| Cylindrical
& Spherical Panoramas |
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Cylinder
pans create an experience for the viewer like they are
inside a cylinder. The image is centered on the
horizontal
axis and captures 42 to 45 degrees above and below the horizontal
plane. |
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Spherical
pans, on the other hand, appear to the viewer
to be taken from the perspective of the interior of a
sphere.
The user can look up and down as well as right and left. |
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| To
Navigate a tour |
"Hot
spotted" area map or panorama image:
Move the mouse cursor over the map or image until a text box describing
the "hot spot" appears in the bottom of the image. Click
on the "hot spot" to invoke the link
Text link under the image:
Select the next panorama you wish to view and click on the underlined
text link. |
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| How
the cursors work |
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When a cylindrical
pan displays this cursor, you can hold down the left mouse-button
and drag the image up & down, as well as right and left.
This type of cursor function is always available in the spherical
pans even though the cursor is not displayed. |
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Most of the
cylindrical pans have a floor plan or site plan associated with
them. When you place the cursor in the active area of the
floor plan (in 360° pans, the entire floor
plan is active. In pans less then 360°, the active area is
the sweep of the view cone.) the user can left click to instantly
re-orient the view to the direction indicated or hold down the
left mouse button and drag the image right or left. |
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If you place the
cursor in the scrolling image of a cylindrical pan , those
panoramas that have the zoom feature activated will see a white
bar with a green dot on the left side of the bar. Placing
the cursor on the bar brings up this pointing-finger cursor.
Hold down the left mouse button and you can zoom in or out of the
image as you drag the pointing finger along the bar. |
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This, of course,
means you should wait for the current operation to be completed
before you try to do anything else. |
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| Select
Larger Panorama |
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|
If
you have a thumbnail gallery of panoramas to choose from, place
the cursor over the thumbnail panorama and click to view
the full size panorama.
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| To
View an Image |
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|
To view
and navigate a panorama, place the cursor in the picture, hold
down the left mouse button and drag the image right or
left. In the plan view, place the cursor in the view field, hold down
the left mouse button and drag it around or position the cursor anywhere on the plan and click to move the view. |
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| To
View "Hot Spots" |
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If
"hot spots" are used in the panorama, press
the [SPACE] bar to toggle the "hot spots" on or off. |
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Zooming an image
with the Zoom Bar
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To
zoom an image, place the cursor anywhere in the scrolling image. Along the bottom of the image you will see a white bar with a green dot
on the left side of the bar. Place the cursor anywhere on the bar
and click. Hold down the left mouse button and pull the dot right
or left to zoom in or out of the image. |
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Zooming & scrolling an image
with the Control Pad
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 |
To
scroll the image left, place the cursor over the left arrow and
click the left mouse button. |
 |
To
scroll the image right, place the cursor over the right arrow and
click the left mouse button. |
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To
zoom in, place the cursor over the "+" symbol and hold down
the left mouse button. Release at any interval or hold for
full zoom. |
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To
zoom out, place the cursor over the "-" symbol and hold down
the left mouse button. Release at any interval or hold for
wide angle. |
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Some
of the Control Pads have buttons marked "County
Map". When these buttons are clicked the map will
change to the relative county map (or, in some cases, a larger
scale view). |
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To
return to the Site/Floor plan after the "County Map"
button has been accessed, click on the "Local Map"
button. |
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This
pad is displayed when satellite images of the virtual tour are
available. Click on number 1 through 5 to zoom the satellite
image. Resolutions are: 1 =32 meters, 2 =16 meters, 3 =8 meters, 4
=4 meters, 5 =2 meters |
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| "Hotspot"
Links on the Floor/Site plan |
 |
When there are
visible "hotspots" on the Floor/Site plan, you can move the
cursor over the "hotspot" (the cursor turns to a pointing
finger icon) and its link will show up in a text bar at the bottom of
the map. Click to got to the linked page.
This is a
navigation option. Rather than return to the index page to access
other panoramas in the virtual tour series, the user can use this
interactive Floor/Site plan. |
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| Accessing
the full-sized satellite images |
|
Where applicable,
satellite images that can be zoomed to one of 5 resolutions will have
access to the full-sized USGS satellite image that the displayed image
is derived from. Occasionally, the larger image reveals an
interesting context.
To access
available full-sized images, move the cursor towards the center point
(the yellow dot) of the field of view. Click on the
"hotspot" if the text bar at the bottom of the Floor/Site plan
prompts you as shown.
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| VCR Controls
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The
graphical VCR controls control direction & speed of the scrolling
image.
Click the square to stop.
Click a single arrow, left or
right, for normal scroll in that direction.
Click a double arrow, left or right, to double
the scroll speed in that direction. |
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| Page
Navigation Controls |
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| Spherical
Panorama Controls |
|
Spherical pans are
similar to cylindrical pans in how they are controlled.
Place the cursor in the image, hold down the left mouse button and
pull the image right or left, up or down. The image will
scroll as if you are inside a sphere observing the scene.
In the lower right
corner of the display window are the display controls.
Button #1 starts the image scrolling. Button #2 stops the
scrolling. Button #3 zooms in on the image. Button #4
zooms the image back out. Button #5 is unused. Button
#6 resets the image, zoom and start position.
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| Issues
with AOL |
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|
If you are experiencing flickering images as the
panorama loads and scrolls, you may need to turn OFF
the Compressed Graphics setting of the AOL
software.
To turn off the graphic compression feature of AOL:
In pre-6.0 AOL software go to:
My AOL...
Settings...
Preferences...
www...
Uncheck the
box that says "Use compressed graphics"
In 6.0 or later go to:
Settings...
Preferences...
www...
Advanced...
Uncheck the
box that says "Use compressed graphics" |
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| Upgrade
Internet Explorer |
 |
The latest Java programming
language runs the display of the panoramas. To ensure smooth
scrolling and image loading it is recommended that you upgrade to
the latest version
of Internet Explorer. It is available free at this
website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ |
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JAVA
Sun Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
Microsoft had to take down their virtual machine
because of some legal issues. As a replacement, you can use Sun
Microsystem's version.
Automatic Download and Installation (for Windows
XP, Me, NT, 2000, or 98 and Internet Explorer)
Click to begin: Java
Virtual Machine Download Page
This is an automatic download and install.
If your system does not support this updating process please click here:
how to manually
download and install.
It is almost as fast and easy to do it manually.
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