Stopping autorotation on hotspot hover

[DHogg]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the forum and currently run my own business offering bespoke architectural and aerial photography services using drones:

http://www.horizonimaging.co.uk

I've played with virtual tours on an off for many years and have decided to start offering them as a service. I then plan to combine virtual tours with my aerial photography platforms (the mast and drone) to offer elevated tours as well.

I'm currently producing a simple tour of a holiday villa which I will use as my 'demo' tour until I have produced more tours. You can see it in its current form here:

www.horizonimaging.co.uk/virtual_tours
(link replaced 6th Nov 2014)

Bear in mind this is still very much a work in progress!

I've figured most things out over the last week but I keep getting stumped with simple issues. For example:

How do I stop my panorama from auto-rotating when hovering over a hotspot – but have it continue auto-rotating after I move my mouse off a hotspot?

I tried setting the hotspot action of 'Mouse Enter' to 'Stop Autorotation', but then when I move my mouse off the hotspot the autorotation doesn't start again.
I tried setting the hotspot action of 'Mouse Enter' to 'Toggle Autorotation', but then if a user had been scrolling around the panorama (which disabled autorotation) and then moved over the hotspot the panorama would start to autorotate!

Many thanks for your help,

David

[Hopki]

HI David,
Add the actions to the hotspot template or image, mouse enter => stop auto rotation, and mouse leave start auto rotation, with the start auto rotation action you can set speed, delay etc to be the same as set in the project file.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Hopki

[DHogg]

Hi Hopki,

Many thanks for your prompt reply, it's much appreciated!

Yes this is something I had also tried (I forgot to include it in my original post) but if possible I would like there to be a delay after the user leaves the hotspot before the autorotation starts again – the same delay which is set in the auto-rotation settings page.

If this isn't possible then I'm happy to go with your proposed solution.

Thanks again,

David

[Hopki]

Hi David,
Timers... this is version 5.x.x. features out next year.
May be try instead of using sop and start, use a move to view????
Say $cur, as you know move a pano and the delay timer kicks in. So when you mouse enter the hotspot it has a mouse enter move to view action, stopping auto rotate and starting the timer?

Not tested but give it a go, it may work. If $cur does not work try putting in an actual pan, tilt and FoV value.
Regards,
Hopki

[DHogg]

Hi Hopki,

Many thanks for your prompt reply! I will have a look into your suggested use of the $cur tag and will report back.

Thanks again

David

[DHogg]

Just to update this thread, I've now completely abandoned autorotation, as there were too many issues with the panorama moving off whilst information popup windows or video elements were on the screen ... more hassle than it's worth!

David

[JimWatters]

A lot of panographers like to add autorotate to their panos, but I find it is the first thing I turn off.

Their fear is that a viewer wont look around and think it is just an image. But the majority of people know what a pano is these days.

[DHogg]

That's a great point Jim!

I had that fear at first ... but I'm over it now

David

[Hopki]

static image phobia.
Now theres a first.

[360Texas]

My experience is that when a visitor is not aware that an image rotates, they will not engage or interact. Looks like a nice picture, then click through to another page. As a result they missed the benefit of realizing the photographers hard work and full interactive panorama experience of seeing the whole scene.

You mentioned

But the majority of people know what a pano is these days.

While your assertion is probably true, I would suspect that of the majority of the people might be equal to the all the world people with internet connection that there exists at least 1 other ninety two (92) year old non-tech person with an email netbook computer who might enjoy experiencing your work. I speak of my father who passed away back in 2010. Yes, I did show him how to navigate the panorama.

IF the objection is that the image rotates too fast, your visitor will get "whip-lash" affect; become dizzy and fall off their chair. I can understand your interest in their health and well being. Why not adjust the rotation speed to a very slow [.07] rotation. This small rotational movement would alert them to have patience there is more to be seen. It might also encourage them to mouse click drag the image to see content just out of sight.

I remember back in 1997 my first auto rotating panorama observation was quite by accident. Browsing the internet I found and experienced Professor Helmut Dersch panorama of the Grand Canyon National Park. His setup point was right on the cliff edge where 30 cm (1 foot) more and you would fall directly down into the canyon below. His auto rotation was enabled.. so after panning around I mouse clicked the screen to tilted down to the ground... AND NEARLY FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR AND INTO THE SCREEN MONITOR !!! FIRST THOUGHT ? Gee I have to learn how to create panoramas with this much visual impact. I suspect this would be a topic for a different forum thread.

IF your visitor is not aware of the opportunity to rotate, they probably will not interact and miss viewing your work and move along to a more interesting page.

By the way, I did look at your website. Your panorama images are professional. This must be your first Pano2vr application using your existing panoramas. Only constructive comment might be... When I first entered your panorama I saw several unique red hotspots. I proceeded to click on these 3 or 4 hotspots only to return later to the driveway... to learn I had earlier missed several other ones.. like the area hotspot car etc. Had a slow autorotate been employed I would have seen your whole driveway scene.

[DHogg]

Hi 360Texas,

Many thanks for your feedback, you've raised some valid points ... I will have another look at my tour to see if I can work in auto-rotation at least when the tour first loads ...

Thanks again!

David

[DHogg]

Ok so I've gone for a compromise – having autorotation start once a node has loaded, but then any interaction stops the autorotation and starts a 500 second delay. I think that's the best of both worlds!

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated as always.

David

PS. Yes this is my first time producing a tour with Pano2VR. I produced a large number of single-node panoramas many years ago using PurePlayer (a Java plugin) and you can still see them here ... if your Java plugin will allow you to which none of mine do at the moment!

http://www.horizonimaging.co.uk/old_web ... tfolio.htm

I even made a complete tour for a family friend here:

http://www.horizonimaging.co.uk/pinecottages

I like leaving my old website online – it reminds me how far I've come in the last few years

[stalwart]

http://www.horizonimaging.co.uk/misc/panorama_test

Hi David,

Have you removed the example from the link...?

Stu

[DHogg]

Hi Stu,

Sorry yes I have, I have now edited my post with the correct link which is:

www.horizonimaging.co.uk/virtual_tours

Apologies for the confusion!!

David

[360Texas]

I do like the initial slow auto-rotation. Now your panoramas really are visually engaging your visitor.

One other nice feature is to enable 'return to the horizon' after x delay seconds of no mouse or keyboard activity . You mentioned 500 seconds or 8 minutes. Well Pano2vr is keyboard and mouse activity sensitive.... it knows if the keyboard or mouse is in use. So even IF you set the Delay to say 15 seconds.. the auto rotate would not continue unless the mouse was idle for 15 seconds. Mouse moves... the timer restarts its counter. I am thinking your auto-rotate would never restart -- look at all the red hotspots, panorama mouse drags involved on your site.

Example: with slow auto rotation enabled.. say the visitor get the concept of hot spot clicking and dragging the panorama around to see what else there is to see.. tilts down finds your interesting company logo... THEN the visitor is called away to answer the telephone call or other distraction... and after 5 minutes the visitor returns to eager to continue exploring your fascinating destination tour.... the visitor is still staring down at your logo .. they wonder - what to do next ????

In the Settings dialog the return to the horizon is enabled.... and you have say 15 or 30 seconds DELAY keyed in ... with no visitor keyboard or mouse activity, read distraction, and Return to Horizon value of say 2 " frames" your panorama would re-positioned itself automatically from the ground back up to the screen center called the "horizon" and continued the slow rotation. Typically we do not need to use the [] start after fully loaded because the panorama IS already loaded and is [] in focus.

Just a constructive thought