[Openpanorama-info] Re: XML panorama file format

[Mathieu VILLEGAS]

Joost

Thanks for your suggestions.
I will try to answer you to clarify few points.
First of all,  a viewer will have to support only "panoramic image" and 
"mapping image" specs (and for mapping images, he can support only jpeg 
or gif for example). All other information are optionnal, because the 
viewer will be able to display the panorama and it's the more important 
thing.

I think, that a scripting language is important in the viewer. For 
example, the Hemut dersch's java viewer (PTViewer) can launch actions 
sequencialy which can access to functionnality or objects. The 
ImmerVison's viewer do the same thing. This is a very simple langage (no 
if or loop, etc...), but its a scripting language very useful to improve 
interactivity. The question is to know if we want a more powerfull 
scripting language (with if, loops, additions, etc..) or not. It's 
important to keep in mind that we want a simple system and the goal is 
not to make a scripting language as complex as Javascript or VBscript. 
The goal is only to access some functionnalities in the viewer.

My point of view for the GUI is the same. The goal is to have a very 
basic and simple system. Just enough to create a button to show or hide 
hotspots for example, and not to create real complex interface. I 
understand that you probably don't understand why I want to put GUI data 
in  the file format, but after using viewers like PTViewer or 
ImmerVision one with advanced features, you will quickly saw that it can 
be usefull.
I think we will need the point of view of other contributors to take the 
right decision.

For the combo box suggestion, I think it should be good if you can 
explain it more cleraly, with giving an example of how you think it 
should work.

For the "Two general projections", it was an idea I did not want to 
support in fact (to complex, or not really what panoramic imaging need), 
but I leave it in the document, because it was an idea we had to talk 
about. Because of you seems to be agree with me, I've removed it from 
the document now.

For the cubic panorama with only one mapping, it's possible to do that 
with the flat mapping. I've updated documents to show it more clearly. 
With one mapping and 6 rectangles, you can define a cubic panorama.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and comments. I think it's a good 
start for future constructive discussions.

I'm impatient to have your comments about this mail.

Mathieu Villegas

Joost Nieuwenhuijse wrote:

> Mathieu,
>
> I've quickly browsed through your documents. It seems a good starting
> point, but it looks a bit too heavy to me. Don't try to reinvent the
> wheel - or the web. Define which parts of the specs a viewer application
> MUST support and which are OPTIONAL.
>
> For example: you include a scripting language as part of your
> specification. Since there are already several scripting languages
> around, such as Javascript and Vbscript, I think it would be much better
> to only define some kind of 'Object Model', and leave the actual
> scripting language outside the specification.
>
> Just like with HTML documents: the DOM specifies the names of the
> objects and the names and parameters of the functions, but it does not
> define the actual language. So in an HTML document you can write
>
>  if(a==1) document.frame1.location="http://something";;
>
> in  Javascript, and
>
>  If A = 1 Then document.frame1.location="http://something";
>
> in VBScript.
>
> Same point with the GUI specs: I think it would be wise to leave this
> out of the spec, because it will be an endless discussion.
>
> For the navigation: give each panorama a 'description' parameter and
> leave it up to the viewer software to include a combobox for navigation.
> Perhaps this might be enabled or disabled by the author.
>
> Projections: the two 'general' projections are way beyond IMO. On the
> other hand, I think it would be useful to have some kind of 'cubic'
> projection, with all 6 cube faces embedded in a single file (instead of
> 6 separate files).
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Joost
>
>
>