something we have to work on /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for your comments, any feedback we get is good, but I was expecting the link you posted to blow me away, with crisp clear 360º panoramics, the image quality of which would put all of mine to shame. Yep I know some of my panos on the MBY link could be better, I could have spent hours retouching each one, blending layers to reduce the blown out highlights and sharpened the images more, increasing saturation etc, but I really don't have the time to do such things...well I could have, but you wouldn't have seen them until somewhere round mid December!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Thanx again,

G
 
Re: So what do you think?

[ QUOTE ]
Did you do any on the vast array of smaller boats (sub £100k) that most of us are interested in?

[/ QUOTE ]

Erm................

Sorry, I was given a list of new boats and got as many as I could. Most of the sailing boat I got were under £100K if that's any help? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Snooks, from what MC is saying, the problem is more fundamental than higlights, saturation etc. He is seeing the image not scrolling smoothly with the cursor. I'm seeing very smooth scrolling, similar to the house interior. There must be a reason for this. Computer processor power, video card, or something of that ilk?
 
Unfortunately I was replying when MC posted the latest /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think the problem is the animated adverts...bear in in mind I'm a photographer (a tired one at that!), not a computer genius.

I just clicked the manhattan link above and got an YBW advert and a simple tower on the right and almost got myself dizzy spinning around so fast!

Pressed refresh, mercs banner and Canon tower, and it slows to a jerky stutter...the Merc banner seems to be very hugary on sapping the power from my defenseless little 360º panos /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Dunno what we'll be able to do about this I'll have a chat with Dan tomorrow, tho by the time I've got into the office he's prolly read this already /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif (won't you Dan??) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Had a quick experiment on different computers with different processors, memory, video cards. The more powerful computers with more memory and faster video cards performed best as might be expected (same bandwidth). When temp cache cleared, so loading everything from scratch on fastest most powerful computer, the merc advert slowed to a halt, as quicktime download seemed to be given preference.

Some panoramas load and more importantly scroll much better (smooth and responsive to changes in direction). Absolute seems to be the best. Is that a smaller file than say Manhattan panorama (which doesn't change direction of scroll as responsively and more likely to stutter a bit) or is there anyother underlying difference between them? Both were tested with Merc banner and Canon tower.
 
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