Scrolling Panoramas for the Challenged Video Card

[Lin Evans]

Some may remember back several months ago when I demonstrated how to do a 360 by about 120 degree panorama with PTE. It involved careful creation of the original panorama by stitching multiple overlapping frames with the last frame being identical to the first and the entire stitch covering 360 degrees. This, of course, created a very wide panorams consisting of numerous stitched images and a quite large file.

Those with sufficient resources in terms of video GPU power, could do this without any problem, but even seeing this on a resource challenged system was problematical.

There is a way, however, for such a pano to be viewed on a less than optimal system. It requires that the user either have or have available a version of Photoshop which has the "slice" feature.

I can't speak for earlier version than CS, but at least since Photoshop 8 (CS) the slice feature can automatically divide a huge panorama into equally wide divisions. I've found that slicing into 10 individual jpgs works very well.

Once you have created the panorama and cropped it to a perfect rectangle, open Photoshop and choose the "slice" tool. On some versions you will find it behind the "crop" tool and available by using the "alt" key to click on the crop tool until an icon of a "knife" is seen.

Load the panorama, left click on the "slice" icon then right click on the panorama. From the ensuing menu choose "divide slice" and set the "Vertical" to 10 slices evenly spaced.

Next click on "File" (at the top left on the menu task bar) and then on "Save for Web." You will get a warning message stating that the image size exceeds the limits which save for web was designed for, etc... Go ahead and do it anyway because you will very likely not have any problems.

Next, Image Ready will open and after a few seconds (see the gas gage) you will see a window offering four tabs at the top. Click on Original then change appropriate settings from the GIF default to JPG and save your 10 images to a folder of your choice.

Exit Image Ready and Photoshop.

Open PTE and load the 10 images. Next open Project Options and click on the "Main" tab. Set the "Time Interval on Slides" to 12 seconds and click on the "Set for Existing Slides" button.

Next click on the "Effects" button and activate "only" the "Push Effect Right-Left" and be certain no other effects are active. Use the little icon at the far right top of the screen to turn off all effects then activate only this one. Set the "Effect Duration" to 12,000 ms (twelve seconds). This effectively keeps the image scrolling continually.

So to this point you have created a pano, sliced it into 10 equal portions, saved as jpgs, loaded these into PTE, set the effects to "push right-left," set the time for each slide display to 12 seconds and the effect time also to 12 seconds (12,000 ms).

The next step is very important: Go to the Objects and Animations screen and click on the Properties Tab. Place a check mark (click on) Low Quality of Resizing for each of your 10 images. Also, it's a good idea to check "Mipmapping" to help with potential flicker. If you don't check the Low Quality of Resizing, there will be a thin vertical line at the point where otherwise a perfect "join" of adjacent images will take place.

Next load image 1 again at the very start of images and set this slide with individual fade-in, fade-out and about 5 seconds of display time. This will give you the first image displayed for about five seconds before scrolling begins.

Next load image 10 again at the end of the show and set the display time to about 6 seconds and the effect to fade in/fade out for about 4 seconds. This will prevent the show from immediately ceasing as the last slide finishes scrolling across the screen.

Add any image at the very end of the show. Add a black rectangle and set the time for about 5 seconds. Now DELETE the image you just added at the end leaving only the black rectangle. Set the effect to fade in/fade out for the rectangle and the duration to about 3 seconds. This will effectively fade out the last image after it pauses.

Save your work the open it up and preview. You will get a very nice continuous pano scroll just as if you had the full single panorama loaded. There will be no apparent break at all between images, no thin vertical line and you will be able to play the pano on your resource challenged system.

Even Patrick can play it on his system - LOL.

The down side is you can't zoom or scroll up or down, etc., like you could with a full single file panorama, but you can use this method even for smaller panoramas which are too large to easily handle with limited resources.

Here's a sample - less than 6 meg zipped exe:

http://www.learntoma...osliceddemo.zip

Suggestions: Don't oversharpen images for pano scrolling, don't be concerned that at the end the stop is a bit "abrupt" because you really can't control the smoothness like you can with a single frame image. Also don't be too critical of my example which was "quick and dirty" and not the best images in the world. These were taken before sunup in a hurry and some are too sharp causing "glitter" etc. When done with a really good pano, this can be an excellent way of displaying it.

You may also place such a pano in the midst of other slides handled conventionally and while the pano is still scrolling near the end, go to the next slide to avoid a bit jerky end.....

Best regards,

Lin

Addendum - It appears that this method will only work properly (without fine vertical join lines) on systems using the same aspect ratio (in this case 4:3) on which the show was developed for. So the utility is limited. The join lines will also be visible should one create an MP4, DVD, etc., so just consider it experimental for the time being.

[Ken Cox]

LIN

very slight jerkiness to area past the herd - once it gets to the pole fence it becomes smooth as silk

ken

[mightec]

Lin

I have just downloaded and played the file, it plays very well, very smooth. My only observation was a vertical flashing line at what I assume is the intersection between each of the 10 slices.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,That's interesting - I can't see it, but could see it when not using "Low Quality of Resizing." What type display are you using? Is it a CRT or LCD? That "could" make a difference I suppose. Also what resolution is your screen set for?

One other thing - which video card are you using? I just checked it on my wife's LCD screen with a different video card and can't see any vertical lines there either so it would be nice to find out what is different about your individual system.

Thanks,Lin

My only observation was a vertical flashing line at what I assume is the intersection between each of the 10 slices.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for testing! I'm not sure why it would be any different - all images are identical in size and such, but who knows?

Do you see any vertical lines between frames like Mike does? I could experiment with "Thickness of Smoothing Line" but I'm not certain whether or not it even applies to the "Push" transition.

Best regards,

Lin

LIN

very slight jerkiness to area past the herd - once it gets to the pole fence it becomes smooth as silk

ken

[mightec]

Hi Lin

My monitor is a GNR TB2200W running with a resolution of 1680 by 1050 and the video card is GeForce 9500GT.

[davegee]

Could the line that you see be possibly related to JPD's argument re the loss of "original mode"?

It is possible that, if your monitor were set identically to Lin's, this line would not appear?

Just a thought and IMO.

DaveG

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

Nothing jumps out at me which would cause the lines to show. Are they really "fine" vertical lines, or broad lines? I can see them on the mini-viewer when I play the show, but not on any of my displays or other computers. Obviously, there is something which makes them appear on your system, but it isn't readily apparent what it might be.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dave,

It could be related. I remember somewhere back in the recesses of my neurons that Igor mentioned the "Low Quality of Resize" as a correction for this and I "could" see them before checking the box for each slide. I'll have to test at various other resolutions and see if I can duplicate the problem.

I have one monitor set to 1024x768 right now but just tested at 1600x1200 and no trace of lines. It's a mystery. Perhaps more people will test it and we can see if it's isolated to something common to Mike's system components.

Best regards,

Lin

[Ken Cox]

Hi Dave,

It could be related. I remember somewhere back in the recesses of my neurons that Igor mentioned the "Low Quality of Resize" as a correction for this and I "could" see them before checking the box for each slide. I'll have to test at various other resolutions and see if I can duplicate the problem.

I have one monitor set to 1024x768 right now but just tested at 1600x1200 and no trace of lines. It's a mystery. Perhaps more people will test it and we can see if it's isolated to something common to Mike's system components.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin

ran fine this morning - no splices evident - guess vid card was tired - it had been a long day

ken

[davegee]

Lin,

You rescaled 4:3 to 4:3.

Mike has a 16:10 monitor (1680x1050).

The rescaling involves percentages and consequent errors.

Mike did not say if it ran "FULLSCREEN" (height).

DaveG

[Esc]

Hi Lin!

Spec:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 2.00 GHz, 3.00 BG RAM

NVDIA GeForce 8400GS

Samsung SyncMaster 206BW/SyncMaster Magic CX206BW (Digital)

Test:

1280x1050 - black ribbon up and down, left and right

lines showing between pictures

some jerk

1600x900 - black ribbon up and down, left and right

lines showing between pictures

smooth

1280x1024 - black ribbon up and down

smooth

1280x960 - black ribbon up and down

smooth

1152x864 - black ribbon up and down

jerk

1024x768 - black ribbon up and down

smooth

/Lennart

[mightec]

Lin/DaveG

I am running it FULL SCREEN, it is a very thin line.

[nobeefstu]

Lin,

To add more monitors to your database : Samsung SyncMaster P2070 - default res 1600x900.

Test Results

-Running in 1600x900 displays a thin flickering line. When show is paused ... sometimes the line is visible and sometimes not visible.

-Running in 1024x768 displays normal with no line

[Ken Cox]

Lin,

To add more monitors to your database : Samsung SyncMaster P2070 - default res 1600x900.

Test Results

-Running in 1600x900 displays a thin flickering line. When show is paused ... sometimes the line is visible and sometimes not visible.

-Running in 1024x768 displays normal with no line

ADDING MY SPECS

SAMSUNG MONITOR 19" SAMSUNG 932B+

MODEL LS19TEBSF2/XAA

running 1024/768 at 75 HZ 32 bit colour

ati all in wonder 9600 256 mb ram

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the reports! It appears to be a problem generated, as Dave suspected, by aspect ratio differences. The black at top and bottom of screen would be normal and vary a bit among different monitors of differing aspect ratios because the individual images didn't fill the screen on the original done at 4:3 aspect ratio.

The original pano had a size of 24161x1671 pixels. The slices (individual images) are each 2416x1671 pixels with the exception of slice 5 which is 2417x1671. This means that theoretically there "should" be a perfect match between segments on the horizontal.

I just regenerated the code using "Fixed Size of Slide" and reposted. If you have a chance, could you test it and see if it also has visible lines?

Here's the link:

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/panoslicedemooriginal.zip

Best regards,

Lin

[mightec]

Lin

I just checked it out and still get the same shimmering thin black vertical line.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

It looks like this will only work with monitors set up to the same aspect ratio as the original which was created at 4:3. Different cards, different displays, etc., and the common thread for proper join appears to be aspect ratio.

I tried creating an MP4 to test and the join lines were visible there so the usefulness is limited to executable output and apparently to a display aspect ratio identical to that used for the creation.

Good information!

Perhaps when Igor has finished with the latest release, has had a good holiday and some well deserved rest he can look into the reasons why and whether there is an easy "solution."

It's really just an experimental use of the "push" transition which wasn't designed to do what I'm asking of it so not truly important as far as the utility of the transition is concerned.

Thanks to all for testing and for the feedback!

Best regards,

Lin

Lin

I just checked it out and still get the same shimmering thin black vertical line.

[davegee]

Lin,

If you produce a 4:3 WINDOW MODE version at 1024x768 it will probably work on any monitor.

I don't think that the aspect ratios of the different monitors is the concern - it's the re-scaling.

DaveG

[davegee]

Lin,

I have only just had a chance to try it for myself.

I concur regarding the 1 pixel line between each "slice" on my laptop's 1280x800 monitor.

I have black lines both sides and top and bottom.

When the pan finishes the rhs of the last frame is a jagged line which is narrower on the bottom than the top.

Have you checked each slice in PS to ensure that it is 1024x768 and looked at the edge pixels at PS MAXIMUM magnification. I just wondered if there was any "feathering" of the image?

DaveG

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dave,

As I said in my earlier post:

............The original pano had a size of 24161x1671 pixels. The slices(individual images) are each 2416x1671 pixels with the exception ofslice 5 which is 2417x1671. This means that theoretically there"should" be a perfect match between segments on the horizontal..........

Of course you should have the black background of the display showing at top and bottom - the images were not designed to fill the aspect ratio of even 4:3 but to allow for better display quality on higher resolution displays.

I haven't looked at the edge pixels. I assume that the Photoshop slice tool did as indicated and made each slice equal except for the one pixel difference in width on slice 5 which Photoshop selected as the default to add a single horizontal pixel to. To my knowledge, there is no reason why Photoshop would "feather" any of the images on a slice.

The latest link was set to display at 1024x768 so naturally it would display inside that parameter on the horizontal. Any additional horizontal resolution on your monitor should be divided equally left and right, so I would expect to see black completely around the scrolling image on any monitor having greater than 1024 pixels in the horizontal aspect with greater than 768 pixels on the vertical.

I can post a windowed version if you would like to test it.

Here's a link:

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/panoslicedemowindowmode.zip

Best regards,

Lin

[davegee]

Hi Lin,

Tried the Windowed Mode version.

If anything, a little worse.

I took particular notice this time and I can see a "jump" in the height of alternate frames where the black line appears.

The rhs of the last slice is pretty badly "ripped" from top to bottom on my 1920x1200 monitor albeit that the window takes up the 1024x768 central portion.

DaveG

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dave,

I haven't a clue. Each frame is identical in dimensions except for frame five which has one additional column of pixels so who really knows what's going on...

Best regards,

Lin

[davegee]

Lin ,

Here's a screenshot:

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dave,

Thanks! That's apparently some trash pixels left over from the original crop of the pano - on the far right side of the last slide only. It's not related to the existing problem of the vertical lines. I could crop it out or mask it off but I don't want to risk loosing a line of pixels on the top or bottom with the crop tool.

I don't think for now there is a solution to the thin vertical line on some of the displays and screen resolutions. The fact that Lennart had thin vertical lines between frames at "some" screen resolutions, but not all tends to indicate that it is quite probably an issue of aspect ratio and whatever slight pixel push or pull this may exert on the images.

We will let Igor look at it after he has finished with the release and rested up. As I said earlier, it's really not a normal use of the "push" transition, but rather a possible solution for challenged video cards to be able to simulate scrolling a complete panorama, so really not all that important to attend to at this time.

Best regards,

Lin