wwp@yahoogroups.com:
WWP on Linux!
yuval levy 2007-Jul-05 03:13:00
95% of the current WWP event is available for Linux
users, even if QuickTime is not available for Linux!
Here is a list of the entries that do not work,
followed by some thoughts on how to make your content
accessible to the widest audience and instructions for
Linux users.
First, a list of the 5% entries that do NOT work, with
analysis.
1. JPEG decoding failed. Reason: the author has
probably used one of the many exotic codecs available
in QuickTime (H.264 has been popular of late).
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/ThijsBerkman...>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/AlfredBrock....>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/JohnDotta.ht...>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/AleksandarJa...>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/InakiRezola....>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/MichelThoby....>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/JerzyZamora....>
RECOMMENDATION: to ensure that you content survives
beyond QuickTime, use open, widely available standards
such as JPEG.
2. Failed at some stage of loading, decoding, or just
hanging. Reason: under investigation. Likely to be
bugs in freepv that will be investigated soon.
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/LuciaBazan.h...>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/AndreyKharuk...>
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/ReinhardSchm...>
3. Weird output due to sprite
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/GiancarloDeL...>
4. there was only one ObjectVR in this edition.
Theoretically the totem player, widely available in
Linux, should play ObjectVRs, but I had some problems,
which are most likely related to my Linux install.
<http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwidepanorama/wwp607/html/IanKerr.html>
So what is this all about?
freepv is a community project started two years ago.
Frustrated by the limitations and dependencies of
existing VR technology on the web, Thomas Rauscher,
Fulvio Senore, et. al. set out to write a universal
viewer. QuickTime support was added by Pablo d'Angelo
in September 2006 - motivated by the lack of QTVR
support in Linux. The project has become more active
recently. Leon Moctezuma, a Google Summer of Code
student mentored by Aldo Hoeben, is adding SPi-V
support and cleaning/extending QTVR support.
Why should you care? Linux still represent a small,
nearly negligeable quantity of internet users, but
freepv can and will be available also on other
platforms. It is a lightweight, focused alternative
where panoramas have center stage and are not
sacrificed to other interest. Most important of it
all, it is open source, which means that everybody who
want to can modify it (or just keep it as it is). If
it will die, it will be from lack of interest in the
public, and not from a business decision to stop
supporting it.
Enshrining your content in a specific format, whether
it is JPG or QTVR, effectively binds you to that
format. And if support for that format stops, your
content is lost - unless you can take control of that
format, and this is what open source gives you.
Think of the content/stories enshrined in Egyptian
hieroglyphs that went lost for generations until
skilled archeologs decided to revive it, with big
effort.
To revive a proprietary code takes a lot of effort,
while to revive open source only takes the time and
skills to read and understand it.
Using a widely supported, open, easy to implement
format will ensure the survival of your content!
Thank you for reading so far, and for using widely
adopted standards such as JPEG compression for your
QTVRs in the future.
And for those who have Linux, specifically Ubuntu,
here are the instructions. The viewer is a week or two
away from being able to display simple SPi-V panoramas
as well:
<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/message/10772>
And for those who want to try it, it cost nothing and
it is a great experience: <http://www.ubuntu.com/> -
the most user friendly linux distribution ever.
Yuv
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