PURE Player PRO for Java User Guide

1. Introduction

1.1 Welcome!

ImmerVision’s multimedia solutions are built around PURE (Panorama Universal Rendering Engine) technology. Available only with ImmerVision software, this exclusive technology has expanded the horizons for multimedia content creators working with panoramic imagery.

PURE Player panoramic image viewers combine superior performance capabilities with optimal viewing ease on either a standard office PC monitor or a pocket computer.

PURE TOOLS is a highly evolved suite of tools that lets you take full advantage of the innovative functionalities of PURE Player and PURE Player PRO panorama viewers. These tools include a range of functionalities for both professionals and amateurs to work with, including the options to:

Edit panoramas: Convert formats, add effects, create virtual visits
Publish panoramas: Create Web pages, package files, encrypt data
View panoramas: Directly access the most recent PURE Player and PURE Player PRO viewers, customize the PURE Player PRO viewer, and more.

1.2 What is PURE?

PURE is a collection of high-performance algorithms dedicated to projecting, controlling and viewing photos and videos in a virtual 3D space. Accessible through its own API, PURE is featured in all ImmerVision new-generation viewers, in order to guarantee top performance levels and maximum quality results with all compatible platforms.

1.3 System requirements

The system requirements to run PURE Player PRO for Java is to have a Java Virtual Machine installed and web browser with the Java plug-in enabled. You can download and install the latest version of the JVM from Sun here: www.java.com

1.4 Supported files types

PURE Player PRO for Java can display all IVP files (packaged) created with Package Maker or Panorama Filemaker which are provided in the PURE STARTER TOOLKIT software suite. You can find more information about these programs here.

PURE Player PRO for Java also supports custom user interfaces ( IVU files ). These custom user interfaces are packaged in IVU files. You can learn more about creating your own custom user interfaces in the IVP Reference guide, available here.

Additionally, PURE Player PRO for Java is compatible with unpackaged IVP files. This feature is useful for debugging your panoramas.

PURE Player for Java also supports IVP panoramas encrypted with Package Crypter.

2. Using PURE Player

2.1 The PURE Player user interface

By default, PURE Player PRO for Java does not include a user interface. If you do not want to create your own custom user interface, you can always use any of the PURE Player user interfaces available from our download page, in the Samples section. The following example shows how to use PURE Player PRO for Java with the Standard PURE Player user interface.

You can learn more about creating your own user interfaces in the IVP reference guide also available on our downloads page.

Moving inside a panorama is very easy. Just click and hold your mouse's left button and move the mouse in the direction you want to see. You can zoom in or out by clicking and holding the right mouse button and moving your mouse. The zoom functions can also be accessed in two other ways, either by using the Shift key to zoom in, and the Control key to zoom out, or by using your mouse scroll wheel.

This image has active zones

3. Webpage integration

3.1 PURE Player files

One of the main concepts behind PURE Player is the clean separation between the panorama and the PURE Player viewer. The panorama and its metadata ( GPS, field-of-view, copyright,... ) are all contained in a single IVP file. This IVP file can be displayed with any of the free PURE Player viewers.

There are many advantages to this architecture such as better performance and more flexibility.

The IVP is the panorama itself with its meta-data ( gps, field-of-view, author and copyright notices )

3.2 Displaying a panorama

To launch the PURE Player for Java viewer in you webpage, you need to create an applet in a web browser with the Java plug-in enabled.

Your HTML will look like the following code :

					
<applet
 code=
"PurePlayer"
 archive=
"PurePlayer.jar"
 width=
"400"height=
"240"
 name=
"myApplet" 
	mayscript>
		<param
 name=
"panorama"
 value=
"myPano.ivp"/>
		<param
 name=
"gui"
 value=
"myGui.ivu"/>
</applet>

The basic set of parameters used in the above example set the width of the viewer to 400 pixels, the height to 240 pixels, the user interface is myGui.ivu, and the panorama is myPano.ivp .

You can specify more parameters by using the format in this example:

									
<param 
name=
"antialiasing"
 value=
"onstop"
 />

The above example sets the antialiasing to onstop.

3.3 PURE Player parameters

You can customize the PURE Player viewing experience by setting the following parameters:

panorama (required):

This parameter is the relative path to the IVP file that you want to display.

Possible values:

"path/to/my/panorama.ivp"

antialiasing (optional):

This parameter allows you to define how you want to use antialiasing for your panoramas.

Possible values:

"none" : no antialiasing.
"onstop" : antialiasing when mouse is released. (default value)

quality (optional):

This setting changes the number of polygons the rendering engine uses. The higher the number, the more precise and smooth the image will be. This however represents more work for your processor and therefore limits the speed of the rendering.

Possible values:

integers from 100 to 1000

The default value is 100. For optimum results, use a value of 200.

fullscreen (optional):

This parameter allows you to open your panoramas directly in fullscreen mode.

Possible values:

true or false

The default value is false.

singlepanorama (optional):

This parameter is useful when displaying a single, large panorama as it manages available memory more efficiently. If you need to display more than one panorama in a single webpage, you must set this paramater to false.

Possible values:

true or false

The default value is false.

usecache (optional):

This parameter determines which caching mecanism is used. The current versions of the Java Virtual Machine ( v 1.3 and up ) have their own internal caching system to boost performance. PURE Player for Java also has its own internal caching system.

When setting this parameter to smart, PURE Player for Java will use the JVM caching if the version is above 1.3. If it is not, PURE Player for Java will use its own caching system.

Possible values:

smart, true or false

The default value is smart.

bgcolor (optional):

This parameter changes the default background color of the viewer. Transparency is also supported.

Possible values:

"0x8055ff55" : green (55ff55) background with a transparency of 50% (80)

The default value is 0xffffffff (white with no transparency).

hidegui (optional):

This parameter changes the default background color of the viewer. Transparency is also supported.

Possible values:

"true" : hide the PURE Player user interface.
"false" : display the PURE Player user interface. (default value)

mousespeed (optional):

This parameter changes the sensitivity of the mouse. The value is a percentage of the default speed.

Possible values:

"50" : the value is a float percentage of the default mouse speed

smoothstop (optional):

This parameter allows you to configure the slow down speed of the movement when you release the mouse.

Possible values:

float between 0 and 500

128 is the default value. Set it to 0 to disable it.

mayscript (optional):

This parameter activates the communication between PURE Player for Java and JavaScript.

To enable this feature, add the mayscript tag at the end of the applet opening tag:

<applet mayscript>

3.4 Deployment best practices

This section includes a set of best practices that make deploying IVP panoramas with PURE Player an easier task. These best practices also promote the best viewing experience for your users.

On the server:

It is important to ensure that your web server is configured to handle the IVP MIME types correctly. In the case of the popular Apache webserver, you will need to include these lines in the relevant configuration file (httpd.conf or apache2.conf) :

AddType application/vnd.immervision-ivp
AddType application/vnd.immervision-ivu

Another useful consideration is to keep the PurePlayerPro.jar file above your IVP panoramas in the folder hierarchy. The security permissions management on certain platforms prevents PURE Player PRO for Java from accessing content located above the PurePlayerPro.jar file .

/html/PurePlayerPro.jar
/html/panoramas/mypano.ivp
/html/panoramas/mygui.ivp