Pulsing arrow gif

EDevey · Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:04 pm

Hi,
I can't seem to import a gif into a skin. I have an animated gif of a pulsing arrow that I want to use as a hotspot but cannot import the file type 'gif'. I have searched the forum but only find mentions of using an 'external loader'. I don't know what that means. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

hum@no.id · Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:01 pm

"external" element in Skin Editor for adding external images or SWF

EDevey · Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:30 pm

So, if I host a gif on website, I can call upon that and it will load into the tour? Seems too easy.

EDevey · Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:14 pm

I cannot say I am surprised, I have hosted a gif and used it in the skin, as a hotspot image, with the absolute URL but it does not load. Can anyone please tell me if there are any known pitfalls using this kind of thing?

Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:43 pm

Hi,
Please find attached a project that is using and animated hotspot and to cover all questions I have added a SWF and GIF.
The project has Flash and HTML5 outputs.

First the Flash, you can simply drag and drop in the SWF and then use it as the hotspots image. As this will be small you don't need to externally load it.
However a GIF just dropped into the skin will display but will not animate. To do this you will see there is an external loader, then the loader has the file path to the GIF, in this case a copy of the GIF in the output folder.

I am using the one skin, so I have selected that the GIF not to be used in Flash and the SWF file not to be used in HTML5.

If you had a SWF that you wanted to be externally loaded for whatever reason then you would do as I have done for the GIF, copy it to the output folder and then set the file path to point to the SWF.
Regards,
Hopki

EDevey · Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:46 pm

That is really kind of you Hopki, thanks. I will have a look at this tonight.

Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:27 am

To finish it off, set 3D Distortion under Hotspot Template.
This will pin the animated SWF/GIF to the pano which means it will distort with the pano with rotation and scales with zoom.
Regards,
Hopki

EDevey · Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:46 am

I am sorry to report that though I can play your demo files, when I make my own files following your example explicity but with my own pano and animated gif, the gif remains invisible. What can I be doing wrong?

EDevey · Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:15 pm

As the latest test, I duplicated your folder and substituted my gif for your (renaming it to suit) then ran your P2VR files to re-generate the files. My gif is not visible. My gif seems to be the problem but it works OK elswhere. I have posted it here for you to see 46thpreston dot org dot uk / hotspotgif

I think I will now the other way round, putting your gif in my program and see if it works that way.

EDevey · Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:38 pm

I have now cunducted a test the other way around. i.e. Using your gif re-namd in my program and still it did not become visible, however the loading bar started but stopped at zero. Suspecting this may be the cause I deleted the loading bar (it was there from the original standard skin that I modified). Tried again but still no luck. That is all my ideas spent now. I really don't know what to try next. To recap;
1. Your demo your gif - works
2. Your demo my gif - does not work
3. My program my gif - does not work
4. My program your gif - does not work

EDevey · Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:36 pm

Phew! At last. Problem solved. Your instructions were perfect, I had just missed the bit about placing copies of the swf and gif in the output folder.
Thanks for your help as always.

Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:57 pm

Glad you got it sorted.
Regards,
Hopki