How to see tour on Samsung Gear VR

Q&A about the latest versions
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3DV
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I've bought a Gear VR(v2) especially to be able to show my clients Pano2VR tours, but I can't get it to work properly.
What's the best way to see a Pano2VR tour on this device?

When I use the integrated VR Web browser (Oculus software) I can browse to the page with the tour but it will only show the panorama on a '3D' page, ie: it's not around you, setting to fullscreen will only show it fullscreen on that page.
Also some buttons don't seem to work in that browser, zoom in/out are working, but for example the info button and sound on/off don't work. Those buttons work fine in standard Chrome.

I can disable the Oculus software (which is autostarted when you put the S6 phone into the Gear VR) by using 'Package Disabled Pro' and disabling vrsvc, then use the standard Chrome browser to go to the panorama page. I've added a hotspot with a Link Target URL to 'javascript:containerFullscreen();' with target '_self' but that doesn't seem to work with staring, it still needs to be clicked. I'm probably doing something wrong.

I've got a test (single stereo node) running here: http://www.3dv.nl/pano/Test/

UPDATE 2017-03-22: You can now download the VR Tourviewer for Android to watch Pano2VR tours on the GearVR
Last edited by 3DV on Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ruud van Reenen
3DV - Real estate artist impressions and animations
VR Tourviewer - Experience Pano2VR tours on Oculus Go, Quest, Rift, Pico and Cardboard VR headsets
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3DV
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This is disappointing, when disabling the Oculus vrsvc to be able to be able to use the Chrome browser for true 360 panoramic viewing, the Gear's sensors aren't used anymore so tracking relies on the Galaxy S6 gyro sensor, which is noticably worse.

Is there no way to use the high quality gyro of the Gear with the functionality of an Android Chrome or Firefox browser to be able to view Pano2VR panoramas?
Ruud van Reenen
3DV - Real estate artist impressions and animations
VR Tourviewer - Experience Pano2VR tours on Oculus Go, Quest, Rift, Pico and Cardboard VR headsets
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Svendus
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it is running nicely on my iPhone 6 IOS 9.2
Safari,Chrome Browser and Firefox
Note: full Screen button do not function in IOS
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3DV
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Hi Svendus,

In general it is running nicely on my Samsung Galaxy S6 too, although sometimes some jerky movement or 'laggy' response to the devices rotation can be seen. The iPhones gyro might be better than the S6's, that I don't know.

But with the Gear VR you are extremely close to the image, you're standing in the middle of it, so you notice even a minor inaccuracy of the phone's sensors.
When a panorama image (jpg) is viewed using the Oculus 360 Photo software, the gyro of the Gear VR itself is used, which is extremely accurate.
Ruud van Reenen
3DV - Real estate artist impressions and animations
VR Tourviewer - Experience Pano2VR tours on Oculus Go, Quest, Rift, Pico and Cardboard VR headsets
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360Texas
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In your first comment you mentioned a need to show your clients your panorama work.

As an alternate approach, you can use your installed Firefox browser, and put your multinode/ single node panorama on a flash thumb drive. Use your smartphone MYFILES browse to your panorama project and tap on filename.HTML and it will play on your smartphone.

Of course this not a substitute for using gear VR head gear.
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360Texas
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Found a way - single pano specific size, no skin, no multi res, no hotspots etc

see other thread here in pano2vr forum

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10792
Dave
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3DV
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Inspired by the lack of a good VR tourviewer I'm designing an Android app to view Pano2VR tours for the Samsung Gear: VR Tourviewer
It's in alpha stage now, meaning it's used for testing basic functionality and still misses a lot of features.

Users of this forum can join in testing this app.
Due to Oculus restrictions a specific device ID (use this app to find out your device ID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... vrdeviceid) is needed to run the app.
If you're interested in testing this app, send me a private message containing your device ID, email address and the url to an xml file you want to test. I'll send you download and installation instructions (probably within 2 business days). In the app, the url to the xml file will be linked to your device ID, the xml file is loaded dynamically. So you can simply make changes to the xml file whenever you want and restart the app to see the changes. Note that this app is in a testing stage, no guarantees whatsoever can be given about it's performance.

Pano2VR output:
- Currently it only supports stereo pairs, but you can simply use one image for both eyes if you only have monoscopic panoramic images. Support for monoscopic tours will be added very soon.
- Use output to HTML5, with the cardboard.ggsk (or stare.ggsk) skin, in 'HTML' settings click the Tools icon and check 'Nodes are stereo pairs'.
- In HTML Output 'Image' use 'Single Res', for optimal results use Cube Face Size: 1536px (haven’t experimented with higher res images yet)
- The generated xml file will be used by the app to show the tour (the url to this xml file is used by the app)

Usage:
- The app uses gazing/staring for 2 seconds at a hotspot/menu item now, clicking on the Gear touchpad will be added for navigation later
- The ‘esc’ button on the Gear (above touchpad) brings up a menu to restart the current tour from the beginning, or start the demo if it’s not showing the demo already.
- The following features aren’t implemented (yet): polygon hotspots, sounds, images, videos, skins, auto rotation (would cause instant nausea), auto change, transitions (nausea alarm too), context menu, control, preview

The following is planned:
- Setting initial view of panorama (<view> pannorth and/or <view><start> pan)
- Usage of the Gear touchpad for navigation/menu control
- Support for background and directional sounds
- Support for polygon hotspots
- Support for additional lensflare types, now only one type (a default Asset in Unity) is used, the OpenGL code is abracadabra to me :-)
- Improving errorhandling, there’s only some really rough handling of a few XML loading/parsing errors now
- Improving UI graphics
- Improving performance

Notes:
The in-app demo (browser version here: http://www.3dv.nl/pano/_demo/index.html) contains a few panorama’s I’ve rendered, two of them are in stereo: ‘Houses in Vianen’ and ‘Office space’.
Note: in ‘Villas – Zeist’ you have to look down to find the hotspot that links back to ‘Houses – Vianen’.

Any and all comments, remarks, ideas and bugreports are more than welcome!

(Note to moderator: I hope this post is allowed in this thread, feel free to move it to Commercial Offerings if it shouldn't be here.)
Ruud van Reenen
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ChadG
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I registered here just to show you support for this. I got my Gear VR with my S7 Edge and I can't believe it's this hard to make your own 360 degree photos and put them on the Gear VR. Obviously I can do it with the cardboard app or something, but I want high quality photos with a DSLR. If you made an android app that works with the Gear VR, you'd have at least one customer =)
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360Texas
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Its not that difficult now with the samsung Internet Browser. It is possible to use Gear VR with your new Samsung Galaxy s7 curve and Samsung Internet browser to browse the internet. Means you can browse to your own website and view your own panoramas. And yes, we take panoramas using a Canon 5D/ Sigma 8mm fisheye lens and Ricoh's THETA-S found at http://theta360.com
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3DV
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While I can use Samsung Internet Browser to goto a website and show a Pano2VR panorama, I can't make it go fullscreen/all around you/immersive. How do you do that? Do you have an example of a webaddress with a tour that does open fullscreen?

Another issue: until Pano2VR supports WebVR, only the phone sensors are used, the Gear sensors are a lot more precise which makes viewing more comfortable.
Ruud van Reenen
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360Texas
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Too many browsers and panorama confusion factor. :oops:

I see in the Gear VR Oculus software the newest version of Samsung Internet Browser (SIB) has done away with (or I can't find it) the feature for selecting - 2D, 3D, side by side etc setting. Also the Purple SIB has been replaced with a new icon for SIB WHICH does not now have "FULL SCREEN" option. That changed the small projection screen to same thing only larger. Guess they are cleaning house.

I suspect I remember was the 360Photo. You can copy/paste your single panorama (ours is 10.7 mb) into the folder found on your s7 at folder YourPhone/Phone (storage) /Oculus /360Photos /My Images. Have not yet tried putting a 6 cubeface x1row horizontal strip. Then in the OCULUS select 360Photo icon.. and it comes up with a opportunity to select the generic flavors of panoramas or you can select FAVORITES and it will display your single equirectangle spherical panorama stored on your s7 folder. Now this one on your s7 phone is displayed full sphere with no stage or projection screen.

Of course... no hotspots, menus, or navigation. Now if Oculus would just let us put our Pano2vr project /output file set in that My Images folder.. that would really help.

Sorry about the confusion.
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3DV
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I've made a short screencapture of the Gear VR Tourviewer app that I'm developing.

Currently it supports hotspots/hotspot titles/lensflares (one type) and stereoscopic tours.
It uses output straight from Pano2VR, (HTML5 > Images > Single Res, with a 1536 tile size). The app only needs the url to the xml file that's generated by Pano2VR, it will then download all needed cubefaces automatically and place the hotspots and lensflares in the correct locations.

https://vimeo.com/ruudvanreenen/vrtourviewer
Ruud van Reenen
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IronWagen
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Hi!

I'm testing a panorama with the GearVR headset and Samsung Galaxy S6.. Every time I put the phone into the headset, it opens up some bullshit oculus app. How to disable it? Thanks!
I'm hesitant to uninstall the oculus app because the phone is my work phone.

I'm looking forward to testing your app, 3DV!
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3DV
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Hi IronWagen,

You can download an app called 'Package Disabler Pro', with it you can temporarily disable the Oculus Home app, to do this place a checkmark at 'vrsvc' (Gear VR service). Then you can watch a tour using the Chrome browser and put the phone into the Gear, it won't be interupted by Oculus Home then. The downside is that it doesn't use the Gear sensors then, so the experience is not as smooth and comfortable as when using a dedicated VR app.

The VR Tourviewer I'm developing doesn't have this drawback, it plays smooth and comfortable and doesn't need disabling of Oculus Home.
I've sent you an email with instructions on how to get the app.
Ruud van Reenen
3DV - Real estate artist impressions and animations
VR Tourviewer - Experience Pano2VR tours on Oculus Go, Quest, Rift, Pico and Cardboard VR headsets
Bostjan
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Just to join with the question... the VR tour prepared for the cardboard version seems fine with common cardboards but when using Gear VR and package disabler the perspective needs to be corrected. I there the future development to pick the needed projection - like it is with Krpano for cardboards? At the moment it is very annoying seeing the VT without the proper projection.
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