This is beta documentation. View the latest stable documentation.

What's New?

Here you'll find an ongoing list of new features, fixes, and changes added to each release.

Pano2VR 8.1

General and Interface

New Project Search: search and replace across the whole project, including user data, hotspots, media file names, project settings, and even the skins of your web outputs
Reworked Quick Share: share a panoramic or regular photo with format settings, aspect ratio, resolution, and a skip-the-dialog mode for one-click sharing
Quick Share keeps its panoramic image within the size social platforms accept, with the maximum width set under Images in the Settings
Frame Overlays moved to the Viewer Settings bar. Click to cycle aspect ratios, long-press to pick one, and edit the list in the Settings
Hold Shift while you click a Viewer Settings button that cycles through a list, such as frame overlays, projections, or camera modes, to step back
Press F1 on any control, or use the new Click for Help toolbar button (also in the Skin Editor), to jump straight to the matching documentation page
Text fields now use your system’s spell checker with suggestions on right-click
New Tile Cache Performance window with live memory and cache graphs for diagnosing big projects
The image cache can be spread over several folders, with a choice of how Pano2VR fills them, so a big project is no longer held back by one small or slow drive
Opening a project with more nodes than the trial version allows now loads the first four and says how many were left out, instead of stopping
After an upload to Google Street View, Pano2VR retries sending the photo’s details by itself while Google is still processing the new photo
Recent projects in the application menu, also reachable when all windows are closed
The List View shows custom skin IDs and lets you drag several elements at once
Built-in MCP server: connect AI assistants to Pano2VR and let them help with your project and skins
Video conversion now uses your system’s built-in codecs: no more bundled ffmpeg
Much faster Gnome Cloud uploads for large tours, with automatic retries
Pano2VR warns when several .pot translation templates exist and tells you which one was used
The Animation Editor measures a track against the Viewing Limits with the same field of view as the viewer, so a track is no longer marked red when the animation stays within the limits
Smooth Continuous Bezier Keyframes now also works on the last keyframe of a looping clip, where it smooths into the start of the clip
A floating panel returns to its old place when you dock it again, even after you have moved it around the screen first
Magic keyframes take the shortest way round, so a view a little past 180° no longer sends the camera almost a full turn the other way. On a partial or pan-limited panorama they turn within the visible range instead
The keyframe Edit Value dialog updates the graph and the Viewer while you change the value
Double-click a ghost hotspot in any Viewer mode that shows it to turn it into a point hotspot
The place search and the image filter in Google Street View have an x to clear them, like the other search fields, and all search fields now read Search… while they are empty

Video and Media

Subtitles for videos: pinned videos, skin video elements, video hotspots, and video panoramas can carry a WebVTT subtitle track, shown as native browser captions or through a skin text element. Subtitle files (.vtt or .srt) named after the video are picked up automatically, including translated variants like video_de.srt, and the track follows the tour’s language switch
Alternative files for the skin video element and for video hotspots
HLS (.m3u8) streams now also play in skin video elements and in video hotspots with a Video URL
Animation Editor subtitle tracks also read .vtt files
Faster playback and conversion of 8K video panoramas
Smarter alternative resolution selection on mobile devices
The animation output can include background sound and video panorama audio
Best-fitting pinned media is faster, and a new lock keeps the aspect ratio while adjusting corners
Skin media files with the same name no longer overwrite each other in the output

Skin Editor

Skin elements stacked on top of each other in 3D nodes are kept apart in a way that no longer depends on the node’s clipping planes, so hotspot art stays clean at any distance. The skin’s Stacking Strength (formerly Stacking Offset) now only scales that separation
Skin elements in 3D nodes stack in the same order as in a panorama node: an element’s whole sub tree stays below the element above it in the skin tree
Filter the skin tree by element type or color with the new tree toolbar
A searchable variable picker replaces the long menus in skins with many variables. Type to filter, with your recent picks on top
New Measure Tool component that lets viewers measure distances and areas right inside the tour
The Components Toolbox adds an Icon Sets category, icon folders with switchable variants, and ZIP archives that work like folders
A component file can now carry an icon set, on its own or alongside a component, so a set can be shared with credit for whoever drew it
The built-in icon sets now name their authors and licenses (select an icon to see them), and the icons of the Akar, HeroIcons, Iconoir, and Ionicons sets can be found by search terms as well as by file name
Every built-in icon carries that information now, not only the ones in Icon Sets. The Feather, Material, Venis, and Quaranta icons name who drew them and under which license, and can be found by search terms too: Feather’s and Google’s own words for their icons, and ours for the ones we drew
The Filter’s Tags menu now works on the Icons tab as well, listing the icons’ own search terms so you can narrow a set down to, say, everything tagged Navigation
Components and icon sets can name their Source and License, shown under the description in the Information section and clickable when they are links
Components and Lottie files added while the Components Toolbox was closed now show up the next time you open it, instead of needing a restart
The built-in skins, VR skins and HTML templates are read-only, and Pano2VR puts back any that are missing when it starts. Choosing Save on a built-in skin offers to save a copy with a name already filled in
Fixed the Iconoir Snapchat icon, which had a white box behind it
A Helicopter icon joins the built-in Feather icons, in both the Box and the Orb variant
Name your icons and give them search terms with an icons.json file, and the Filter will find them by words that are not in their file names
Pick a point hotspot’s custom image directly from the Components Toolbox
New Mouse Over Panorama logic trigger: show controls only while the mouse is over the panorama
New Aligned With 3D Model logic trigger: true in panoramas placed in a 3D model, for tools like the Measure Tool
The Timer element’s new Interaction type counts only real user input, so auto-rotation won’t reset it
The Code Element gets a Restore Defaults button for its custom properties, and double-clicking a property’s label resets only that one
Search the skin by element type
Save a skin straight into your default skins folder with the new Save as (default skins folder)… menu entry
Delete All Variables asks for confirmation, and undoing a variable deletion puts the variable back in its old place
Line width setting for polygon hotspots
The rain and snow effect components were rebuilt; particles now fall correctly even when the view rolls
Default skins expose a gg_skinstyle variable and show the project description; Quaranta gains map and floor plan support and can open its thumbnail menu on start
The Action Settings open the matching documentation section with F1 and use the searchable variable picker
Skins are saved in an updated file format: Pano2VR 8.0 still opens them but warns that they come from a newer version

3D Models

On a 3D model with a GPS position, the Tour Map’s radar beam starts where the 3D camera stands instead of at the model’s own marker, so the map shows the place in the model you are looking at, and the beam follows as you move; on geolocated floor plans too, even without a pin for the model
Double-click a geolocated floor plan in the Tour Map to move a geolocated 3D model’s camera to that spot, at the same height
Animate 3D model nodes: camera position and camera mode tracks for flights through the model
Gaussian splats can be optimized on input or output, with level-of-detail loading in the player
Adding a large Gaussian splat offers to create its optimized RAD file right away, with the size limit under Settings > 3D Model
Chunked model output and a GLB optimizer make large models load faster
A newly added model is centered and scaled to fit, Gaussian splats included
A missing optimized splat file is listed in the Locate Missing Files window, and opening the node offers to create it again instead of loading the full-size original
New Advanced model settings: camera near/far clipping planes, Material Side (front, back, or double-sided), and Play first Animation
A Model Transformation with its own position, orientation, scale, and lock adjusts the model’s geometry inside its placement in the tour. Georeferenced 3D Tiles and Gaussian splats are now turned the right way up here, so the model’s own Rotation starts at 0/0/0
Set Material Side and model animation skin actions
Derive GPS positions: compute a model’s position and heading from its linked nodes (or the other way around) right in the Tour Map, with a new position lock
Setting a model’s Default View can capture its preview image automatically
Align a camera point in a Gaussian splat along view lines: a control point only has to sit on the line it was picked from, so a click that lands at the wrong depth no longer throws the camera off
Align a camera point with panorama or model leveling: Pano2VR corrects the panorama’s pitch and roll, or the model’s rotation, while it aligns
Waypoints can force the model’s texture or the panoramas for every transition that passes them
Magic keyframes on a 3D model use real meters for the walk and fly speeds, based on the model’s Units / Meter
The Animation output leaves out the clips of 3D model nodes and says which ones, instead of rendering black frames
Transitions from a model to a node follow the nearest chain of camera points
Models without a background image show the panoramas as their sky during transitions
The Cloner can list a model’s Target Cameras, with their new titles, to build camera view menus
Objects of a 3D model can be used as skin Proxy IDs (formerly Hotspot Proxy ID), so a click on a door can play the model’s animation
Right-click the model tree in the Overview panel to copy an object or animation name, ready to paste into a skin as a proxy ID
The Overview panel shows the model’s objects and animations as a tree

Web Output and Player

The playerclick, playerdblclick, playerdown and playerup events now also tell you x and y, the point in viewer pixels, next to the pan and tilt they already carried. That is what raycastModel takes, so a skin can ask what was clicked on without following the mouse itself. That never worked on a touch screen, because there is no mouse position to fall back on and a tap was answered with wherever the pointer had last been
A looping animation clip loops in the browser the way it does in the viewer, camera position of a 3D model node included. It used to hold on the last keyframe and jump back to the start
SEO landing pages: tag nodes with seo and the web output creates a search-engine-friendly page per panorama plus a sitemap.xml
New HTML template option for complete social media meta tags with tailored preview images
The web player’s rendering is now built on three.js
Optional player features load on demand for a smaller initial download, and generated skins got leaner
New JavaScript API calls: destroy(), performance tuning, 3D model camera control, mouse-over state, the subtitle API, getLastInteraction(), releaseNodeResources(), transitionRunning(), getThree(), and getThreeGroup()
Custom HTML templates can list all tour nodes and use new functions for node preview images, published URLs, and export warnings
Gaussian splats play more smoothly on phones: the player adapts the number of splats and the render resolution to what the device can handle
In transitions through a Gaussian splat, the splat grows out of the node a flight leaves and shrinks onto the node it arrives at, also for large splats that load in pages
Flights into a 3D model node no longer stutter on arrival: the skin’s 3D hotspots are built during the flight
Legacy browser support removed: the player targets current, evergreen browsers
A new web output leaves tile overlap off when the project’s cube faces are a multiple of 256 pixels, as they are in Matterport imports, so the last row of tiles is no longer a thin sliver
Command line exports return a non-zero exit code when an export fails, so scripts can catch broken renders
Cloned elements carry their tag and title as data-ctag and data-ctitle on the surrounding div, so your own CSS and scripts can address a single clone

Fixed

Node images in a skin are rendered again when their size changes, for example after pointing an output at another skin
The Live Update progress bar stays visible until the export has finished
Deleting a patch removes it from the Viewer right away
Scroll Area has its own shortcut in the Skin Editor, ⌘J / Ctrl+J, instead of sharing ⌘R / Ctrl+R with Rectangle
The file dialogs and Change Input Type in the Tour Browser no longer offer QuickTime VR, which Pano2VR can’t open anymore. QuickTime (.mov) videos still work as video panoramas
The Cloud Browser, Save as Droplet and skin warnings windows show the right title
Move to Master Node in the List View no longer deletes the clips, maps, or camera points that are part of the selection. They stay where they are
The Replace image on drop option, which had no effect, is gone from the Advanced settings. Dropped images are always added as new nodes
The Components Toolbox no longer lists _over and _active state images as icons of their own, and a dropped _o or _a image joins its icon right away instead of after a reload
Pressing Delete on a built-in icon in the Components Toolbox no longer asks to delete it and then reports an error
The Components Toolbox’s text filter matches Lottie animations by name. It used to match their folder path, so every animation matched words like “resources”
In expert mode, Set Polygon Mode shows the ID field for Show One, Hide One and Toggle One
Expert mode keeps the easing function of Move to Default View and the projection of Set View. They used to be saved empty
Switching an action to a type without expert mode, such as 3D Camera View, turns expert mode off, so the type’s own fields no longer disappear
The trigger menu of a logic block disables triggers that don’t apply there, such as Cloner triggers outside a cloner
A placeholder picked from the right-click menu of a number value in a logic block is used as the value instead of an older entry
Stereo panoramas with the default multiresolution file names load the tiles of the second eye, and hashed tile names (%k) work in the output of a single panorama
In VR, a multiresolution node shows its low-resolution preview again while its tiles load
An animated hotspot follows its own keyframes, also when several hotspots are animated in the same clip
A generated move that changes the camera mode of a 3D model node switches the mode when it arrives, instead of passing through Fly and Walk on the way
Translations that come with a skin keep their last language when the project has translations of its own
Skin variables kept in a cookie: a super cookie without an expiry lasts for the session instead of being deleted right away, values with quotes or percent signs survive a reload, and a cookie whose name only ends like another one is no longer read in its place. Setting a text variable that holds an empty text to 0 is no longer ignored
Viewing limits of partial panoramas: in a portrait window you can no longer look past the pole, and zooming out at the edge of the pan range no longer pulls the view inwards. In a landscape window you can now tilt up to the pole, where the view used to stop short of it
The Skin Editor preview no longer zooms out past a node’s maximum field of view
Exporting a 3D model no longer crashes Pano2VR on a computer without a graphics card, for example when it runs as a Windows service or in a remote session
Opening a project and closing it again no longer asks you to save changes nobody made
On the world map in the Tour Map, moving, rotating or turning off the grid no longer takes over the spacing, angle and color of the floor plan’s grid
Dragging the Tour Map’s radar beam of a 3D model now turns the camera in the Viewer too, in the Panorama, Walk and Fly camera modes
GPS from Map no longer does nothing for a node whose Geoposition is locked: the pin moves to the node’s GPS position
Dragging a floating panel onto another floating panel no longer crashes Pano2VR
Reopening the Components Toolbox after component or Lottie files were renamed or deleted outside Pano2VR no longer crashes, and new files found when it opens always finish loading
The variable picker no longer crashes in a skin without text variables, for example when you click the subtitle Text Variable button
On macOS, preferences, recent files and other settings you changed in an 8.1 beta carry over when you update, instead of going back to an older state
Pano2VR no longer crashes while loading a stereo panorama or creating the cube faces of a web output when the image cache can no longer be read. The load or export reports the problem instead
Buttons with hover or pressed images inside an element with a z-index above 0 react to clicks and taps again in 3D model, splat and VR tours, instead of the element behind them taking the click
Gaussian splats no longer lower their quality step by step, and keep it lowered, on displays or remote desktop sessions that refresh at only 30 to 35 Hz
Small hitches right after arriving at a node with a Gaussian splat are gone: the splat’s detail refinement no longer competes with loading the panorama tiles
The player’s ready event fires when a tour first loads, not only after the first node change
On touch devices, the x and y of the player’s click, double-click and release events are in viewer pixels, also when the tour is embedded in a page or scrolled
When a video panorama whose End Action is Exit finishes, its subtitles clear, and mute, volume and language controls keep working for the rest of the tour

Pano2VR 8.0.8

Effect sounds no longer report a browser error when the view enters their sound field at the same moment the node changes, or a mute or stop action runs
Skins no longer show their gyro button in Chrome on computers without a gyro. Since Chrome 151, Gyro Available was switched on there too
Image and button elements in skins made with Pano2VR 7.1 no longer switch from Original File to WebP in their Format setting, so animated GIFs stay animated
Node images set to WebP are exported again, instead of as empty files
On Windows and Linux, Skip This Version in the software update works again: a skipped update is no longer offered at every automatic check
Pano2VR no longer crashes, or loses an undo step, when edits to different things follow one another, such as a map’s title and a node’s default view
Starting a second copy of Pano2VR no longer deletes the image cache of a copy that is already running, which could make the first one crash or show damaged images
On touch devices, a tap on a tour that is embedded in a page or scrolled reports the right pan and tilt in the player’s click, double-click and release events
In VR, a pinned video with a mask image no longer shows up in the next panorama when you change nodes before its mask has loaded, and the mask loads correctly when the tour uses a base path

Pano2VR 8.0.7

Tags list with counts in the Overview panel
Fix: Load source panoramas before regenerating skin node images
Better heading updates and error overlay handling in web server and floorplan components
macOS: fix crash on quit caused by quitting from lastWindowClosed
Updated PDF viewer
Various smaller fixes in the HTML player

Pano2VR 8.0.6

Fixes for Gnome Cloud login
Fixes for user data title placeholder
Fix for crash if animation keyframes are stretched
Fixes for crash on Welcome Screen if the login token expired
Fix for wrong resized windows
Fix for input panel showing wrong fields when switching input type
Fixes if input images are many cubic panoramas
Player: fix the camera mode lost on a transition into a model node

Pano2VR 8.0.5

Fixes for alternative video panorama files
Fix for several crash bugs
Fix for single quote in translated VR-Skins
Fix for empty node in old “save as default” projects
Fix for creating keyframes at time 0
Fix malformed font links from pasted Google Fonts embed snippets
Fixes for default view with projections
Fix for hotspot target viewer, if Unload images to save memory was selected
Avoid overwriting _master on a single-node project

Pano2VR 8.0.4

Fix for relocating floorplan file
Update compass in Pano2VR preview
Include custom hotspot images in translation files

Pano2VR 8.0.3

Fix for tiles not loading in the Viewer
Option to add crash logs to support package
Fix for reading panorama elements from single node legacy projects
Add a “Current” label for North setting in User Data
Restore relative path names on save

Pano2VR 8.0.2

Read correct image size for WebP pinned images
Ignore a missing or broken ICC monitor profile
Avoid crashes on large tours on iOS/Safari
Fix for context menu table
Fix for too strong lens flares compared to 7.x
Don’t load extra tiles for flat panoramas
Fix for pinned sounds and crossfade

Pano2VR 8.0.1

Avoid duplicating image levels and context menu entries on newly converted Pano2VR 7 projects
Actually quit if “Quit” is selected and “Quit with last window” is deselected
Fix for default polygon hotspot colors

Pano2VR 8.0

Watch this video on YouTube.

announcement

Pano2VR 8.0 introduces a new Project Wizard, 3D model support, Gaussian Splats, improved skin handling, and expanded support for modern image formats including JPEG XL and WebP. This release also includes many improvements for video panoramas, pinned elements, Web Output, WebVR, and the Skin Editor.

General and Interface

New Project Wizard to help guide users in building and exporting a new project
New skin selector with skin previews
New Quaranta skin with a minimalist design, navigation arrows, theme options, and icon style choices
New project file format for Pano2VR 8
Pano2VR 8 project files cannot be opened in Pano2VR 7 or earlier
Added North Offset
Added JPEG XL support
Improved handling of very large PNG files
Improved conversion of images to tiled TIFF compression formats

3D Models

Added support for 3D Meshes and Gaussian Splats
Added Default View Camera Point for model nodes
Added Target Camera Point
Added Panorama Camera Mode
Added Fly Speed
Added Rotate into flight path
Added camera modes to the Edit menu
Added support for viewing 3D models in Immersive View
Added center coordinates for working with off-center 3D models
Added transition textures for Gaussian Splats
Added glTF to GLB export conversion
Added optimization options for mobile output
Added option to lock a 3D model
Added Capture Preview Image for 3D models
Improved input type handling for models
Improved validation for 3D model input fields such as scale, units per meter, and fly speed
Improved model background images
Fixed autorotation for 3D models when set to start after fully loaded
Fixed viewing limits in the model viewer
Fixed roll behavior on gyro and 3D models during transitions
Fixed orbit camera mode mouse/touch Y coordinate handling

Skin Editor

Added SVG option to Render as Shape in 3D
Added 3D Camera View skin action
Added 3D Camera Mode skin action
Added 3D Camera Mode logic block trigger
Added Player Muted logic block trigger
Added new Node trigger group
Added Is 3D Model and 3D Model Type logic block triggers
Added Additive Mode for CSS classes logic blocks
Added more direct CSS support to the Code Element
Added Regular Expression comparison option to the Tags trigger
Added a logic block for the Z-index property
Added more options for Exposed Variables
Added support for multiple tags in the Hotspot Cloner
Added exposed properties for PDF elements and External Image Loaders
Added custom title and preview options for skins
Added warnings for child elements at the parent level
Added js: as an alternative to javascript: for JavaScript actions
Added color themes with gradients for built-in skins
Added splash screen components for Feather Orb, Feather Box, Material Index, and Quaranta skins
Added support for sorting skin components using tags and weighting
Added Save As dialog when saving a write-protected skin
Fixed Venis and Neto skins so previous/next buttons do not appear in single-node projects
Fixed the material_dart mobile thumbnail menu after node changes
Fixed the Translation Cloner
Restored placeholders for Node ID and Custom Node ID

Pinned Elements

Added masks for pinned images
Added option to hide a video’s image mask when the video is popped out
Improved handling of multiresolution pinned images
Added automatic selection of alternative image files for pinned images
Added JPEG XL and WebP as pinned image formats
Added WebP support for pinned images
Fixed pinned video not appearing in Immersive View
Fixed Show/Hide Media action behavior

Web Output

Added new grid menu for skins with preview images
Added Hand Tracking options for VR output
Removed the HTML File option; index.html is now created at the root level of the output folder
Added Output Tile Size options, with the default set to 1024 pixels
Added Show Thumbnail Menu on Start to Skin Configuration for built-in skins
Added output folder encryption
Added Capture Date/Time to output
Added timezone fixes for Capture Date/Time
Added $(ur) placeholder for user data Capture Date
Improved mouse wheel handling for more consistent zoom direction and behavior
Fixed $(ui) user data placeholder display
Fixed drag-and-drop opening for panoramas and video panoramas
Fixed direct node access with custom node IDs
Fixed an issue when config loaded before the painter was ready
Fixed zoom to center

WebVR

Added support for 3D models and Gaussian Splats
Added option to add Natural Hands
Fixed VR node changes not updating correctly when transitions were disabled

Video Panoramas

Fixed video panoramas in tours
Fixed stereo 360 videos displaying as stacked views

Tour Building

Added target pointing for hotspots going to a model node
Added project custom preview capture from the Viewer
Fixed returning from a panorama to a model via a point hotspot target view opening the wrong view

Tour Map

Improved Pick Landmark accuracy when finding North
Fixed crashes after changing the map ID and saving

Fixed

Fixed loading cube faces with input set to Auto
Fixed high CPU thread count on load
Fixed crash caused by missing logic block variables
Disabled Restore Window after crash on macOS
Restored snow and rain effects
Fixed regression with animated hotspots
Fixed wrong color profile on preview cube with fly-in effects and projections
Fixed preview images not appearing in single-resolution output
Fixed custom preview images not appearing in the Tour Browser
Fixed Viewing Limits copy buttons
Fixed Type copy button copying the file path and replacing panoramas
Fixed 3D Viewer freezing when moving a camera
Fixed animated PNG files not animating correctly
Fixed animated PNG child elements in the skin tree not animating
Fixed scroll areas on touch screens on Windows
Fixed various command line and droplet issues
Fixed issues carried over from Pano2VR 7, including media actions, keyboard shortcuts, file paths, regular expressions, and accessibility text handling