Return to Menu

Virtual Reality On the Web

Imagine visiting a web site featuring a beautiful Hawaiian beach scene of surf, sand, and swaying palms. Beautiful indeed. But you wish you could turn the camera so you could look up or down the beach, behind you, or perhaps overhead. All of this is possible using virtual reality (VR) software such as QuickTimeVR (QTVR) offered by Apple and compatible with all computer platforms.

There are two types of VR - panoramas and objects. The panorama places the viewer in the center of a space. These simulated 360 degree environments allow one to take a visitor on a tour of an historical building, hotel, or other site. Hot buttons facilitate one's ability to move from one room or location to another. Sound adds yet another dimension of involvement in the virtual.

The object VR allows you to view an object as if you were rotating it in your hand. You can examine a small piece of jewelry, a piece of sculpture, or other object.

Virtual environments are created using either photographic images or 3D software. The principle task is to take a number photographs in a 360º circle and stitching them together with VR software. As simple as that sounds it's quite a powerful photographic technique, which gives the end users a sense of actually being on location.

VR is currently used in a variety of situations including education, science, and the tourist and real estate business as examples. A destination resort can be explored and rooms and suites selected before a client even leaves home. Museums such as the Mueller-Schmidt house in Dodge City use VR to allow online viewers to visit the facility without traveling all the way to Kansas (this particular site was designed by Peter Monterubio, Proscenia Adjunct.)

There are a number of VR players. Of these Apple Computer's QuickTimeVR PTViewer is one of the best and is currently the industry standard for virtual tours. There are some Java players but critics note limitations.

Resources:

QuickTime VR Online Tutor is a self-paced course in creating QTVR panoramas, objects, and scenes. Key concepts include: understanding the photographic and geometric principles which underlie immersive imaging; familiarity with the nuances of QTVR development processes; and paying close attention to details. This course will help you develop and acquire these skills for creating QTVR media.

QuickTime VR Tutorials - Apple has provided a database of basic, interactive, and delivery tutorials that are well designed to get you using the software effectively.

The QTVR Tutorial Site contains information about how to use Apple's QuickTime VR with
Director and on the WWW.

QuickTime Virtual Reality. This site designed for "educators and just plain folk" is a rich collection of tips and ideas on how to work with VR.

Getting Started with VR. Nice introductory tutorial to techniques and equipment needed to create VR.

International QuickTime VR Association. An international organization of professionals who create and produce interactive, immersive images, that tell a story in a more dynamic way. Members include professional photographers, multimedia and web developers, artists, enthusiasts, students, and companies that support our technology with software and hardware.

Examples:

PanoScan. A commercial production company site with a portfolio of examples worth exploring.

Virtually Vancouver. Click on a map of Vancouver, B.C. and take a panoramic look at the location you want to visit.

Cubic VR With this option it allows a user or viewer to experience 6D instead of just 3D panoramics. In other words, up ,down and all sides. Uses images created with 3D software.

360 Tours. Market Pix, a Seattle based company, has a portfolio of VR tours on their web site. Also of interest is the rate scale they provide for clients who want panoramic images.

Mulcahys Long Island Pub.This is a nice interior example of a 360 degree panorama. I think it might have been a better "sales" promotion to actually have the pub with people - but this does show the facilities and what can be done with an inside shoot.

CN Tower Toronto. Here's one of my favorite places to be in a thunder storm. High above the city of Toronto you have a panoramic view of the city and the Great Lakes beyond.