TAPESTRY: The Art of Representation and Abstraction
The Web: Quicktime VR
What's it all About?
Dynamic interaction between the user and the computer is a highly-valuable feature. If media can be produced which allow the user to have some control, the experience is generally considered superior to that available from playing a movie.The challenge, of course, if producing interaction with small (quickly downloadable) files and (possibly) slow computers. Several approaches have been developed to address this problem. One of these was created by Apple Computer and is called QuickTime VR (virtual reality). QTVR isn't a full VR environment in the sense that users do not have full navigational freedom, but it can be used to create convincing interactive environments, using either video imagery, still photography, or synthetic (rendered) images.
QTVR content takes one of two forms, both of which are called "movies". A QuickTime panorama (or "pano") movie can be thought of as a 2D image wrapped around the inside of a cylinder, with the viewer's head located in the center of the cylinder. Controls allow them to turn left or right, and to look up and down (to some extent).
QuickTime object movies, by contrast, combine a collection of renderings of an object, as seen from a spherical array of positions around the object. Controls allow the user to rotate the object and view it from any of the pre-calculated viewpoints.
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To see how one interacts with these media, click near the middle of either image and then drag the cursor towards the edges. To zoom in, hold "shift", to zoom out hold "control".
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QTVR and form-Z
Form-Z is capable of generating both types of QTVR movie. Look under File > Save QuickTime VR .... Both of the above movies were created using form-Z.QTVR and HTML
QTVR movies are included in your HTML file using tags such as
<embed src=interior.mov width=160 height=120>
Last updated: April, 2014
