Week 2 - research

As part of our project we did some research on the QTVR technology, however, I felt that the other group members would be doing on the technology itself, therefore I decided to actually research on the supporting software. Basically Flash and Director, after Matt Simpson showed us a website using QTVR, the sydney opera house website was using Flash as a container and has QTVR as its tour.
However it is strange I discovered a whole code library in Director, that contorls QuickTime including QTVR, which includes Panning, Nudging, Zooming in/out. It does seem strange though, Flash 8 does not have a code library for QTVR, there is NO in built code that allows Flash 8 to do scripting on QTVR.
It does puzzle me though, since the opera house's website was done using Flash. However since the program I prefer it just seem to be better that way. Plus we don't have to download any plugins for Flash inorder to make it work, as not everybody might have that plugin, and since the code is in built already in Director a simple shockwave player could do the trick.

Other research also found that there are several software available in the market that does the stiching and QTVR at the same time. Which basically cut down our job by a fair bit.

Further research also shows that the effect produced be QTVR, can also be emulated by, both Flash and Director, thus the answer for the opera house being able to do it using Flash as a container. Plus by doing it this way, we're not only able to add a new layer of hotspots over the "QTVR" we are also able to use multiple "QTVR" windows and even different pop-up windows. Thus we were think of the possibility of something like an online feed from a webcam in selected lecture rooms.

Personally I think this form of research was rather interesting as not only did we find out a way to make the job more efficient, but also alternative ways to emulate the QTVR section on the project.